Pregnant runners' club

Caramel - going home for long weekend, as having little mini me christened on Sun, so will be passing and I'll wave as I go past on the M4. So not looking forward to the 6-7 hour journey, I just hope the snow holds off!!!

Martina - I started running seriously again in Jan which was 4 months after my baby was born, and like Hegs started off really slow but things are progressing now. Just trying to get my mileage back up.

There's a new 10K race at the end of May thats being organized in our town that I'm interested in running, just don't know if I'll be back up to that mileage by then as I'm only managing 4.3 miles at mo (feels such a struggle some days). Surely 2 months of training will get me through it? On another front headaches have been quite good recently (now that I've said that I'll be struck down with a blinder). Off line til next tues now - so hope everyone has a good weekend and take it easy ;-)

have a great time MMJ! wave at junction 23a (magor services) and i'll wave back! hope the journey is OK.

that 10k race sounds fine. if you are up to 4.3 miles after only a few runs, you will CRUISE 10k in 2 months time!

martina - i would think that you could do with seeing someone (physio/osteopath?), as i would expect things to have settled down by 5 months afterwards. (but i don't know because i've not given birth yet!!). everyone will be different, but if your pelvis is out of line (for instance - and clare said hers was), it could be causing pain in all sorts of places.

i'm having a very very bad day today. not only did we have a leak from the cold water tank last weekend which we haven't actually managed to get anyone to fix for us yet (although we've stopped the leak, but not the cause of the leak), our boiler has now packed up, so we have no heating and no hot water at all, as it's a combi boiler so we don't even have an immersion heater. and our house (on the estuary in s. wales) is FREEZING at the best of times as it's exposed to the winds and elements. it's currently -4 outside, and it feels like about -10 inside!

i'm working from home today and can see my breath.

boiler bloke is coming out some time today. please all keep your fingers crossed that he can fix it!

Still got this chesty cough and can't run. Apart from that (and a bit nausea) feeling fine really. Anyone know if it is ok to go for brisk walks outside with a chesty cough or is the cold air not good for it and should i be keeping warm till i'm rid of it ?? Its such a gorgeous day today, crisp and frosty with lovely blue skies and would love to go for a walk and get out in the fresh air. However have read in other places that you should stay wrapped up warm till you're rid of a chesty cough as the cold air etc could make it worse and you could end up with a proper chest infection.

mrs o - i think if your only symptoms are a chesty cough, you should be fine to go for a walk. if you are feeling generally flu-ey with a temperature, aches etc, it's probably best to stay inside, but if you actually feel normal except for the cough, it'll probably do you good.

make sure you are having plenty of fruit/veg and good healthy foods. your body is far too busy building a baby to be worrying very much about sorting out your cough, and the baby steals all the nutrients and you just get left with whatever it doesn't need. my cold is just on its way out now after 2.5 weeks - normally i shake them off in 3 or 4 days!

if your cough doesn't go and it's stopping you sleeping etc, it might be worth a trip to the docs just to make sure that your lungs are ok and you don't need antibiotics. there are antibios which are fine to take when you are pregnant.

How early would you expect to put weight on, i'm only 8 weeks and sure i've put a couple of pounds on already and i'm feeling really hungry a lot of the time (despite the nausea). Is it just the hormones or does my body and the baby need extra food already ? I thought you didn't actually need much extra food or start to put weight on till the second trimester. With being unable to run as well, i'm hoping i'm not going to end up like a whale !!! Should i just be eating a normal amount and as long as i'm not losing or putting on weight then that should be ok ??

mrs o - I put on half a stone in the first 12 weeks even though my midwife told me I ought only to have put on a pound or two! I suffered badly with nausea and so ate whatever I felt like (which to be honest, wasn't a lot) but I also retained a lot of water from the outset (probably a lot to do with my high blood pressure).

I wouldn't worry too much about it at this stage - I ended up putting on a total of 2st 5lbs and had a 5lb baby, which is a totally average weight gain.

I would keep eating as usual, and let your midwife/ GP decide if at any point you are gaining too much weight (because it can be a sign of gestational diabetes).

