Public vomiting. Excessive drool. Sore boobs. Itchy nipples. Racehorse urinating. Muscle soreness. Bloating. Fatigue so incapacitating you fall asleep sitting up. Nausea. Weight gain. Cramps. Weight loss. And, naturally, mood swings.
Don’t worry, you’re not going through heroin withdrawal, you’re just in the first trimester of pregnancy. Fun!
I do not enjoy being pregnant. I’m just going to get that out there. I love the end result(s) which is why I do it but I pretty much complain my way to the finish line. There are women who love pregnancy – my friend R is one actually – and in a fair world she’d have all the babies and I’d still get to cuddle newborns that look like me. But any method I can think of to accomplish that is more than a little disturbing. Anyhow. All of the above symptoms are troubling but the thing I like least about pregnancy is feeling like I’ve lost myself. My body is not my own and even my personality shifts in ways that I do not like.
One thing that is a big part of who I am is exercise. I’ve talked before about the many reasons I’m so devoted to my fitness routine but a main one is it helps with my anxiety. I’m a leeettle crazy, in case you haven’t been reading here long and I’m currently unmedicated which means that exercise has become even more important to me to stabilize my mood. In addition, doctors and research agree that maintaining your fitness level during pregnancy is not only safe but quite good for you and the babe. The problem is, my body is rebelling. So, having done this trimester 6 times now, I thought I’d tell you how I work my workouts around the first-tri woes.
Before we start, the primary rule of pregnancy is this: Every woman is different and every pregnancy is different. You will never hear me saying you “should” or “shouldn’t” do anything while pregnant. It helps me to exercise and I like it so I do it. But lots of women aren’t that way and that’s okay too. My friends S & D both skipped exercise entirely for those first 13.5 weeks because they were too sick to make it off the bathroom tile much less make it out the door to the gym. And, as S put it, “I’m puking so much I’m losing two pounds a week – is it really responsible to burn extra calories at that point?” I agree with her totally. You have to do what is right for your body and your baby. Fortunately I’m lucky in that cardio seems to help my nausea and even though I do vomit (twice at the gym, even) I’m not incapacitated by it. So for those of you interested in staying in the gym zone, here are some helps.
1. Nausea/vomiting. This is usually the complaint us girls are most vocal about in the first tri. While there’s not a ton of help I can give you for the first one (although the venerable Dr. Jon e-mailed me to tell me that one teaspoon of raspberry oil and apple vinegar is something both his daughter and his patients have found relief with) except to tell you to make “this too shall pass” your mantra. Fresh ginger, saltine crackers, small sips of water – all those things the mags tell you to do never make much of a difference in my nausea. Often I find that taking a few deeps breaths and stopping what I’m doing allows the feeling to pass. But when it doesn’t, I make a mad sprint to the nearest bathroom and get it all out. This has some great comedic potential but thankfully I’ve always made it in time. Now if I were really smart I’d carry breath mints in my gym purse. If you workout outside, you’ve got lots of options – just think like a drunk!
2. Boobs. When you’re pregnant “the girls” morph into “the girls from outer space” as hormones take over. Everything gets bigger, which while that can be fun for normally very small-chested girls like myself, it is also really painful. Expect your boobs to not only ache but throb, tingle, sting and, most embarrassingly, itch. The best thing I’ve found for it is to make sure your sports bra fits properly. You’ll probably need a bigger one. And then if one doesn’t provide enough compression/support, layer those suckers. This is not the time to be bouncing ’round the gym. Also – and this can work for the men too (if there are any still reading) – try not to scratch yourself in the middle of class. Especially if you’re right in front of the mirrors.
