Early Pregnancy + Workouts

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I’ve mentioned that this pregnancy kinda came out of the blue for us; But when we found out about our little surprise, I was sick. Like, not “oh I’m having morning sickness” sick.

Like, falling to the ground from crippling cramps and an inability to stand up/drive/walk, sick. The pain was so severe that my doctors did several ultrasounds to make sure it wasn’t an ectopic pregnancy. It turns out I was suffering from severe pain from the implantation of the embryo into the uterine wall.

I had never heard of any friends having this kind of pain during early pregnancy, and even though the doctors initial concerns disappeared after confirming with ultrasounds that this was not an ectopic pregnancy, it didn’t dull my concerns. At least not entirely.

In addition to the pain, the fatigue and exhaustion was beyond anything I had ever imagined {even having had mono 3 times throughout my young adulthood}. So between the pain, concern, and exhaustion, I was terrified to move, let alone continue my normal workout routine.

Soon the pain subsided. The fatigue, however, did not. And I was still adjusting mentally and emotionally as well. I know that for Chad he had some time to let it sink in. But for me, I felt like, “Oh my gosh. My life changes now. Not in 9 months. NOW.” I’m suddenly responsible for a whole other persons well-being. Talk about pressure! It was all about taking care of me and this little baby.

Which meant more sleep, no more wine, and serious paranoia about pretty much everything else.

Like working out too much. Even though my doctor had confirmed that if you had a workout routine prior to pregnancy, you could continue throughout your pregnancy — just don’t take on any new exercises + routines.

But I was so afraid. And I was so tired anyways.

Even still, I would drag my butt out of bed once a week or so and do some sort of exercise.

Running —

I tried running. That didn’t last. Baby L was sitting low and on my bladder way too early on. I could hardly make it three blocks without feeling like the next few feet of running would make me pee myself. Time and time again I’d try… just to see if I could do it.

Nope. Not a good idea.

Yoga —

I’m not a yoga rookie. I’ve been practicing hot power yoga for over 4 years. I figured, I’ve got this. I’ve seen plenty of pregnant women kick some asana!

I went to my Power Yoga classes. And it wasn’t the yoga that killed me. The yoga I could handle.

It was the heat.

Since the power yoga classes I take are in a hot room; hot room + nausea = not a good combination. But I still went. {sidenote: The funny thing? My yoga teachers were the first of everyone to guess that I was pregnant! The reason for the guess is because instead of “binding up” a pose — see below — I would do what we call “open arm twists;” which is meant to protect the midsection from injury during pregnancy}.

I eventually stopped torturing myself b y going to the hot power classes. Although, it was really hard to “let go” of my ego in this situation and just take it for what it is: part of this pregnancy journey!

I did end up taking vinyasa classes, which are done in a cooler room {not air conditioned; but probably just around 80 degrees instead of the 95 +}. But I was still really nervous about what my body could and could not handle.

Biking —

“I want to go for a bike ride!” was something that I proclaimed to Chad one day after work.

I made him get out the bikes for the first time all year and take time to blow up all of the tires. It took “so long” to blow up the tires, that I had to pee not once, but twice during the process. In actuality it took about 15 minutes.

I peed twice in 15 minutes. First sign that this was a bad idea.

We started our bike ride. And I made it a half mile from the house before I declared my pregnant bike-riding days a thing of the past.

Biking down a bumpy road while pregnant = no bueno!

Swimming —

I am not a fan of being in a bathing suit. And I was not about to find myself in a regular bikini. But Chad was dying to get out of the house and move.

Luckily I had picked up a pretty little polka-dotted preggers tankini at Kohls {yes, I said tankini — something that I plan not to wear post-baby}.

I suited up and we headed to the pool.

I was in heaven! We swam laps for about a half hour and I felt great! I was trying not to push my luck and I was still really tired, so 30-minutes was about my limit at that point.

I had finally found my early-pregnancy workout of choice! But I still didn’t make it to the pool as often as I would have liked. First trimester woes are nothing to kid about, and I give huge props to all the second time around moms who go through it with a little one in tow! My body and preferences have changed even more since early pregnancy and I’ll share the details of my experiences in future posts!

My only advice to newly expecting mama’s is to listen to your doctor and listen to your body. That’s it. You know your body more than anyone. I knew that I could do hot yoga; something just didn’t feel right to me while doing it. So I backed off. And I found a joy in an exercise that I had long given up on!