The First Trimester

Hi! I'm finally into my second trimester and so I thought I'd share the details of my first trimester with you. I promise this won't become a pregnancy themed blog, but even before I was expecting, I thought it was interesting to see how runners handled pregnancy. 

Weeks 4 and 5

These were the “OMG I’m pregnant weeks.” I kept taking pregnancy tests to make sure they were still positive because I didn’t feel pregnant. Obviously as soon as I got the first positive test I stopped drinking and switched to half calf coffee. It was so strange because I felt like such a huge thing was happening to me and no one knew except my husband!

Running: I felt great running and my pace even dropped a bit these 2 weeks. The only way I could tell I was pregnant was my boobs. They seemed to double in size overnight and were really painful. Even my best sports bras did not cut it and I wished it were acceptable to run down the street holding up my chest.

Weeks 6 and 7

As soon as week 6 hit I knew I was pregnant. I was so sick. I rarely threw up, but I was nauseated all day and all night. I was completely repelled by coffee, meat, and vegetables. I basically lived on Annie’s white cheddar mac and cheese and peanut butter toast. I did my best to get in enough calories and fluid, but I obviously failed because I passed out in my patient’s room during clinical. He pushed his code button so I woke up to about 50 people standing around me. So embarrassing! Due to this my midwife moved my first appointment. She told me that I could try ½ of a Unisom and B6 for the nausea and it definitely helped. I still didn’t feel good, but it definitely took the edge off. We also had our first ultrasound and got to see our little peanut. It is so amazing that something so tiny already has a heart beat!

Running: Obviously these were not great weeks for running. In week 6 I only managed 1 run and it was a run-walk. I was just SO tired and sick. After I started the unisom/B6, I did better in week 7. I found that if I took my meds, ate half a PB&J in bed before even sitting up, and then waited about 15 minutes before rising, I felt a lot better and that translated into better running. In fact I often felt the better while running than I did the whole rest of the day.

Weeks 8 and 9

These weeks were more of the same. Constant nausea and a lot of carbs. I expanded my menu to include plain pasta with parmesan, pretzels, gnocchi, naan, wheat thins, and cheerios. All the carbs. At this point I was feeling pretty worn down from constantly feeling so crappy and from just plain fatigue. I was in bed by 8:30 every night and still kept falling asleep during the day.

Running: I invested in some bigger and better sports bras, which made me a lot more comfortable. I kept reminding myself that I was just running to feel good and because moderate exercise is good for the baby. It was hard though to completely let go of the idea of training and trying to get faster.

Weeks 10 and 11

I had a breakdown in week 10. It was my birthday and I tried to go to the beach, which is normally my favorite place in the world. I left after an hour because I felt so sick and couldn’t handle the sun. I cancelled all my plans for the evening because I knew I couldn’t possibly eat cake or ice cream. I spent the night alone on the couch crying. The unrelenting nausea had broken me. My husband made me call the midwives and they decided to try me on Methergine. I tried it over the weekend, but it didn’t help the nausea at all. Plus it made it incredibly tired. So I called the midwives back Monday and they prescribed Zofran. I felt really guilty having to resort to medication since we don’t really know how it affects the baby. But everyone kept reminding me that I needed to take care of myself in order to take care of the baby. Zofran was a miracle. I felt so much better.

Running: Running happened during these weeks, but it wasn’t pretty.

Weeks 12-13

Thanks to Zofran, I started to feel a lot more like myself. I even ate some vegetables for first time in a couple months! I knew it was important to try and eat better food and more food, because I ended my first trimester 5lbs lighter than I started! I didn’t expect that when I got pregnant. We got to hear the baby’s heartbeat which was exciting and reminded me that this is all for a very important reason. We also got the blood test drawn to look for chromosomal abnormalities and to find out the sex!

Running: Right as I started to feel better, it got HOT! Since I was worried about overheating, I added in walk breaks, carried cold water, and tried to find shady routes. Even with the heat, I was feeling better even started adding some speed work back in. I am way slower than I was pre-pregnancy, but it is still fun to mix up my pace a little.