Pregnancy and Exercise

Pregnancy and Exercise

The third trimester is probably the most exciting, yet at the same time boring, stage of pregnancy. Unless you've experienced being this far into pregnancy, I'm sure you're racking your brains right now - how could it be boring and exciting at the same time?

Exciting because you know you're just weeks away from giving birth and finally seeing your baby. But boring because honestly, you get tired of seeing yourself this big and wondering how much bigger you could get. You feel like a balloon that could pop at any time.

Plus, many moms choose to go for maternity leave several weeks before they're due. After all the baby shopping and getting things prepared for your big day, you feel like there's nothing left to do but wait.

You probably forgot that you need to exercise as well.

Premature Labor

As I had mentioned before, I had been on strict bed rest for pretty much the whole duration of my pregnancy. But even if did try my hardest to stick to it as faithfully as I could, it still did not stop me from experiencing premature uterine contractions.

When I was about 25-26 weeks pregnant, I experienced contractions accompanied by vaginal spotting. They came pretty frequently, but they were all painless.

I debated whether to consult my doctor for this because I knew they could only be harmless Braxton-Hicks contractions. But the vaginal spotting convinced me to go to the ER.

Good call, I suppose, because they brought me into the Labor and Delivery Department right away. They hooked me up to a monitor and it showed that, indeed, I had moderately strong, regular uterine contractions. They had my husband prepare money for reservation of a thermal blanket, in case my baby really wanted to come out that day.

Threatened Miscarriage

If you've read my previous post, you'll know that I had a subchorionic hemorrhage very early on in my pregnancy. I was advised to stay on bed rest, although I didn't very strictly adhere to it because I was still attending school. I realized soon enough that I should have heeded my doctor's instructions.

Warning: The following text may be TMI (too much information). If you're eating while reading this (or if you just have a weak stomach), you can stop reading now. It's okay. I won't be offended, I promise. =p

Morning Sickness

If you conduct a survey among pregnant women about the nastiest symptom of pregnancy, this would probably be in the top 3. I would even bet that morning sickness would come out the winning answer.

From my own experience, I was having nausea a lot, but fortunately, not a whole lot of actual vomiting. I remember eating a lot of tocino back then. Specifically, tocino that was cooked in a way that the covering became sort of caramelized, almost burnt. Tocino that wasn't cooked like that made me nauseous (Yeah, weird.)

Another weird thing is that morning sickness doesn't only occur in the mornings. It can be present at any time of the day, whether you've just waken up or preparing to go to sleep. But many women report that their symptoms are a lot worse during the day.

On Subchorionic Hemorrhage, Friends, and Family

On my first visit to the obstetrician, she advised me to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound in order to make a conclusive diagnosis of pregnancy. And so I went to the ultrasound clinic (still hoping, by the way, that the test would give me some hope that I wasn't actually pregnant.)

It was an extremely uncomfortable experience. I think it was partly because I didn't know what to expect of the procedure since I haven't gone through it before. The transvaginal ultrasound involves inserting a probe, technically called a transducer, into your vagina so it can sort of visualize your reproductive tract. At the early stages of pregnancy, this type of ultrasonography is more favorable compared to the abdominal one, although the latter is definitely more comfortable. The transvaginal approach allows the probe to be closer to the embryo, so it can yield better images.

The doctor described to me what she was seeing as she was looking around. I heard her say "gestational sac" and "positive sign of pregnancy" and "about 6 weeks pregnant", but what struck me most were the words "subchorionic hemorrhage." I was like, "What? A hemorrhage? Are we going to be okay?" She told me that we should talk more about it in her clinic, and so she let me dress up and I sat on a chair in front of her.

Are You Pregnant?

How did you know you were pregnant? What symptoms did you first experience that led you to think that you might be carrying a child? Did you accept it right away or did it take some time to sink in?

As for me, when my menstruation did not come when it was expected, I didn't suspect pregnancy right away. At that time, I was also slowly gaining weight from eating too much fastfoods and leading an almost sedentary lifestyle. I was also under a lot of stress, studying day in and day out for Medicine. At first, I just thought that my hormoned simply could have been jammed and I might have been delayed or simply skipped a cycle.

But when two months passed without a single drop of menstruation, I bought myself a pregancy test. I knew I had unprotected contact a couple of months ago, but I was too confident then that my periods would always be predictable. I had used the calendar method for quite a long time already, and it hadn't failed me - yet.

Failure of the Calendar Method

I've had regular, monthly, fairly predictable menstruation cycles for what seemed like forever, and I'll admit that for a long time, I've relied a lot on the calendar method for contraception. This method, also called the rhythm method, assumes that you will be able to predict your "fertile days" based on the average length of your cycles. So, if I could have predicted when I was due to ovulate, then why did I get pregnant and why am I now suddenly a mother? What went wrong, or you might say, right?