Dre checks in again as she nears the birth of her first child. Check out what the Hardbody mommy-to-be has to say.
I’m exhausted. Fortunately this happens only about once a week, which is very different from what I hear or read about in all the pregnancy articles out there. Girls at work swear to me that this will happen more and more frequently now. I hate this feeling! One day a week I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.
The other 6 days out of the week are great! Most of the time I don’t even feel pregnant, at least until I put my hands on my hips… I swear they used to be closer together. Now my day to day dilemma is dealing with the extra weight being distributed ever-so-generously around my body. I’m 32 weeks into this and have gained about 20 pounds which is totally normal and healthy. I think about 15 lbs have planted themselves in my behind. I know this not only because I can see it growing, but my husband grabs, pinches, smacks and (insert any other verb here) it all the time! This isn’t the nice behind we all train for, it’s the soft kind. My excuse is that I needed some extra weight in the caboose to keep me balanced with the belly in front.
So, as we learned last time, I can’t run like I used to and I’m sorry but walking makes me feel like a loser. I went so far as to ask my doctor if I could jump rope instead! She literally looked at me like “are you serious?” Needless to say, I’m feeling a bit frustrated about the growing pregnant body and the fact that there’s not much I can do about it. Before, training was primarily to keep a healthy bikini body. Well, now that that’s not a plausible option, I’ve found a different goal: Natural Delivery.
I’ve never been a “medicine” person. When I get a headache, I know it’s for a reason so I find the reason and do something about it instead of popping a pill. So, my goal is to have a natural delivery. 99.9% of girls I say that to scream at me to “Take the drugs! Take the drugs!” So that little voice we’ve been talking about is now telling me “keep going, you’ve got a baby to deliver in 8 weeks!” I’ve been doing more yoga and more interval training since contractions come and go in intervals. I can picture it now, it hurts so bad and I’m just controlling my breathing as I would in an intense minute of burpees… hubby counting down 10-9-8…2-1 and relax. That’s my vision and I’m sticking to it!
Any advice from you Hardbody mommies who’ve been through natural delivery is definitely welcome!
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I have 3 kids and I’ve had natural, c-section, and VBAC with drugs. Go for the drugs!!! LOL!
Seriously natural wasn’t that bad. Like anything else, there’s pluses and minuses to all of them. My advice is try it natural and if it gets unbearable then get the drugs. After all, there’s no prize for doing it natural so no need to be a hero! No matter what you’re about to achieve the biggest accomplishment of your life…assisting God in a miracle! Good luck!!
Patty
Hey Andrea,
My wife had both of our girls totally natural, not even an aspirin…not sure how she did it, but she seemed to just go into a zone and push through it so to speak.
It was something that really meant a lot to her, and I’m not sure if it had anything to do with it, but our girls have both been incredibly healthy their whole lives.
Word of warning though…their heads are a bizarre shape when they come out
Good luck!
C
I really think it depends on the person. My SIL was dilated to 5cm and didn’t even know she was in active labor! I, on the other hand, was panting in the fetal position at 5cm! I took the epi… it was worth it to me to be relaxed and in the moment when my son was being born.
Just a word about labor… I also thought it would be easier b/c I have a high pain threshold. I imagined it being much like an intense set of an exercise, like you. As a fitness competitor, I know how to train intensely! Well, it was unlike any pain I’ve ever experienced. If natural is your goal, that’s fine, but know that it won’t be like anything you’ve done before!
Personally, I think a natural birth is overrated. There is very little risk to the baby with drugs, and often times I think women do it more to prove themselves than for anything else. Sorry if that sounded mean. I’m not saying that’s you, but I know many women who fit that bill. Why suffer when it can be enjoyable?! After all, it’s not a competition.
May God bless your pregnancy and childbirth. Being a mom is the most amazing accomplishment in life!
Hiya! I’m 32 weeks along myself and our stories are almost exact. Its been super frustrating not being able to run the distance or speed that I’m used to but I do run sprints at 1 min intervals at 5.0 on a treadmill. Still use the Stepmill, Ellyptical & jump rope. I wear a soft belt when I do the higher impact exercise & it really helps. I enjoy the P90X workouts as interval training for the exact reasons you mention. Yoga has been great too & hoping it will help for prep on returning to fitness comps later this year or early next. Looking forward to seeing the after baby transformation will look like!
