I'm taking a leaf out of @mjb048 's book and posting about fitness from the other side. I'm 5 months out, and hopefully this'll help some of you.
Stats pre-pregnancy -
5'6", 180lbs, reasonably fit (running 2x week, gym x1, training with personal trainer x1, sometimes I'd squeeze in an extra gym session or brazilian jiujitsu class, but not always.) I worked a walking heavy job (+11000 steps per day). I don't like fitness in and of itself, but I like staying alive at work (first responder) and I like eating, so something's gotta be done, y'know? I do CICO daily to maintain my weight after loosing 30lbs in early 2017.
First Trimester hit me like a freight train. I couldn't eat because I had aversions to everything, and could barely function. Literally would crawl out of bed to go to work, then crawl into bed when I got home. Husband fed me ice cream, chicken broth, tea and crackers mostly. My morning sickness wasn't awful, but the exhaustion was something else. It lasted from Week six to week 12 almost exactly. I couldn't work out. I calorie counted and made sure to clock 10,000 steps at work. That was it.
Second Trimester - I was able to start working out with my trainer again at 14 weeks, but quickly discovered that running was out. All my joints got super loose and my boobs ballooned in size (from 34G to 36I, and I couldn't afford to buy a compression sports bra that I couldn't be sure would last. (In the end, not spending $90 on a bra was a good decision - I went up two more sizes when my milk came in >.< am a 36K now fml). I trained with my trainer once per week, kept up my +10,000 step daily walks five days a week, and went to the gym once per week on my own to do weights and ellipticals.
My fitness goals for pregnancy wasn't to gain anything, but stay as close to maintenance that I could get. I could not do anything high intensity, because my heart rate would shoot up like crazy and I'd get dizzy/light headed.
Shout out to my husband, who is studying to be a massage therapist and basically stretched me out EVERY SINGLE DAY. Guys, it was miraculous. I had a bit of round ligament pain, and a couple days where I couldn't walk, but almost everything else was kept in check by the work my husband did.
I know having an RMT-in-training for a husband isn't possible for most, but getting help with stretching and muscle loosening on a regular basis made a HUGE difference. If you have a willing partner, hit them up. If you can pay for it, go as often as possible. If you don't have as much money, local massage schools will usually have student clinics for steep discounts - even if they are not trained in pregnancy massage (which usually just means that they're trained how to do techniques with you laying on your side instead of your belly), having someone do your neck/shoulders or legs still makes a biiiiig difference.
Third Trimester got interesting, because I was put on light duties at 7 months exactly (my bump got too big to hide under my uniform and my bosses got worried about people targeting me). I was put in a desk position and did not need to walk around. I started talking long walks during my breaks, and kept up my x1 trainer, x1 gym schedule (albeit getting slower and more unwieldy) until 34 weeks, at which point I started bleeding and learned that I had a partial placental abruption.
I was hospitalized from 34 weeks to 37 weeks, which sucked for me from a discomfort and boredom standpoint, but thankfully I was in very good hands and despite the partial abruption, baby girl was still doing great (daily monitoring). The doctors were very much of the "if she's still cooking, we'll let her cook for as long as possible" attitude towards baby, but I was offered an induction for 37+3. (I went into labour at 37+2!). I got up to 209lbs.
Birth
I had a relatively uncomplicated and uneventful labour. I was offered morphine and gravol for the first 6 hours, slept for most of that. When it got unwise to have more morphine, I switched to an epidural, which stalled labour a little, but again, got put on a drip and slept some more. I spent 10 hours out of 16 hour labour sleeping, so, win? I made a comment about things not being so hard, but my midwife laughed and told me I just couldn't feel how hard my body was working. (spoiler: she was right... oooof). 1 hour 15 minutes of active labour, with two first degree tears.
Oddly enough, I only dropped 9 lbs post birth. Baby was 7lbs.
Recovery
I was not able to start working out again until nearly 12 weeks post partum, for a couple reasons.
1) Despite having a textbook birth and relatively drama free pregnancy, I had two popped stitches from my tears that took FOREVER to heal. Any sort of squatting, or bouncing type activity was just a no go. (PROTIP,have someone trim down your pubes just before birth. Getting blood and lochia stuck and tangled in your hair down there while you're recovering from tearing is a nightmare, even with a peri bottle.)
2) My kid could not figure out breastfeeding - her mouth was tiny, she had a bad latch and she basically skinned my nipples raw. I was able to manage a light bra with nipple pads, but anything compression or in that breathable polyester fabric that work out clothes are made out of hurt a lot to wear and would make me leak like crazy. I had to wait for my milk supply to stabilize.
