Pregnancy Update | Half Way There!
by Nikki Parnell — December 23, 2020 — 📸: Andrea Adams
I realize some pregnant women hardly slow down at all during pregnancy, but I’m not one of them. I slow, by choice and by feel. I eat and satisfy my cravings (I just picked up a couple boxes of assorted chocolates for myself, just for fun! And it was, indeed, very fun). I try to sleep more when my body demands it. And I’m good with it all. Especially this time around–my last rodeo–I’m milking this pregnancy for all it’s worth. Rest is part of my preparation for all the extra that will be with three. Extra craziness, extra volume, extra tasks and wake-ups and giving of my body.
Chase cooks more and we have a running joke in the house about how often I don’t do the dishes. Plus our fridge has smelled like death for the last two weeks and due to my heightened sense of smell during this time, I refuse to go near whatever foul thing is creating the odor – cause you know, I’ll probably puke or something. This refusal has earned me the title of Chase’s “precious snowflake” as he chuckles and steps up and fumbles through the fridge on the investigative hunt for the root cause (I win! And I love him).
My symptoms in the first trimester are never terrible, but they’re not that fun either. I’m not throwing up everyday but I’m constantly nauseated, a little “green around the gills” you could say. And this time was worse than the two previous pregnancies. Early on, when running, the queasiness forced me to carry a tiny snack with me no matter the length of run–even a couple gummy bears or sadly a Huma gel if we had nothing else (it pains me to waste $2.50 on a 5 mile run but it has happened). Countless times I would make dinner and by the time we’d sit down to eat I’d barely be able to swallow any of it. Too sick, lost appetite.
My least favorite side affect is the inability to drink coffee. I cannot stomach the smell or taste of it even though normally it is my lifeblood. I figure it must be a survival tactic for the baby–to reign me in, no more 4 cups a day, which would be bad for the fetus. Still sucks though. One time when we got back to Bend after our summer retreat in Idaho, we drove to Sparrow–one of my favorite coffee shops and bakeries. I was planning on getting a chai tea and pastry. But we roll past the shop windows looking for a parking spot and just thinking about the strong coffee smell that inevitably resides in the building made me so sick I told Chase to keep driving. “We’ll go to Starbucks where it’s less coffee-y”, I said.
I’ve been much more anxious this time around too, fully aware of the fragility of pregnancy. Too many friends have had miscarriages. And the loss is so deep and out of your control. So I’ve panicked at slight signs or vague symptoms that something might possibly be wrong. Still, even at 19 weeks and 5 days. And it is a helpless feeling. Especially those early days when you have no sign if everything or anything is okay–you can’t feel the baby kicking, your body seems to be pregnant, but what if? What if something went wrong and you don’t know it yet or maybe something’s about to go wrong. Who knows. I never worried about that in the past but now I take huge sighs of relief every time I leave the doctor’s office and the heartbeat was heard or seen beating strongly.
Speaking of leaving a doctor’s office… as I’m finishing up this post, we just got back from the in-depth 20ish week ultra sound. If you’ve ever experienced such a thing you’ll know just how truly amazing it is. It is mind-blowing to see with such detail the baby and all the organs–the four chambers of the heart, the arteries pumping blood, the corpus callosum and thalamus of the brain, the kidneys, the spine and of course, the femurs, tibias and fibulas that are already running and jumping around. Ten fingers and ten toes–how incredible is that?! We also found out what gender this little babe is! It is a ….. PSYCH! Have to tell our families first.
As far as running goes, for the most part I have been focused on being kind and going easy on my “precious snowflake” self (I swear I’m actually not that delicate, it’s a joke people!) But it does help that I’m still able to run. I rely heavily on a belly band I acquired from a friend and it is helping me continue to put one foot in front of the other. I get out most days for at least a 3 mile putz. If I can get out the door early then I’m usually good to go. I feel my best and sometimes can speed myself up into the 8 minute range for a short run before Chase goes to work (I did a 7:48 minute mile the other day and felt prettyyy proud of myself). If I have more time I’ll head to the Butte and do hills, which sometimes turns into hiking the steeper uphill sections, but it feels really good on a pregnant body! I do a long run every Sunday morning trying to get 10 miles but knowing it completely depends on how I’m feeling that day. Sometimes it’s more like 7.5 miles, once it was 12, another time it was 3.6 because I was too tired, the baby felt low and I decided to enjoy the day for what it was. It’s awesome. I truly have zero guilt about my speed or skipped runs. I’m just grateful to be moving at all!
I’ve seen my physical therapist to work on little issues here and there. My low back sometimes crunches and pops with each step I take and because I feel like I never fully recovered my core strength since Belen, I got some lessons in breath work and safe exercises to do that can also be aligned with pelvic floor contractions. The focus is really on the deeper muscles to keep me strong. Things like bird dog, clam shells, single leg bridges, squats. Those coupled with some online Barre3 prenatal classes (which contain LOTS of squats) have me feeling great!
I’ve gone skate skiing a couple times this year and that has been amazing! Such a full body workout without the impact of running. The first time I skied I forgot I was pregnant for the first three miles (whereas running reminds you you’re pregnant with the first step you take). *Note: I consider my fall risk to be very low as I’ve been skiing since I was four, but if the conditions are icy and I don’t feel as balanced then I’ll slow way down or turn around.
A huge help with staying active is being supported and encouraged by a whole network of moms through our podcast and getting to listen to stories about how other women ran through pregnancy. Or how they didn’t because it wasn’t healthy for them to do so! A resounding theme amongst all of us is that our worth and status of “athlete” is not determined by how many miles we put in when we’re pregnant. We’re in the badass category already just because we’re growing a freaking human inside of our body!! There are literally TWO hearts beating in my body right now (where’s the mind blown emoji when you need it?!).
So, I’m in a happy place of still going, still running, still doing strength and feeling really strong while also being totally content on the days where I don’t have “it” and need to rest instead.
My body’s natural craving to slow down is allowing me to embrace the coziness of this holiday season with our kids, enjoying each day for what it is before change comes. I’m also in the last year of my twenties and there are big hopes and dreams that I’m holding onto tightly for after the baby arrives and my thirties begin. Those are going to be huge years–I hope! Lots of races to do, new distances to cover, places to see, challenges to work for. So this present moment is a season. A resting season. But seasons change and I see this time as merely a preface to all the dreams I’ll be hunting down in the future…with three babies in tow.
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