Pregnant runners' club

I never actually wanted to have any children, but it's amazing how I've changed my mind since my son came along. I always thought I'd be the career woman and settle for nice car/ house/ holidays with my husband rather than making sacrifices for children - very selfish really. Now I can think of nothing better than a house full of children and holidays with my family & hey, instead of the Porsche Boxter I have a Cayenne instead ;o) (well, perhaps one day anyway...). I also realised that having children does not mean that I have to give up my job either, (which is important to me), and that being a working mum does not make me a bad one.

Going back to the linea negra - it is a dark line, not hair (pregnancy does make that worse though!) - mine only showed once the skin was no longer stretched.

Caramel - no they won't let me borrow a BP machine, which is just typical to be honest. I went to get a refund back for my eye test and have been waiting for payment since 1st week in Jan. Found out that Med Centre have lost paperwork and I have to raise a duplicate - so that sums up the whole place really.

Hegs - my BP is nearly back to norm just having these frustrating headaches still. Sorry to hear yours is still so high.

Having a winge now - have had bad head the past 3 days, I really should take paracetamol to help it but sick and tired of pill popping. Went for a run today and it instantly cleared my head. Wish I had my Neurologist's appointment. Exercise seems to be helping my BP so am now totally confused after reading Hegs's post (I think) where she was told that sport made BP go up. All the literature in our gym says if you exercise you're BP will go down. So which is right... Nothing like confusing a woman whom still has post-pregnancy hormone brain!!!

MMJ - you (and your gym) are right - generally exercising makes BP go down - just my body being all weird ;o)

I get a lot headaches and migraine too but funnily enough I have had my BP checked during an episode and there doesn't seem to be any correlation.... Just as when I fainted during my pregnancy they thought that perhaps my BP had dropped, but it was still the same.... I think I am just a mystery of modern medicine!

MMJ - sorry for the confusion. yes, exercising will generally lower your BP. however, during exercise, your BP is raised as your body pumps the blood around faster etc. it *should* drop again after exercise, and if you exercise regularly, your overall should will drop (although it will still be raised during exercise). not sure if that makes it any clearer. it seems that this isn't what is happening for hegs though.

sorry to hear about your head still. and it is strange that it clears when you run. the neurologist will probably say it's stress... that tends to be the answer for everything.

hegs - i have always thought that i probably would have kid/s, but it was always going to be 'later'. when i got to 33, i thought 'can't leave it much later', so decided we'd better give it a bash. i *am* excited about it, and also looking forward to being a mum. i can just see how much hassle and stress it is - all our friends are completely frazzled. i also get the impression that having 1 kid is actually ok, but as soon as you have more than 1, it's a totally different ball game. all of my friends managed to combine working and home life with no problems with 1 kid, but now they have 2, they are really wanting to drop their hours or do less stressful jobs!

i've had a pretty good run with my career to be fair, and i'm now working for a company and in a role in which i can increase in seniority, pay etc, but in which there is no real structured career path, so i don't feel pressured to move up the ladder, and that suits me just fine. not sure how i will combine working and being a mum, as my job can require me to be away all week between monday and friday, and my husband also has a fairly senior job with long hours - and we have no family around here at all. so i will prob work part-time and my husband will just have to manage everything for the 3 days a week that i am potentially away. i will have to work consecutive days otherwise it won't be possible for me to do my job (might have to be in manchester/london/wherever for 3 days and can't manage that if travelling back and forward from s. wales for 3 separate days).

the other option is that i get another job somewhere more local, but i doubt i'd find one part-time and i CERTAINLY wouldn't find one that pays what i will earn at my current company. i'd probably end up working full-time and getting paid less than i will get paid for 3 days a week...

wouldn't be so bad if i didn't earn more than hubby. makes me feel like i *should* be working full-time as my salary and future earning potential is higher than his, but it just won't work out for us, as hubby can't do the nursery run morning and evening for a whole week as well as his job AND all the parenting! some people do it, i suppose, but i really don't think it would be fair on him...

anyway, that's all in the future...

hope everyone is ok today.