3. Bloating. As a friend put it this weekend, “Wow, you’re looking… thick!” Regardless of whether you are losing weight or gaining weight during this tri – and either is appropriate – your waistline will start to thicken, especially if this is not your first child. It’s not the baby. That little bean really is the size of a bean. Rather it’s your body hoarding liquids like Lindsay Lohan is to Red Bulls. You will have to double your blood volume in the next few months after all. The net result is that even if you weigh the same (which I don’t – I’ve gained between 3 and 6 pounds so far depending on when I start officially counting) you will look lumpier and bumpier than your normal self. So dress accordingly. It’s not fun but it’s better than squeezing yourself into your old duds like so much silly putty. For me, I go to the thrift store and buy and handful of more forgiving tees and pair them with supportive spandex with wide waistbands. The bonus is that these same clothes will come in really handy for the fourth trimester, a.k.a. the post partum period.
4. Peeing. Oh the pee. Some day when I give my body to science, some student is going to remove my kidneys and say “Now those were some well-used organs!” And relieved from my punctured-water-balloon mortal coil, I’ll smile down with pride. If you work out in a gym or at home, this one’s easy. Pee early, pee often. If you are outside, plan your route around a few strategically placed biffies and/or some private shrubs. Plyos and air jacks are not your friend but kegels sure are!
5. Fatigue. For me this one is the most limiting pregnancy side effects. I’m so tired I feel like I’ve been knocked over the head with a chair, WWF-style. My two overruling urges in life right now are to sleep and eat, in that order – everything else is gravy. (Clean the house… wha??) The hard part about this one is that while it does get a little better in the second tri, you will continue to feel like a zombie for about the next two years or until you can get the baby to start sleeping through the night. Nothing sucks the fun out of a good, hard workout like feeling so tired that even the bacteria-infested stretching mats look like beds at the Four Seasons. I can usually make it through one solid workout but I really pay for it when I get home. Several times I’ve walked in the door from the gym, plopped the kids in front of the TV and fallen asleep on my bedroom floor only to wake up in my cold, stinky gym clothes with a lego stuck to my cheek and a puddle of drool an hour later. By the way, by “sleep” I mean “go into a coma.” And forget two-a-day workouts. Dragging myself back to the gym for a second go-round sounds as appealing as a dinner party with Somali pirates. I haven’t found a good cure for this yet except to just do the best you can. For me that means morning workouts as that is when I have the least morning sickness (go figure) and the most energy. This also means quitting if I’m just too overwhelmed. The Gym Buddies will tell you that there have been several occassions of late where I’ve done the bare minimum and then curled up on the stretching mats in the aptly named fetal position – I don’t know what it stretches per se but it sure feels good!
Any of you have good first tri workout tips? Any good puke stories? I love me a good puke story:)
PS> I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who commented, e-mailed, facebooked and otherwise so lovingly gave me your support and congratulations on this new “experiment”! It means so much to me – I’ve been rereading all the comments on that post all weekend and just smiling. You guys are the best!
Morning sickness + Oreo Pop-tart (do they even make those anymore?) + Spaghettios = a disaster..
Great post, as always! 😀
When I couldn’t get through anything else, I could still enjoy my Bollywood Yoga Pregnancy video. I don’t have it anymore, but would highly recommend it. Sorry I can’t remember the name. It was a husband and wife couple with thick Indian accents. Sometimes it distracted me from my naseau and other discomforts and even helped considerably with my TMJ. (Even my dentist noticed an improvement!)
I used those motion sickness wristbands. They helped with the nausea but not the actual vomiting.
Does your gym have a pool? I found swimming to be very helpful, during all trimesters.
(And during my second pregnancy, while in the throes of morning sickness AND touring in a play, I got stomach flu. Ah, good times!)
I have to disagree with azus mom. I thought that swimming and water aerobics woul dbe a great solution for pregnancy but not in first trimester. After puking on the side of the pool 3 days in a row, the sweet gray haired lady actually told me, “Sweetie, maybe you better give it up for a while and try again when your further along!”
I used sea bands but they dont help all that much. The only things that truly help are Going on a cruise (seriously the only 3 days I did not throw up of my first pregnancy) and dissolvable Zofran.
