If you don’t follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you might be wondering where I’ve been for the past several weeks. And the answer is pretty simple. I’ve mostly been at home, in bed. Pregnant. Yay for the pregnancy announcement! The Brambila family is growing, and while my boys and I are very happy about this, I am not a person that has easy pregnancies. With my son, I had constant nausea and vomiting for most of the first trimester, so I had some expectation that I might struggle this time around. And I wasn’t wrong. But before I get into how things are going, let’s catch up a little.
Pregnancy Announcement
My husband and I found out that I am pregnant one week after the Bandera 100k. Needless to say, I was fairly surprised that with such a physically demanding race, a pregnancy test would read positive. But it did! With my personal history of two pregnancy losses, and the fact that I had just run 62 miles, I had a lot of anxiety about whether this pregnancy would “stick.” So we decided to keep the news to ourselves for a while, until I felt ready to share it. I started to feel a little more comfortable after we had a couple of ultrasounds at 6 and 9.5 weeks.
Once I saw the heart beating away for a second time, we told our son that he was going to be a big brother. Which is something he has been asking for for a few years now. Over the next couple of weeks, we shared the news with our families and a few friends. The reality is that pregnancy loss changes the experience of every pregnancy after, even if you’ve had a healthy pregnancy. I’m 15 weeks pregnant, and still have some anxiety. But I’m starting to feel more confident in my body, and it’s ability to create a healthy baby.
Right around week 6, the Hell hound that is morning sickness made itself known. I don’t have the typical “periods of nausea and occasional vomiting” that most pregnant women experience. I have 24/7, unrelenting nausea that only someone whose experienced food poisoning can begin to understand. And that joy lasted until week 13. I spent most of those days in bed (thank God for remote working), and made friends with the doctors at my local urgent care clinic. For those 7ish weeks, I was going into the ER about once every 1-2 weeks for IV fluids. Like I said, I don’t have easy pregnancies.
I know morning sickness is a sign of a healthy pregnancy, I was happy for any and all reassurances. But honestly, going from being very active to being stuck in bed for several weeks, feeling sick every waking hour is a specific kind of torture. And it’s both physical and mental. I struggled with the fact that I couldn’t help do basic things like laundry (which piles up rapidly), go see my son’s baseball practices, or have a meal with my husband. Honestly, some days I would have settled for being able to walk down the stairs without immediately feeling green.
Related Post: Exercise and Anxiety
Once I hit 13 weeks, I started to feel some relief. I still had bad days, but they were mixed with a few good days where I felt like I could get myself together and be a human for a few hours. My energy was pretty low, but I tried to go out for those walks when I could. I finally made it out of the house to go Enrique’s baseball game, and have dinner with a few friends for the first time since I started feeling bad. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to be able to do normal people things after weeks of being in bed.
Around 14 weeks, the vomiting had pretty much stopped, and I knew I wanted to start some form of exercise. I was amazed at how weak I felt, and how quickly I would feel out of breath. So I started slowly. Like 30 minute walks in the morning before work. I also started doing some quick body weight and kettlebell workouts when I was feeling extra ambitious. Even though the workouts were 20-30 minutes long, and exceedingly less difficult than what I was doing just a couple of months before, I was grateful to be able to move my body in a somewhat consistent manner.
I slowwwwwwwly started running about a week later. Intervals up to 2 miles. And then 3. Miles on the road that are about the same pace as my previous trail miles. But miles none the less. And at the beginning of 15 weeks, I went back to CrossFit. With baby weights and modifications and slow movements. But again, I was grateful. It’s been a long, stressful, and exhausting 15 weeks. I’m so happy to be out of the first trimester. I’m thankful to have had two ultrasounds that showed a happy, little heartbeat, and one doppler check at 14 weeks that confirmed the same.
Being pregnant is hard. For me, anyways. So buckle up, because I’ll be sharing just as candidly and honestly as ever for the next 25ish weeks.
First 16 Weeks Highlight: hearing the heartbeat at our 14 week appointment, and finally having some nausea relief.
First 16 Weeks Struggle: I think I’ve been pretty clear. The morning sickness tried to kill me.
This Weeks Workouts
Total Miles: 12.5 Miles
Total Workouts: 4
How the Run Felt
My body is definitely not used to running. I’m out of breath quickly, and my heart rate has to be monitored pretty closely. There’s a possibility that my heart has been strained as a result of all of the throwing up, so I’m trying to keep it around 150bpm. Which means my runs are slowwwwwww. I’ve been trying to build by adding some walking at the end, and using intervals to get a longer total distance on Saturday. As hard as it’s been to feel my body work so hard for so little (mileage-wise), it has felt incredible to spend time outside in the sunshine. I’m so grateful for this hobby of mine, and I’m enjoying every single minute that my body is moving.
How the WODs Felt
Well, they didn’t kill me. But it is pretty amazing how much strength leaves your body when you’re bed ridden for two months straight. I had to significantly reduce the weight with all of my barbell movements, which I was anticipating throughout pregnancy. Because I’ve taken such significant steps backward, I am hoping that I might be able to build back some strength in my second trimester, before I have to start scaling back again in the third. But we’ll see how my body handles just working out consistently for now. My legs were sore for days after the front squats, even though I was lifting what would have been closer to my warm up weights a few months ago. Thankfully, my ego hasn’t made an appearance during my return.
What I’ve Been Listening To
I don’t usually love My Favorite Murder (I get annoyed listening to 35 minutes of non-murder stuff before getting to the murder), but their most recent episode, The Poet, was pretty wild. It was worth the fast forwarding to get to the crime. Bardstown has come out with a new season, and I don’t think it’s quite as gripping as season one, but so far it’s pretty interesting. And one of my favorite podcasts, Run Hard Mom Hard, had an episode featuring their favorite maternity gear, which I obviously listened to and took notes on. It’s been over seven years since I was last pregnant, and it’s insane how much has changed in terms of what’s available to help moms to be.
What Went Well
Finally having some consistency in my ability to work out was a true joy.
What Went Shitty
I don’t love breathing like 10 year smoker as soon as I start moving.
Plans to Improve Next Week
Keep listening to my body, and focus on keeping up the consistency.