Hegs x

After turning into an elephant last time, I am worried the other way this time. I have lost 2lbs recently. I am eating the normal amounts with an extra snack. I have a MW appt on 13th so I guess I will have to wait til then to check all is ok

from what i understand, it's fairly normal to either lose weight in the first trimester or to pile it on. everyone is different.

i weighed myself about 10 days ago in the gym, and i had put on 4lbs (which i didn't think was too bad for 21 weeks!)

but i know some people who lost half a stone in the first trimester, and others who put on a stone in the first 8 weeks.

clare - i don't think 2lb loss is anything to worry about, as long as you are eating OK and not feeling hungry, faint or ill. if you continue to lose weight, it may be more of a problem, but i'm sure your midwife will advise you.

mrs o - i wouldn't worry about a few pounds in the first trimester, especially if you have been poorly. i found that, around weeks 7-11, i got absolutely starving hungry at very strange times - like 5pm, when i wouldn't normally eat dinner until around 9pm. that's passed now, though, and i can quite happily eat breakfast at 7am, lunch at noon and dinner at 8.30pm with just a small snack in the afternoon. so if you are hungry - eat. just try not to eat 3 bars of chocolate!

Hello you all, back from visit to Holland and a new aunty since last Tuesday! Oh, how lovely and small new babies are, Liesje seems huge all of a sudden. What is happening to her; my beautiful placid little baby with lots of dark hair has turned into a drooling, balding little monster (not really a monster, still very very cute, who is trying to get both fists into her mouth at every opportunity!! She is hilareous and I wonder how I ever had the time to do anything at all in the house AND work at the same time!

About weight and pregnancy, I was only weighed at my first visit, and then never again until I had my smeartest 6 weeks after having my baby. I never weighed myself but know from my clothes that I lost weight in the first 12 weeks, and kept a really small bump, but gave birth to a 8lb4 baby. But I think it's different with everybody and the amount of fluid women retain is different too. As long as you are well and feel healthy, the weightgain isn't really an issue. I believe the midwife would only get worried if you put on large amounts of weight very quickly, because of the risks of retaining too much fluid.

I didn't really suffer with nausea, just did't feel hungry in the evening. The baby doesn't care whether you eat or not; it will take the right nutrients whatever you do. My friend suffered with hyperemesis (she couldn't eat at all, and was sick all the time, and had to be admitted for intravenous fluids) and her baby was perfectly ok.

I'm doing my first race this Sunday, 10km run in the local park. I'm really looking forward to it, even if I'll be really slow. Have to fit in breastfeeding before the race to make sure boobs are empty...

Marijke, congratulations on being an aunt again, i know what you mean about new babies, a woman brought her newborn into work (well probably about a few weeks old) and it was so tiny, i suppose i forget my sister had all big babies. I'm hoping my baby takes after my husband who is slim, although he has quite broad shoulders which might be a bit painful to push out!!! We decided to tell our family and close friends so spent last night on the phone, we were both busting to tell folks, although we're still going to wait till about 13 weeks before we tell everyone and go 'public'(9 weeks at the moment).

I have a food question, i know you're supposed to avoid stuff like prawn cocktail and shellfish, but what about hot cooked stuff like Scampi, Prawns in curries, prawn chinese dishes etc ??

My midwife told me that prawns are OK as long as they are either cooked, or very fresh.

I have to admit that whilst I didn't take the food rules all that seriously, I did avoid shellfish since it is the only thing in my life that has ever given me food poisoning.

I did however eat unpasteurised cheese, parma ham and bags of salad..... And I did have a prawn curry at about 30 weeks as I was DYING for some prawns!!!

Thinking about it, if I was pregnant again now I think I'd probably eat cooked prawns actually... yum!

hello all!

i echo hegs' advice on prawns. i have also read that they are ok if they are cooked and hot, but best avoid things like prawn salads, cocktails and sandwiches. i've also had fried scampi and squid recently, but i don't think i'd eat mussels or scallops even if they were hot, because i've had food poisoning from them in the past.

i've also eaten bags of salad (although i do wash it when i'm at home), and chorizo and salami and other processed meats, which i'm sure you aren't supposed to. i haven't had any soft cheese, but i recently had a craving for pesto which has parmesan in it so just had it (even though my husband was tutting and shaking his head at me). i've read somewhere though that parmesan is ok because it's a hard cheese, even though it's made from unpasteurised milk.

mrs o - were you folks chuffed for you? did they know you were having treatment?

marijke - how was your mum when you were in holland?

mmj - are you back yet? how was the christening. did mini-mmj behave?? hope the journeys weren't too bad.

well, girls, i fear my running days are numbered. i went to the gym last night and did 2 miles on the treadmill - 10mins 15 seconds per mile. oh dear! anyway, it's not the slowness really, it's the fact that it's SUCH hard work. that's the last 4 or 5 runs that have been like that. it's difficult to describe what it feels like but there's a lot of pressure around my stomach, almost like stitch, and it just feels like running through treacle. it's just not very enjoyable at all.

i REALLY don't want to stop because the lighter evenings are just around the corner and i love those first evening runs after work in the daylight. maybe i will just persevere for the next few weeks trying to do 2 or 3 miles at a time. once i stop running, that's it. i know i won't be able to start it again in a month's time, and i HATE going to the gym when the evenings are sunny and light (although obviously i will, because i want to keep cross training).

