Tuesday, October 4, 2011

"Look Mom, the baby has a running arm!"

Were the first words my 7 year old said upon seeing this ultrasound picture.  LOL!
Baby's running arm



We chose not to find out the gender on this one.  We have girl boy girl so we're not lacking any clothes or blankets/bedding or whatnot.  I haven't been that anxious to know, so hopefully that will remain and I'll stay calm and not to ancy through these next 4 months.
Sweet
Everything looked good with baby.  He/she is very active which proved a little difficult during the ultrasound, but that's ok, it's just a genetic thing  ;)  My placenta was low enough to warrent another ultrasound near 30 weeks.  If it doesn't move up (which we expect it will) I probably won't be able to deliver at the birth center like we plan, but instead closely monitored in the hospital, or worst case scenerio, a c-section.

Now I am a natural birther by choice.  I don't care how others birth, I think everyone should be able to do it how they wish, but I personally don't want to expose the baby to the drugs and I want to be in control during my labor, move around, not increase my chance at complications/c-section from being stuck in bed all day with other meds to manage the pain meds (I had a very medical birth with our first, including an epidural, so I know that end too), and I want to recover faster.  I've gotten all those things from my last 2 med free vaginal births.  So yeah, a c-section freaks me out some, but of course if it was necessary I would do it.  My biggest worry with it is how will I come back into sport?  Will slicing my abs open slow me down a lot longer, will I come back a lot weaker, or can I still come back strong like I have without waiting a year to do so?  Any of you athlete mamas out there have experience with training and racing again after c-section?

Again, NOT planning on having one, but I like to think ahead and prepare myself for whatever.  For now, baby and I will continue enjoying this summer like fall weather here running on the trails, swimming at masters, and biking all of the 10 miles I might get to do around riding kids to school and back  :)

4 comments:

Sara said...

Hey Les,
I'm not an elite, obviously, but I am a triathlete who didn't start until after c-sections were already a part of my life.
With Logan, he was a year old--but that was only because that's when I first became aware of triathlon.

With the twins, I was advised to wait six weeks to start doing running/biking, and twelve weeks to do more ab-intensive exercise. They were born late October, and I was definitely fit enough to race again the following spring, and do better than I had before they were born.
With this baby, I chose to wait six weeks again before starting to run and bike and swim and do yoga. (I did feel like I could've started at about a month out, but I was being cautious--that's me.)There's still the abdominal advisory out until 12 weeks, but I'm listening to my body, and I don't feel like I'm straining those muscles with what I'm doing right now.
As far as the exercise post-baby this time--I have lost a little endurance/speed/aerobic capacity in my running. I'm catching up yardage on swimming, and will work on speed later. (Swimming and yoga I did right up to 39 weeks, but I haven't run or biked since April--technical and pregnancy challenges cut me off earlier than I'd planned.) So I expect it will take me a little longer to regain my baseline in the sports where I've had the most time "off".
But you are already planning on running and biking longer than I did, and so I expect you will return to your baseline faster than I will return to mine.
Good luck. I hope you get your desired birth, but if not I'm sure you'll be able to return just as strong as before.

Julie Marsh said...

I started triathlon after my third c-section birth in 2008. That recovery was the easiest of the three - so much so that I left the hospital a day early. (And I walked home from the hospital with the first!) I began training three months later and had no health or injury issues whatsoever.

Hope my experience is encouraging!

Nicole said...

I am just a regular age grouper but I started tris in 2008 and had a c-section in 2010. Be warned that this comment may be TMI, but hey we ARE talking about giving birth. Okay, here it is: One nice thing about the c-section is that you get to use tampons to control the lochia after 2-4 weeks instead of 6, so I was able to get in the pool sooner. I tried riding on the trainer at about 4 weeks, but the lochia drastically increased so I backed off everything but swim and walking until week 6. Then I started on the elliptical for a week, then at 8 weeks postpartum I added running and biking. It was TOUGH. Insanely tough. And I was MUCH slower and didn't feel like I had my body back (fitness or shape) for about 7-9 months, but I don't think that was so much to do with the c-section as it was that I was on major physical restriction during my entire pregnancy so I had lost a ton of fitness pre-birth. And maybe the fact that I swelled up like a whale and gained 40% of my body weight during pregnancy!
After I hit the 8-9 month mark, I suddenly felt awesome and started training pretty heavy. I lost all the weight and then some training for the 2011 Utah Half (my baby was 13 months old). That was my first 70.3, and I trained with a newborn so that was awesome for me!
Everybody recovers from surgery differently, I tend to have an fairly easy time with it. But I wasn't in shape during my pregnancy like you are. I think you'll probably be fine even if you do have to go the c-section route.

Nicole said...

Oh I forgot to talk about the abs stuff. Unless you have a MAJORLY urgent emergency c-section, they will slide your abs aside and not cut through them. So the muscles wasn't an issue. But I tried doing ab exercises at 6 weeks and it created too much pressure on my incision and hurt pretty badly. They tell you not to do abs until it doesn't hurt. I don't remember when I was able to do abs again, but maybe 3 months postpartum??