When I first found out that I was pregnant, I didn’t want to let it stop me from running. I figured that I would eventually have to stop and wait until after baby is born to continue, but I wanted to keep going for as long as my body would let me. Morning sickness hit at about week 6, and the thought of running when you generally feel yucky, just isn’t appealing. But I found that getting up to run as much as I could actually helped my body feel good, even if I was feeling queasy.
I went in for my first prenatal appointment when I was about 12 weeks. We got to hear the heartbeat, and Valerie, my midwife, got my new chart all ready. I got to weigh myself and she asked what my pre-pregnancy weight was. My weight had gone down, as it always does. Kyle made a comment about my running and Valerie looked at me and told me to stop right now! Then she asked why I was running. I reminded her about Dinah being my little run away child, and that running just makes me feel good emotionally, and my body just feels good afterward. Valerie told me that I can run to catch Dinah, but that was it. I was not concerned about my drop in weight at first, because it always goes down before it starts going up. But looking at my records of my previous pregnancies I usually only lose 2-3 pounds. This time I had gone down by about 7! So I stopped running, and I started counting my calories. I figured that the only reason I had to stop was because I wasn’t taking in enough calories to support my usual activity, my running, and my body’s efforts to grow a baby.
I had my second prenatal visit today. I have gained 5 pounds! Valerie told me that I don’t need to count my calories but just to eat small frequent meals. I asked her if I could run once a week, and she told me that I can run (once a week), but no jogging. I am SO excited to be able to get out and run again, even if it is just once each week. That makes me very happy. 🙂