At the time of writing this, I am 16 weeks pregnant with my second baby – eeks! It has been very eye opening for me, particularly as it has already been completely different to my first pregnancy in almost every way. Here are my top 3 things to remember if you are in the early stages of pregnancy, both as a woman who has been through pregnancy twice, and as a professional trainer.
YOUR BODY IS DOING SOME CRAZY STUFF
This is stating the blindingly obvious, but with so many roles to fulfil in our day to day lives, it’s easy to forget just how hard your body is working in the early stages of pregnancy. You can easily fall into the trap of beating yourself up for being less of a superhero than usual.
So many women (myself included) feel unjustified in resting, because in those early weeks, all you have are SYMPTOMS.
So many women (myself included) feel unjustified in resting, because in those early weeks, all you have are SYMPTOMS. You often don’t have a cute baby bump, it’s far too early to feel movement, and all you have to remind yourself that you are making a baby is a positive pregnancy test. It’s all abstract at that stage. The crazy thing though, is that in those early weeks, your body is going through some of the most dramatic changes possible (some of them a bit gross) – organs are moving around, new organisms are forming, your hormones are in overdrive. It’s absolute mayhem. So if you feel absolutely exhausted and need to spend a huge proportion of the day on the sofa or in bed, go ahead and DO IT. Your body is working far harder than any of us can possibly conceptualise when building a baby. Rest isn’t a luxury at this point, it’s a necessity.
YOU ARE NOT CHICKENING OUT
This one is important to me. During the first trimester of this pregnancy, I spent weeks telling myself that somehow, I was shirking my responsibilities by allowing myself to acknowledge that I was exhausted beyond measure and taking the remedial step of having quality rest. I made myself far worse by ‘pushing through’ when I should have listened to my body, because I felt like I would somehow be showing weakness if I stopped running my life in the rather hectic way that I am used to.
I made myself far worse by ‘pushing through’ when I should have listened to my body, because I felt like I would somehow be showing weakness if I stopped running my life in the rather hectic way that I am used to.
I tried to exercise a few times, and every time, I ended up on the floor in the foetal position feeling dizzy and sick. It just wasn’t smart. My body wasn’t able to handle the lightest workout. So if you are struggling during the early weeks with nausea, vomiting, tiredness and any of those other lovely symptoms we have during pregnancy (hello, phlegm!) and just aren’t up to doing even light exercise, don’t feel that you’re chickening out. You’re not. Which brings me to my next point…
YOUR BODY IS SMART
We spend a lot of time criticising our bodies. We’re brought up to criticise them, to force them to conform to societal norms of ‘beauty’. It’s too easy to forget how miraculous they are, and to be far too controlling rather than simply allowing the natural wisdom of the body to do it’s thing.
Pregnancy is a wonderful reminder of how smart the body is – it is building an entire person, without any conscious input from our minds at all. In fact, as soon as we start overthinking it, we get in the way.
Pregnancy is a wonderful reminder of how smart the body is – it is building an entire person, without any conscious input from our minds at all. In fact, as soon as we start overthinking it, we get in the way. We get anxious, stressed, and put our bodies under undue pressure in addition to the already intense task of making a baby, and a home for that baby. So, even though the mind, with all of it’s cluttered thinking and social conditioning, is busy judging, trying to override the basic messages that the body is sending to us (i.e to rest, or to eat, or to sleep), it’s so important to LISTEN to the body and follow it’s wisdom. It’s completely counter – intuitive to everything we learn, but we really could benefit from ignoring the voice of the mind and simply listening to the body, especially during pregnancy.
So, there you have it. My top 3 things to remember during the first trimester (in fact, over the course of pregnancy in general). To summarise – be kind to yourself! You’re building A HUMAN BEING! That’s enough work for anyone. The world and all of it’s ridiculous impositions on your energy can wait.