POO!!!!

everything else seems to be fine. my nausea has just about stopped now - only heaved once at the weekend bending over to pick up a towel off the floor. and my breathing problems seem to have cleared up as well. now that my cold has gone as well, perhaps i'm 'blooming' at last??

hegs - i managed to get to a nearly new NCT sale at the weekend. it was great - picked up a couple of real bargains. i've also managed to get a space on the local NCT classes, although everyone else will be 4 or so weeks further on than me. there are no more courses being run for the rest of the year, so it's now or never. they start tomorrow evening.

Yes, my folks knew we were having treatment. My sister was firing out babies that quickly that we thought it best to tell them so we could avoid all the 'when are you going to start a family' questions/comments. So they are all delighted, especially since its taken us so long (almost 3 years). In the end it was just a case of getting the right treatment, the clomid was useless and wasted 18 months on that but the FSH injections did the trick, only needed 3 cycles to fall pregnant. My sister says she was so excited she hardly slept last night and i expect it will be the talk of the farm today (my Granny, Mum, Dad and sister and her family all live and work on the family farm)
Sorry to hear you're running is going so poo, i suppose you could always do brisk walking when you get too big to run, how far gone are you now ?
I have not run for 3 weeks, however chesty cough is gone now and feeling reasonably normal apart from nausea and a bit tired sometimes, so going to try a shortish run tomorrow and try and get back into it and keep my fitness up.
Also been looking into ante natal yoga classes, there are some quite near me, has anyone else tried them?, i have done yoga off and on in the past and would like to keep it up.

Hi, Must be so exciting mrs O that your family now know, my little sister had been trying for a long time and I had to cry when she told me she was pregnant too (she's due at easter).
Thank you for asking about my mum, caramel, she was quite awful really, dragging back old stories to my poor husband who was ready to kill her when we left. She said some hurtful things about Liesje (luckily in dutch so my husband only got mild translation after we left...) but I managed to leave feeling ok and lucky to have my own little family now. My sister got very ill after having her baby which put things back into perspective a bit...she got childbirth fever (I don't know what the correct english is for it), it's a disease from the past that used to kill many women soon after childbirth and baffled the doctors at the hospital. All very scary, but she is thankfully getting better. Don't worry, you pregnant people out there; it's rare as hen's teeth so you should be fine!! I spoke to her this morning and just wanted to be able to see her and give her a big hug. I think I'll go and see if there are any cheap flights soon...

mrs o - they will be very happy for you, and i can imagine how excited they will all be!

i'm 22 weeks now. up until about 10 days ago, it was fine. now suddenly i'm REALLY struggling. and yes, i can still keep walking, but running is just so much more efficient at getting the HR up and burning calories in a short space of time than walking :-)

marijke - you ran until very late in your pregnancy, so did you find that you felt awful when running or did you feel fine? what kind of maternity belt did you have? was it one that just went under the belt or one that covered the whole bump. i've seen both types, and was wondering whether that might help the heavy, stitch like feeling?

i'm so sorry to hear that your mum played up again. and particularly that she was horrible about liesje. don't know what to say really, other than that you must never worry about being like her, because you obviously are not!

i'm glad your sister is getting better. the fever sounds AWFUL. there are so many scary things that go wrong, but fortunately most of them are very rare. it doesn't do to spend too much time worrying about it all, does it?

Hi girls I'm back!!! Need a holiday to recover from the trip home - Mother-in-Laws who'd have them. The Christening was fantastic and Mini-Me behaved so well. Didn't cry once not even when they dribbled the water on her head. Mind you the Vicar had warmed the water first! So much has happened whilst I've been away will have to catch up properly with all the posts, Holby City on now and am an avid fan so best dash.

hi mmj!
glad you had a great time.

a question for all your gals who have been on maternity leave... i'm a higher rate tax payer, and am trying to find out what happens when i'm on statutory maternity pay for 20 weeks (106 quid a week). our payroll department is in india, and i've just called them, can't understand a word they are saying, but basically i think they are telling me that i will continue to be taxed at the same rate even when i'm only getting 106 quid a week. i assume they won't try and take the same amount of tax out every month as they do now, otherwise i will end up owing them money every month. presumably they will just reduce it to 40% of what i actually get (ie 40% of 106 quid). after NI etc, it's not really worth having!!

does anyone know if this is true? i know it depends on how much you earn overall throughout the year, but has anyone had their tax code adjusted while they are on ML, or do you just get a rebate at the end of the tax year if you've paid too much tax?

eeek!