Caramel - I was pretty much the same - thought I'd get to 35 and then either decide that kids weren't for me/ us or that we ought get cracking. As it was, nature intervened at 29... ;o)
I am sure that it will be harder to juggle all the balls with more children but I'm prepared to give it a crack. I am really lucky in that my parents are local and extremely supportive and my husband is pretty good and able to help out too (in spite of the fact that we both work for investment banks). My boss has two young children and most of the people that I work with have young families so they have some sympathy too. I think that companies are getting a lot more sensitive to the whole "work/life balance". Coupled with the fact that I am completely hyper and thrive on having a million things to do at once!!
I am able to work from home from time to time which helps and have considered going to a 4-days in the office 1-day at home week but I don't think I'll cope with the work if I do that (my job is pretty full on).
My husband and I earn about the same, so for me to give up work would be a significant blow to the family purse - and our earning potential is also pretty equal. I may at some stage be able to work more locally but the salary (and banking bonus!) would be impacted and I want to be able to give my children the things that I was fortunate enough to have during my childhood.

Sigh... It is such a dilemma though - I have had a real inner struggle this week when I have left my little boy (who was unwell with a virus so couldn't go to nursery) with my mum so that I can go to work.... :o(

Hegs - you and me both are a mystery to modern medicine, perhaps we should start some kind of club. If the Doc's had listened to me in the first place I would have been referred to the Neurologist end of last year. And Caramel you're right everything seems to be put down to stress. However, if I was any more laid back I'd be lying flat on my back!

MMJ - I know - annoying isn't it?
I don't think that I am stressed, but who knows..... I am a bit hyper but I don't feel stressed or anxious.

I guess these things are our body's way of saying "slow down".

You ought to make sure that your GP takes you seriously though - have they had you do a 24hr BP check yet? That is where they provide you with a portable BP machine that records readings every 20 minutes (uncluding during the night unfortunately!).

Hegs

No my GP won't give me a portable BP machine - if I want one I'm supposed to fork out and buy one myself that's according to one locum GP. Mind you this locum didn't fill me with much confidence that's why I went back to see someone else, and they have decided to refer me to the Neurologist. Got given my medical notes the other day and found that this said locum GP had put that I had a terrible pregnancy and suffered with pre-eclampsia - well that was news to me as I had a really healthy pregnancy with no medical issues whatsoever and BP was 110/60 throughout, it was only after the birth the problems started. These guys go through years of training and get paids loads of dosh, and they can't even write medical notes up correctly - am I missing the point somewhere...

MMJ - the surgery should have a BP machine that you use for 24hrs only though - it's quite common practise. Maybe ask again?

I know that I've said it on here before, but I'll say it again (!) - we all have a right to decent medical care and advice and if you don't feel that you are getting it you need to raise it with your surgery. We all pay our taxes and are intelligent human beings who do not go to the doctor just for the sake of it. The fact that your notes aren't even correct is even worse!

No offence intended to any of the medics that read these threads, but I do think that often because the GPs are overworked and don't classify our conditions as life-threatening (or easy to resolve), we get swept to the side or bottom of the pile.
What they forget though, is that for the patient it becomes very depressing and quite scary too..... On top of the fact that we are new mums and have raging hormones & sleep deprivation to contend with!

Anyway, I guess what I am saying MMJ is, don't give up and make sure you get them to take you seriously.

[Hegs jumps off her soap box again]

Hope everyone else doing OK today - it is Friday after all!!

Hegs x

Hegs my problem is that my surgery ain't a normal surgery its an Armed Forces one and that's why we tend to have so many locum's. So that's why I feel like I'm constantly banging my head up against a brick wall and not getting any response. No point brining it up with the surgery as they can't even file the correct paperwork on to a file!!! (Need I say any more)...

hello gals
hope everyone's having/had a good w/e.
bit fed up tonight as just tried to go for a run on the treadmill and had a really horrible pain right under my belly button so had to stop after about 30 seconds :-(
and, had in-laws to stay at weekend, and discovered at 10pm on friday night that the cold water tank had been leaking into the bedroom they were supposed to be staying in - now there's a big hole in the ceiling and a soggy carpet.
so now i have the joys of trying to organise someone to come and sort that out as well.
grump.

Hi, just saying hello and wondering how all the bumps, and mums to be are feeling. I went to the doc today to let them know i am pregnant, it was quite nice as the doc remembered me and remembered that i'd been on fertility treatment. I should get an appointment to see a midwife in about 2 or 3 weeks time. Although she kinda looked at me when i said we were going on holiday to Egypt in 3 weeks time, i suppose as long as i'm really careful about food and drink i should be ok, maybe we should just have gone back to tenerife instead of being adventurous !
Am feeling fine, although nausea has returned, have never actually been sick yet, but definetly feeling it for most of the past two days. My cold is a lot better although still got a pesky chest cough and waiting to get rid of that before i run again, so starting to go a wee bit stir crazy, haven't run in over two weeks now !!

hello
glad all is going well.
my cold is also still hanging around, but i'm back running again. staying in manchester this week, and been running from my hotel in the evenings or morning. very very chilly this morning. finding running very hard nowadays. it feels as though i'm running through treacle!
how's everyone else?