And congrats Charlotte!!! I am so happy for you!! I hope this one does not have to stand to pee- you’re busy enough with all that toilet wiping 😉
So as a childless crab, every now and then I see a cute little tyke and think… hmmm, what if…?
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for describing with such vivid accuracy the realities of pregnancy. I am so NOT cut out for it, let alone child rearing, that it helps to be reminded that it’s not just cherubic smiles and tender moments I’ve missed out on.
(I totally know that pregnancy is so worth it for those who want kids… but for me, I’m better off with a low-maintenance cat.)
Hope you feel better soon!
I’ve commented under my real name before, but I haven’t shared the news about my pregnancy with my parents yet, so I figured it’d probably be a good idea not to tell the whole world first 😉
I am in my 7th week. This is my first pregnancy. Until last week I was totally puffing myself up about what a breeze this whole thing is. My only symptom at that point was bigger boobs, which is just like a dream come true for an A-cup such as myself.
But then Monday came around, and out of nowhere I was racked with nausea. And mood swings.
The only two things that help my nausea are eating and exercising. Thank god I got the exercising to offset the enormous amounts of food I’m consuming to keep my nausea at bay.
My biggest thing, while exercising or anything else, is the embarrassing tendency to burst into tears over… NOTHING.
Another fear that popped up big time is the fear of getting fat. Sorry if I sound superficial, but I just care about that kind of stuff. My whole life I’ve reveled in the fact that I have the power to control my body and the way it looks. Now, it has a mind of its own. And it scares the shit out of me. And what scares me even more is that it’s only going to get worse as the pregnancy goes on.
I would love to adopt a new mindset where I can feel sexy and attractive while pregnant, but I’m not sure how to get there.
Exercising definitely helps some in that department.
Any other suggestions though?
I took a little vacation from the computer over the long weekend, so I’m just catching up. Congrats!
Oh, the joys of pregnancy! I was very lucky we had extra offices open with trash cans. I would throw up in the morning, tie the bag shut, then throw up around lunch time. I would even lay on the couch in the lunchroom, but the smells would get me every time! For the longest time on the weekends, I would lay in bed and walk to the fridge (that was my exercise!), grab a couple of plain tortilas and walk back to my bed to lay down and eat them. Then my roommate would make rice in his rice-cooker thingy and stink up the whole apartment! Good memories! 🙂
By my 2nd trimester, things had changed for the better. I was bowling once a week. I was even rollerblading at adult skate night at the local roller rink & I had never exercised at all before that!
Char – I love your humorous stories! I can picture you on the floor of your home, with the lego stuck to your face as the boys are running circles around you!
See you at the gym, puking and all!
Oh, man. That sounds pretty brutal.
I’m hoping I’ll skip the morning sickness when I get pregnant: on my mom’s side of the family (which I take after), NONE of the women ever got sick at all. (My dad did, though. My mom used to laugh that there was a God: she figured it was only fair that my dad share in the discomfort of pregnancy! Dad got “morning sickness” with every single one of us. Hilarious.)
I’m sorry I have nothing to contribute – no babies yet! But I am loving reading all this! 🙂
What flashbacks I am having – my youngest is almost 15 but I can so clearly remember that Dunkin Donuts chocolate frosted donuts were the only things I could tolerate for breakfast for the 1st 3 months of my second pregnancy. I also used to bring pretzel rods to every meeting to share so that I could munch on one to keep my stomach in check but not be too obvious (as I was not letting anyone know about the pregnancy yet). I did not love being pregnant – spent the 1st 3 months puking and the last 2 in bed with each due to pre-term labor. The 4 months in the middle weren’t bad but for me, the end result was the best, best, best.
I loved pregnancy and wasn’t sick or even uncomfortable throughout. I wish I could be a baby-making machine without having to deal with the newborn sleepless nights that follow, and skip right to the fun, learning-every-day toddler stage.
My sister-in-law is a doctor and during her third pregnancy got horrible morning sickness. She ran to the bathroom at her hospital to puke and ended up peeing her pants while puking all over the floor. Puking and overactive bladder are definitely a bad mix… Of course she was wearing a skirt that day.