Caramel -
I'm on highest tax bracket too, and I guess it depends where in the financial year your maternity leave falls (i.e. if you've gone over your tax threshold by the time you go onto stat maternity pay then you will pay 40% tax on the £106 a week. I think!
I was lucky in that my company pay full pay for the entire 6 months and because of some change in law I got another £1500 at the end of my maternity leave because they now count your bonus or something if it got paid at a certain time (within 15 weeks of EWC perhaps??). Anyway, I did rather well out of it...

I have also had a letter from IR asking me to fill out some forms because they think I'm owed a rebate or something, but I haven't hurried to do it since I am quite sure that they owe me nothing!

Might be worth surfing the net - there is a really good website on this stuff - if I remember what it is I will let you know.

Hegs x

wow! that's amazing.

i only get the first 6 weeks' paid and the rest of it is 106 quid a week up to 26 weeks... and paying 40% tax on that means it's almost not worth bothering with it!!

my maternity leave starts at the beginning of july, so i will have had april, may and june's salaries by the time i go on ML, and even though i'm a higher rate tax payer, that won't take me over the income threshold for 40% tax, as i'm not earning THAT much!

i called the IR, and they told me that i needed to talk to my payroll dept, but they are SOOOO useless, that i think it's best if i just expect to be taxed at 40%.

oh well, i guess the difference between 28% of £100 and 40% of £100 is not that great in the scheme of things. it's not like it's going to make any significant difference in helping me meet the mortgage repayments!

Hello, I hope you don't mind if I join this thread as I'm not even pregnant yet, but thought you might understand how I'm feeling.

I'm 36 (37 in June) and I'm worried I've left it too late to have a baby. I've read all sorts of horror stories about how even in young couples there's only a 25% chance of conception each month, but that this goes down to 10-15% once you hit 35. I'm not a 'career woman', just didn't meet my husband until a few months before my 30th birthday and due to saving up to buy a home together we didn't get married until October 2004 (I know it's old fashioned, but I didn't want to get pregnant before we got married).

We didn't go on our honeymoon until Christmas/New Year 2004/05 and I was still on the Pill (which I'd been on for about 15 years) - didn't come off it as I was concerned about flying such a long distance in early pregnancy if I conceived, and we wouldn't have been covered by the insurance if we'd cancelled for that reason. Then I got a place for the London Marathon so didn't come off the Pill until after that, I think around late May last year.

I have to say that we haven't been very good at trying. We manage to have sex every couple of days for maybe a week or two each month, but sometimes we go for several days or even a week if life gets in the way. We both work full-time. I don't think my periods returned properly until late October as prior to this they were very light, barely there, and would last only a couple of days. Now they're slightly heavier and tend to last around 4-5 days. They are not that regular though, and my cycle is very long. The shortest cycle I've had has been 33 days since stopping the Pill, and the longest 40 days. In general they've been 33-37 days.

All my closest friends who got married after us are now pregnant or have had their first baby. I'm still doing a lot of running and am currently training for this year's London Marathon. I figured I'd use the Good For Age place I got last year.

My husband is worried that my training is affecting my chances of conceiving and is worried that I'm just delaying things further. I'm not sure this is the case. Up to Christmas I was probably running an average of 33 miles a week, and obviously I have run one or two high-mileage (40+ miles) weeks in the marathon build-up. Now the marathon is only 7 weeks away.

I feel really guilty that the training might be affecting my fertility. But my periods haven't stopped and my cycle hasn't got any longer. Because I feel guilty I'm not enjoying the training and am finding it hard to stay motivated. I don't think I realised until last night just how badly my husband wants us to have a baby - I do too, but I'd thought he was fairly chilled about it. I know stress/worry also makes it less likely that we will conceive. I offered to pull out of the marathon but it's only 7 weeks away and would that really make that much difference?

At what point do we go to our GP to see whether there are any problems? I would have thought we'd need to have been 'actively trying' (i.e regular sex) for a good 3 months or so before they would even consider testing us. After the marathon I plan to cut my training to 30 miles a week or less and just run for fitness and fun rather than to race.

Sorry for offloading all this, and apologies also that it's a bit jumbled up. I'm not sure there's even a problem but I just feel so guilty and I don't even really know why! Thanks for listening.