3) Exhaustion - I got lucky, my kid was sleeping in six hour stretches by month 2, but before that.... sleep...what sleep?
4) HUNGER - breast feeding makes you soooo hungry, and I was too tired to calorie count properly. I gained 9 lbs between months 1 and 3 post partum.
I lost more of my fitness from weeks 0-13 postpartum than I lost during pregnancy.
5 months out
I am finally starting to feel like myself again. With many stops and starts, I am back to workout schedule similar to what I had before (x2 runs, x1 trainer, x1 gym independantly). Our gym doesn't have a daycare, but my husband and I will usually do a once-a-week switch off - aka, I go in for an hour while he sits with baby in the gym lobby, then we switch. I do a lot of late-night running once baby goes to sleep.
I haven't lost any weight (am about 206lbs right now, because I'm hungry all the effing time), but my cardio and strength have been coming back in leaps and bounds.
Things that have helped
1) My kid is combo-fed 50/50 - breast milk and formula, due to the aformentioned havoc she wreaked upon my nips. So I can leave her with husband for 4+ hours if needed before the boob situation becomes uncomfortable.
2) Having a trainer. I am poor (literally, we are living off my EI payments while my husband is in school), but having a trainer has really kept me on track and I consider it money well spent purely for my own health. She kicks my butt and keeps cheering me on, as well as giving me workouts to follow when I'm not with her, so I don't have to try to muddle through mom-brain while trying to decide what to do at the gym. Also, she keeps me accountable. We downsized a lot when husband made the decision to go back to school, but the trainer is the one "extra" I've kept. Haven't regretted it for a second.
3) Remembering that recovery comes slow and steady. A little every day builds up to a lot of change over time. I was finally able to do a full pushup again three days ago (before pregnancy, I was able to do 30 pushups at a time). I had to start with those stupid pushups against the wall, before moving to knee pushups for a couple weeks, then to full. It took 2 months, but I'm back to 3 full body pushups as of today. I've been severely injured before, so I have a bit of an idea of what slow recovery actually looks and feels like. TAKE YOUR TIME.
4) STRETCHING. give yourself that 15 minutes to stretch. you hurt so much less afterwards. I made the mistake of rushing back to baby a few times after a workout and paid for it hard by being stiff and sore for days after because I didn't take the time to stretch.
Stats pre-pregnancy -
5'6", 180lbs, reasonably fit (running 2x week, gym x1, training with personal trainer x1, sometimes I'd squeeze in an extra gym session or brazilian jiujitsu class, but not always.) I worked a walking heavy job (+11000 steps per day). I don't like fitness in and of itself, but I like staying alive at work (first responder) and I like eating, so something's gotta be done, y'know? I do CICO daily to maintain my weight after loosing 30lbs in early 2017.
First Trimester hit me like a freight train. I couldn't eat because I had aversions to everything, and could barely function. Literally would crawl out of bed to go to work, then crawl into bed when I got home. Husband fed me ice cream, chicken broth, tea and crackers mostly. My morning sickness wasn't awful, but the exhaustion was something else. It lasted from Week six to week 12 almost exactly. I couldn't work out. I calorie counted and made sure to clock 10,000 steps at work. That was it.
Second Trimester - I was able to start working out with my trainer again at 14 weeks, but quickly discovered that running was out. All my joints got super loose and my boobs ballooned in size (from 34G to 36I, and I couldn't afford to buy a compression sports bra that I couldn't be sure would last. (In the end, not spending $90 on a bra was a good decision - I went up two more sizes when my milk came in >.< am a 36K now fml). I trained with my trainer once per week, kept up my +10,000 step daily walks five days a week, and went to the gym once per week on my own to do weights and ellipticals.
My fitness goals for pregnancy wasn't to gain anything, but stay as close to maintenance that I could get. I could not do anything high intensity, because my heart rate would shoot up like crazy and I'd get dizzy/light headed.
Shout out to my husband, who is studying to be a massage therapist and basically stretched me out EVERY SINGLE DAY. Guys, it was miraculous. I had a bit of round ligament pain, and a couple days where I couldn't walk, but almost everything else was kept in check by the work my husband did.
I know having an RMT-in-training for a husband isn't possible for most, but getting help with stretching and muscle loosening on a regular basis made a HUGE difference. If you have a willing partner, hit them up. If you can pay for it, go as often as possible. If you don't have as much money, local massage schools will usually have student clinics for steep discounts - even if they are not trained in pregnancy massage (which usually just means that they're trained how to do techniques with you laying on your side instead of your belly), having someone do your neck/shoulders or legs still makes a biiiiig difference.
