Slowing down

I remember when I got pregnant with Aidan, I was so excited. I thought, I'm going to be healthy and continue to exercise and eat right. Well after a first trimester in the middle of a scorching summer with a perpetual headache, by the time the second trimester came around I was semi-defeated. I started to feel a little better and kept up pretty good practices for the next 4 (or so) months. We ate out alot and I ate a fair amount of junk too. For the last 6 weeks I was so swollen and bloated I couldn't even wear real shoes, I was wearing slippers and flip flops in December and January. Luckily, once he was born the swelling went down and after all the "dust settled" I wasn't in as bad of shape as I originally thought.

During pregnancy #2, with Clare, things were a little different. Replace the exercise plan with chasing around a 9- 18 month old boy, the eating out with ice cream cones for dinner, (for both Aidan and me) but no swelling in the end. After she was born and all that "dust settled" again things were pretty much the same.

Fast forward 4 years to pregnancy #3, no longer in my "early 30's" but now in my "mid to late 30's". I started out this one with a bit of a different mindset. I've become slightly more active in the last couple of years so I was a little fearful of getting out of the swing of things with being pregnant and all.

So, I've been exercising this whole pregnancy, doing exactly the same regimen I had been before I found out I was prego. I've been eating well, with only the occasional pregnancy excuse to eat bad. I've been careful to take a day off if I'm feeling sluggish or just tired. I've read and read (which I don't usually do) about what I can and can't do and many of the articles say you may have to stop or slow down running once you get bigger. Well as I've said before this nugget is HUGE so I'm definitely "bigger" by now. Last weekend I felt great when I ran and thought "poo on you, I'm not slowing down at 23 weeks." I ran 2 more days during last week and felt pretty good too. Yesterday, however, was a totally different story. My legs felt like concrete and the baby had it's foot scratching my rib cage the whole time. I pretty much walked more than I ran. It made me think of my bff Lisa who recently posted on her blog (www.threeunderfiveandstillalive.blogspot.com) a post about running and feeling like your body won't do what you want it to do. I kept thinking if I could just use the whole "mind over matter" thing I could push through it. Well, I wanted to sit down and cry too Lis! I had to succumb to the defeat! I'll try again tomorrow and see what my body and the baby are willing to do.

16 weeks to go! We'll see what happens this time when the "dust settles!"