Hi all. I am doing well. Since my earlier scares, I have had no further bleeding. Saying that though my husband is really not keen for me to start running again. I have wrestled with this as the doctors have not said no outright. However, I have concluded that this baby is not mine alone and it is unfair of me to cause my husband undue worry. So on that note, I have set up my cross trainer in the conservatory, got the tv and stereo set up and have been using it daily. Cannot seem to get the heart rate over 110 at the mo. I might check this againt my own monitor as it feels like I am working hard!!!

I have always been a purist when it come to running and have never mixed and matched as I don't enjoy it. Still needs must and I will say with some pumping tunes and the back doors open (to make it feel a little outdoorsey) it was great to get the heart beating and the blood pumping round my body again. I will miss my running terribly and really wanted to run for longer. I will be straight out again after and share my joys and pains then :-)

I hope you don't mind if I stay in touch on the board and good luck with all running. Caramel Mach it sounds like you are doing really well - the treacle feeling will happen, but at least you are outdoors putting one foot infrount of the other :-)

clare

i'm really glad all is OK, and i'm sure you are doing the right thing for both you and the baby, and also for your husband.

please do stay on the board and chat to us! we want to hear how it's going!

it's funny how embarrassed i feel by how slowly i'm running. people must be looking at me thinking, 'honestly, love, give up and walk!', but at least *i* know why i'm so slow. at the moment, my bump is still not really very obvious, particularly not with my goretex jacket on over the top, so no-one can see i'm pregnant!

i haven't been enjoying the runs as much since it's started feeling harder, but i'm hoping that's just the cold i've got. if i continue struggling and certainly if it gets much harder, i will also switch to cross-training because i don't want to push my body to do anything which it doesn't want to do. i've had the very tiniest suggestion of discomfort/slight pain around my belly button on the last couple of runs. a bit like a stitch but in the wrong place. if that continues, i'll stop, i think.

Caramel - just you wait until you get out running after the baby arrives - that's when I was soooo slow and still looked pregnant!! (Actually my tummy shrank back really quick but it took a while for the extra pounds to go off the old hips and thighs). I think I was 12-minute miling - probably would have been quicker walking ;o)
Amazing how quickly you can get back up to speed though - only a few weeks to get back to pre-pregnancy fitness but I had very good advice from a personal trainer.

Hegs x

Hi, I'm new to this board. Congrats to all you pregnant runners it is such a wonderful time. I had my first baby 5 months ago. During my pregnancy I stayed fit by swimming and using the elliptical trainer at the gym. I avoided running as I was afraid of damaging joints due to the hormone relaxin. I have tried running since I gave birth but I keep having abdominal pain and pubic pain. I have jogged a 5km only to be in agony afterwards. My doctor thinks my round ligaments are not back to normal yet. Has anyone experienced a similar situation? And when do most women return to running after childbirth??

martina

God I wish I could say the same thing about my bump caramel. Maybe it is because I am second time around (i.e. it knows where it is going!) but I cannot hide it and I am only 15 weeks!!!

Welcome mherne. I started running again after my 1st child at around 5 months after she was born. I cannot remember any specific pain, but everything felt a little odd for a while. Some work on my core helped. I did keep getting a repetitive muscle strain and found a trip to physio spotted that my pelvis was still out of line. I would always recommend a trip to the osteopath/physio after childbirth and before you start running. I wish I had gone straight away as it would have saved me a lot of rest and ice and time off running!

mhearne - welcome. I have a 9 month old, and started running 4 weeks after I gave birth, but I know that I am very unusual in this respect (especially as I had a c-section).
My advice would be to do what feels right for you and don't set any targets until you feel back to your old self. I treated myself to 6 weeks with a personal trainer after my 6 week check with the doctor and physio and that helped me get started again on a sensible program focussing on core as well as running.

Good luck!

Thanks Hegs and Clare....so there is a life of running after childbirth!! I thought I had SPD or something and would never run well again. The personal trainer sounds like a great idea Hegs, I hadn't thought of that. I plan to see a doctor soon for a check up I should really see a physio also before putting on my running shoes again. Roll on the summer when I will hopefully be galloping along the roads!