Third Trimester got interesting, because I was put on light duties at 7 months exactly (my bump got too big to hide under my uniform and my bosses got worried about people targeting me). I was put in a desk position and did not need to walk around. I started talking long walks during my breaks, and kept up my x1 trainer, x1 gym schedule (albeit getting slower and more unwieldy) until 34 weeks, at which point I started bleeding and learned that I had a partial placental abruption.
I was hospitalized from 34 weeks to 37 weeks, which sucked for me from a discomfort and boredom standpoint, but thankfully I was in very good hands and despite the partial abruption, baby girl was still doing great (daily monitoring). The doctors were very much of the "if she's still cooking, we'll let her cook for as long as possible" attitude towards baby, but I was offered an induction for 37+3. (I went into labour at 37+2!). I got up to 209lbs.
Birth
I had a relatively uncomplicated and uneventful labour. I was offered morphine and gravol for the first 6 hours, slept for most of that. When it got unwise to have more morphine, I switched to an epidural, which stalled labour a little, but again, got put on a drip and slept some more. I spent 10 hours out of 16 hour labour sleeping, so, win? I made a comment about things not being so hard, but my midwife laughed and told me I just couldn't feel how hard my body was working. (spoiler: she was right... oooof). 1 hour 15 minutes of active labour, with two first degree tears.
Oddly enough, I only dropped 9 lbs post birth. Baby was 7lbs.
Recovery
I was not able to start working out again until nearly 12 weeks post partum, for a couple reasons.
1) Despite having a textbook birth and relatively drama free pregnancy, I had two popped stitches from my tears that took FOREVER to heal. Any sort of squatting, or bouncing type activity was just a no go. (PROTIP,have someone trim down your pubes just before birth. Getting blood and lochia stuck and tangled in your hair down there while you're recovering from tearing is a nightmare, even with a peri bottle.)
2) My kid could not figure out breastfeeding - her mouth was tiny, she had a bad latch and she basically skinned my nipples raw. I was able to manage a light bra with nipple pads, but anything compression or in that breathable polyester fabric that work out clothes are made out of hurt a lot to wear and would make me leak like crazy. I had to wait for my milk supply to stabilize.
3) Exhaustion - I got lucky, my kid was sleeping in six hour stretches by month 2, but before that.... sleep...what sleep?
4) HUNGER - breast feeding makes you soooo hungry, and I was too tired to calorie count properly. I gained 9 lbs between months 1 and 3 post partum.
I lost more of my fitness from weeks 0-13 postpartum than I lost during pregnancy.
5 months out
I am finally starting to feel like myself again. With many stops and starts, I am back to workout schedule similar to what I had before (x2 runs, x1 trainer, x1 gym independantly). Our gym doesn't have a daycare, but my husband and I will usually do a once-a-week switch off - aka, I go in for an hour while he sits with baby in the gym lobby, then we switch. I do a lot of late-night running once baby goes to sleep.
I haven't lost any weight (am about 206lbs right now, because I'm hungry all the effing time), but my cardio and strength have been coming back in leaps and bounds.
Things that have helped
1) My kid is combo-fed 50/50 - breast milk and formula, due to the aformentioned havoc she wreaked upon my nips. So I can leave her with husband for 4+ hours if needed before the boob situation becomes uncomfortable.
2) Having a trainer. I am poor (literally, we are living off my EI payments while my husband is in school), but having a trainer has really kept me on track and I consider it money well spent purely for my own health. She kicks my butt and keeps cheering me on, as well as giving me workouts to follow when I'm not with her, so I don't have to try to muddle through mom-brain while trying to decide what to do at the gym. Also, she keeps me accountable. We downsized a lot when husband made the decision to go back to school, but the trainer is the one "extra" I've kept. Haven't regretted it for a second.
3) Remembering that recovery comes slow and steady. A little every day builds up to a lot of change over time. I was finally able to do a full pushup again three days ago (before pregnancy, I was able to do 30 pushups at a time). I had to start with those stupid pushups against the wall, before moving to knee pushups for a couple weeks, then to full. It took 2 months, but I'm back to 3 full body pushups as of today. I've been severely injured before, so I have a bit of an idea of what slow recovery actually looks and feels like. TAKE YOUR TIME.
4) STRETCHING. give yourself that 15 minutes to stretch. you hurt so much less afterwards. I made the mistake of rushing back to baby a few times after a workout and paid for it hard by being stiff and sore for days after because I didn't take the time to stretch.