I don’t have much to contribute being one of the folks who has not bred yet, but the “puke-n-play” workout almost made me spit decaf coffee at my monitor. Love it.
My heart goes out to you! I can't even imagine!!! I never wanted children but I have 3 stepchildren & 7 (step)grandchildren & they are great. I took the easy way out of this pregnancy crap!
I hope you get thru this with your mind in tact! I will be thinking of you from one that "is so devoted to my fitness routine" to another!
Good luck & be good to yourself!
you described the joys of pregnancy to a T!
The only thing that curbed my nausea was eating crap like Mcdonalds french fries. Gross, I know, but effective.
and as for the boobs–definitely double bag them during workouts. Bouncing is not our friend.
To the poster who is newly pregnant–enjoy this time. For my first, I worried nonstop about getting fat and never really embraced how exciting it was to actually be pregnant. You’ll get back into shape after you have the baby. Congratulations!
I have three children and I wasn’t sick with any of them and now my fourth is my hardest ever with vomiting and nausea. I finally found out what works for me at the gym now that I am in my 4th month. Skittles! While I am working out, I eat a few and it helps me not get so nauseous, especially after working out which seems to be the time for me to want to vomit. Maybe I need a little sugar, I don’t know, but they are working for me.
Congrats Charlotte !
Congratulations! I hope all goes well. I think you have just added to the list of reasons I do not want to have children!
I remember when I was pregnant with my first, I asked you why women are stupid enough to have more than one child after experiencing pregnancy for the first time. You told me that women tend to forget how awful it is. I didn’t necessarily forget when I got pregnant with #2, I just didn’t remember JUST how AWFUL it really was. I don’t think our brains have the capacity to fathom such pain and suffering, so it’s a some sort of survival mechanism. Thank you for being so honest about the “joy” of pregnancy. I do have to disagree about the boobs, mine didn’t get bigger, they turned into cement blocks. Oh it hurt!
Thanks for this post Charlotte. If I ever have kids, I would really like to stay active during my pregnancy. This was encouraging.
Sleeping on Legos? Ouch – bet that left a nice mark. 🙂
Wait, I thought this wasn’t going to be a pregnancy blog?! 🙂
I work out as hard core pregnant as not, but I never had debilitating pregnancy symptoms. I was back at it just a few weeks after this last baby was born, riding the stationary bike and lifting dumb bells with her strapped to my chest. It was pretty ridiculous, but it worked! You’re a no excuses girl, and you have all of us to keep you accountable. No worries, babe!
Ok, here's a puke story for ya! 😉 When I was prego w/ my daughter I had horrible nausea, WAY worse than w/ my boys. I only threw up once, but the nausea had been so bad I would WISH I could throw up…Anyway, the one time I did puke, it was because I'd been trying to hurry & put my boys' breakfast on the table before eating my own. NOT a good idea! I ran to the bathroom, shutting the door behind me. Of course my 4 yr old started banging on the door wanting to know what I was doing and demanding his breakfast. When I was (finally) able to talk, I told him exactly what I was doing and to leave me alone! When I came out he was standing there w/ our cordless phone in his hands and wide eyes. "I was trying to call the am-bee-lance mans 'cause you're sick." Thank heavens he didn't really know how to dial 911 yet! But it was cute how concerned he was for me! 🙂
Oh and as far as what works for my nausea this time around – grapes. Don’t know why (maybe b/c they’re cold and full of water? or maybe the natural sugar in them?), but my stomach is always a little more calm (at least for a few minutes) after eating them. Can’t wait ’til they’re more in season and cheaper!
great post. Perfectly articulated. I honestly wish you were going ahead of me on this one.
Wait. no I don’t. I guess I wish I had all this when I was in the first tri…
🙂
i am wondering when you or any other ladies began feeling symptoms. i have been sick to my stomach and exhausted but would only be a week pregnant; is that possible?