Thanks Isaac for posting this thread. Not too much pertains to us “mommies to be” when it comes to the competative fitness world so reading an article like Andrea’s is thrilling!!! Hope your doing well & can’t wait to see everyone again!
As someone who ended up with a c-section after 23 hours of labor, med-free was not an option. I lasted 16 hours without an epidural and just couldn’t do it anymore. I went into it with an open mind and just did my best. I think however your birth goes, just know that there is no “win” or “lose” with regard to how your baby ends up in your arms. As highly goal oriented women, I understand wanting/needing something to work for (in your case an un-medicated birth). If it’s what you want, go for it! Just go easy on yourself if mother nature has other plans. The birth of my son was a wild ride but it was the single biggest thrill of my life.
I wouldn’t change a thing about my experience. I’m 28 weeks with our second baby (a girl this time) and am happily scheduling my repeat c-section. Know that if you find yourself in the OR, there is nothing to fear. I had a fantastic recovery and was even on stage for my first figure competition four months post partum. My labor prior to the epidural was bearable right down to those last few hours before I asked for the epidural–at which point I was ready to make love to my anesthesiologist.
Congrats and enjoy your last few weeks!
Thanks so much to everyone for the GREAT advice and for sharing your stories!!
Alissa- Love your comment about “proving” ourselves! You know something? I think that’s part of it for me for sure! I have a bad habit of making everything a competition! Hahaha! Thank you for the reminder that this doesn’t have to be : )
Darlina- So do you get funny looks from people when you workout? I teach a Boot Camp at a park and I usually workout with my clients. It’s so funny to watch the look on people’s faces when they see me doing the same things as my class!
Thank you all again for the encouragement!!!
Andrea–boy do I ever get looks! LOL I workout at a very large Army gym so its very busy with soldiers. The gym has an indoor track and it was the funniest thing when I was sprinting around a lap & a soldier said to another “dude, even the pregnant chick runs faster than us.” Sometimes, as you may have gotten, the looks are not favorable. I’ve been told I need to take it easy & not care so much what I look like. That really ticked me off ’cause I’m certainly not trying to lose weight, just trying not to balloon out of control plus I miss feeling like an athlete. BTW-I too have more in the caboose but I don’t need it!! I’ve never been scarce in the booty department! Keep us in the loop with your pregnancy. Its so refreshing to know your not alone! Take good care!
Andrea, you have a great attitude! I learned, through experience and the advice of other great moms, that being flexible is the best way to be a happy mom! I am sure no matter what path you end up taking that it will turn out amazingly for you. Wishing you the best!
Andrea,
good luck! I have two beautiful girls through natural childbirth. I choose natural childbirth because I was alarmed at the high rate of C Sections with medicated births – some of these are necessary but in other cases it takes the body a while to be prepared for delivery and many doctors “start the clock” when labor starts and will advocate for a C section after a set number of hours when its not medically needed.
Because I am used to training for athletic events, I looked at labor as something that required training and preparation. Would you run a marathon without training? I studied the Bradley Method to prepare. I made it through 34 hours of labor with my first girl. Yes, that was long! And it was hard at the end. But knowing what my body was doing in labor, that each contraction was working to bring my baby out, helped me make it through the tough parts.!
If you are serious about natural child birth, I recommend that you make sure your doctor supports your desires. I would also encourage you to read up on Bradley or hypnobirthing and take some classes if you can. Good Luck.
ps – second labor was 3.5 hours!
Hey Andrea,
Check out the Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth. It helped get me through 26 hours of labor. I ended up with a C-section, but only because I didn’t fully dilate and my water had been broken for more then 24 hours. It’s a great natural birthing method and the classes are geared toward helping you get tips and tools to manage labor pains. We’re praying for you.
After going into pre-term labor at 26 weeks of pregnancy having sharp stabs travel up and down my spine so painful that I was throwing up on everything in site….rush to the er and put on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy (since my cervix was at 2 cm). When it came time for me to deliver I wasted no time getting my love shot! You will not enjoy your delivery any less if you take the drugs, and there is n research that states that it will harm the baby. The choice is yours just remember it can become too late if you wait too long and it may not be an option. Oh, yeah and you friend down south might need to get a stitch or two after the birth, so choose wisely.