Most obstetricians recommend that women preparing to conceive visit the gynecologist to talk about everything from diet to genetic risk factors. For women with a chronic illness, such as psoriasis, prepregnancy is a perfect time to talk about treatments that will be safe during pregnancy and breastfeeding
I have to say that this made me laugh so hard! I’m in my 7th week, and was wondering if I was the only pregnant person who wants to take a nap at my desk in the hopes I don’t get caught! lol.
I'm at 8 weeks, and feel so much better lying down, that it's hard to want to move my body when nothing feels good. My gym just started offering a belly dancing class, and I so wanted to try that just for the fun of it. I was very surprised to find that I felt great during the class. Especially the fact that in belly dancing, you really work your core, your abs and all those areas that feel so bloated and uncomfortable. I wish the good feeling lasted beyond the class, but it is a welcome relief to forget about feeling bad for a while, to imagine being sexy again, and to do some good for my body. It's fun, and I highly recommend it. Hoping I can do it all the way through.
I’m in my 12th week of my first pregnancy and have really struggled with exercising. I’m a married, full time college student working 20 hours a week (baby was a surprise) and though I used to be a work out junkie, this pregnancy has turned my world upside down. I never throw up, but I feel so nauseous and awful all day that I really wish I could. I used to have the willpower to wake up early and run anywhere from 5-16 miles or go to various work out classes, but now all I want to do is sit on my couch and read/sleep. I prided myself on healthy eating, but I’ve been ridiculous. Seriously, all I want is junk food and I find myself caving far more than I should. I know I need to just suck it up and have some willpower but I just don’t have it in me!! I think I’ve only gained about 2-3 pounds but I feel my body turning into jello. I know that it will all be worth it, I already love my little baby so much, but it’s been hard to lose control of my body! And as someone who deals with an anxiety disorder (reason for all that exercising—I’m not medicated) being left with a tired body and a mind full of thoughts has been very hard. Luckily my husband is a SAINT but I still feel bad for not being my usual self. The other women in my family barely noticed they were pregnant (couldn’t tell until they were like 3-5 months along) and hardly gained weight (around 12-15 pounds and still a healthy baby). I’m feeling like the weird one with all this craziness. Any tips?? Advice??
Reading this is so reassuring. I Used to love long walks before pregnancy and have been so sick for the past 6 weeks that I have become best friends with my couch and TV. As its my first it’s great to hear that in the end it’s all worth it. Of course I cried reading this and the comments (damn hormones) and hopefully the all day sickness will subside soon.
holy cow. I couldnt stop laughing at your post! I have 4 kids and pregnant again. I sure love kids, but I am the wooooorst pregnant person ever. I go from energetic, zumba, roller hockey playing mom to a grumpy old women that wants to know if the early bird for dinner starts at 3 pm!!! I figured I would do my usual aerobic activity during my first trimester(b/f the morning sickness set in), but after 2 minutes of low impact cardio i gave up and decided that I am way better at puking and eating weirdo craving food like watered down omeletes, and dried peas, and microwaved hot dogs. It is true that my kids get a teensy bit neglected(gummy bear vitamins for breakfast is still balanced right???) and I do tell my 12th grade students to shut up a lot more, but those precious little newborsn faces are sooooo worth it
Thank you for sharing this is a great post
I am in my first trimester well I don’t puke but the headache and nausea completely pulls me down . I have been a crazy workout chick before I got pregnant but now during this time I am so tired I can’t even get myself walk upto the gym door . Yes this irritates me a lot because working out is everything for me
Hopefully end of jan I complete the first trimester and I can get back on track
Thank you sooo much for sharing this. This is my second baby and I’m committed to being healthier during this pregnancy than my first. I was good during my first, but I failed to exercise like I wanted due to “I’m gonna break the baby syndrome”. Anyhew I’m trying so hard to workout every day, plus I work full time, and have a husband and 1.5 yr old to take care of. I’m exhausted constantly and everything makes me feel sick. So thanks for this sharing and being inspiring!
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