parenting

Running While Breastfeeding

Nicole Lowe McBrideLeave a comment

Many women believe breastfeeding their child will help them lose the weight they gained while pregnant. While it’s true that breastfeeding burns about 500 calories a day. If you’re not running a deficit you’re not going to lose weight. But how much of a deficit is okay when your breastfeeding?

This is an important question for any endurance running mother who is breastfeeding her child, even when not trying to lose weight. Having enough milk to feed your child is obviously very important if you want to continue breastfeeding. The best way to maintain your milk supply is to drink lots of water and eat enough calories.

Many ultrarunners survive on calorie deficit pretty much everyday. Even marathon runners are going to have days where they don’t replace all of the calories they’ve burned. If you’re trying to lose weight, you’re going to have to fiddle with your calorie intake, but start with a 200 calorie deficit. Wait a couple of weeks before creating a bigger deficit. You shouldn’t be doing any dieting until your milk supply is well established at about eight weeks post partum. You shouldn’t be losing more than a pound a week.

Runners who are not trying to lose weight will need to monitor their calorie intake and milk supply.

The available research shows that exercise does not impact the composition of your milk. Breast milk contains protein, carbohydrates, and fats to help your baby grow. The other important thing your milk gives your baby are the antibodies you already have in your system.  This is a major reason breastfeeding is recommended. Your baby can’t get those antibodies from formula.

Spend some money on a good sports bra. You’re going to need some solid support. And when your baby is under a year, you probably need a bra you can nurse in too. The Brooks Juno has been perfect for me.

Newborns eat every two hours or more frequently. Feeding on demand is the best way to make sure you have enough milk and your baby is getting what he/she needs. Infants feed every 3 hours. This means it’s going to impact your running. Once your baby has a schedule, you should be able to get away for shorter runs. Long runs over two or three hours will require some planning and help. You’ll either have to have someone bottle feed your baby expressed milk or bring the baby to you to feed her. If you bottle feed, the issue you’ll run into is full breasts. You’ll have to stop to pump milk. There is a new breast pump called the Willow. It fits into your bra and doesn’t have any wires or tubes. Find it here.

Running ultras and breast feeding are definitely compatible.  Here are some tips to make the partnership work out:

  1. Feed baby or pump before you go out for a run
  2. Make sure you are consuming enough water and calories to maintain your milk supply.
  3. Find a way to pump on the run or feed baby during long runs.
  4. Get a really supportive sports bra.
  5. Be flexible with your running schedule to meet your baby’s needs especially before some predictability is established.
  6. Consider splitting long runs up.
  7. Take baby with you on runs and stop to feed if needed.
  8. Pay attention to caffeine in your sports gels, chews, and hydration.
  9. Throw a hand pump in drop bags where you can’t feed your baby. You’ll just have to dump it, but it will make you more comfortable. You don’t have to empty your breast just skim some off the top.
  10. Practice the plan during training, before you register for a race.

Happy running!

 

 

 

Running Preggers: The Weight of It.

Nicole Lowe McBrideLeave a comment

Pregnancy and weight gain go hand and hand obviously. The recommendation for women who are of average weight, BMI of about 18-24%, is to gain between 25-35 lbs during their pregnancy. There are few women, or men, who want to gain an extra 25 lbs. During pregnancy gaining too much or too little has health consequences for both mother and baby.

There’s a certain level of anxiety about gaining weight during pregnancy and the ability to loose it afterward. We all have friends or relatives who never lost the “baby weight” and if they get pregnant again, they put on more weight.

You’re not going to loose all that weight the moment baby is born. Some of it is fat that you’ll slowly work off over the months that follow the birth of your little one. How much fat?

For the average baby and mother the weight distribution is something close to this:

Baby: 8 lbs

Placenta: 2-3 lbs

Amniotic fluid: 2-3 lbs

Breast Tissue: 2-3 lbs

Blood supply: 4 lbs

Larger uterus: 2-5 lbs

Stored fat for delivery and breastfeeding: 5-9 lbs.

So you’re looking at losing somewhere between 12-14 lbs right at birth. Your blood volume will return to normal over the six weeks following birth and your uterus will shrink down over the same period of time. That’s another 6-9 lbs. That leaves you with breast tissue and your store of fat.

If you are planning to breastfeed your baby, you’ll add some weight when your milk comes in (2-3 days after birth of baby), which shouldn’t surprise anyone who has picked up a quart of milk. The average milk capacity of a human female is between 25-35 oz a day. Breastfeeding burns an extra 600-800 calories a day (you should be eating 500 extra calories to maintain your milk supply), which means merely feeding your baby will help you burn of some of that fat store.

You’ll still be wearing your maternity clothes for a while after baby is born, so don’t pack your skinny jeans in your hospital bag as you prepare for the birth of your baby. The important thing is to know this is normal and not to be concerned about it. Your body just created a whole other person inside of it which took nine months. You should give it the same amount of time to lose the weight.

Lugging around an extra 25 lbs is hard work and since it’s not all fat stores, I like to think we’re getting stronger in the process.

Losing weight can be a slow process after baby is born because it’s harder to get to the gym or hit the trails for a run, not only because you have a little one to care for, but because you’re tired. But it’s doable. Give your body time to recover from the most important endurance event in your life.

Running Preggers: To Breathe or not to Breathe

Nicole Lowe McBride1 Comment

Remember how great it feels to pull in the fresh air of the mountains until your ribs are at their limit and then to let it out slow just because you can and your lung capacity is impressive as a runner. Well, if you’re in your third trimester of pregnancy (28-40 weeks), you’re missing that ability and those impressive lungs.

Having reached the third trimester, you can see the finish line (even if you’re not ready for it) and you’ll be able to realize those breathing dreams once again and even baby will be expanding their lungs as yours reclaim their glory.

As your uterus grows to it’s max, it pushes on your diaphragm which shifts upwards about 4 centimeters. This also compresses your lungs a bit. This combination means you are not taking in as much air with each breath. To compensate you breathe more slowly. Wait that doesn’t make sense…

The hormone progesterone stimulates your respiratory center in your brain so the air your breath in stays in your lungs longer allowing you to get as much oxygen out of it as you can. There are a few things you can do to help with this feeling of being out of breath all the time.

First, good posture. Make sure your sitting and standing straight. If your hunched over when sitting it’s going to compress your diaphragm and lungs more (and it may keep baby turned sunny side up which is not the optimal position for birth).

Second, keep running and/or exercising. You may have to slow down to compensate for your cramped internal organs. Pregnancy isn’t the time to hit a new personal record anyway. Mostly you want to maintain your fitness level or lose as little as possible. Yoga also helps with it’s use of the breath during poses and it’s breathing exercises.

Third, relax and don’t over do it. Being hyper-vigilant about your breathing is only going to make things worse. Take time to relax each day even if it’s only for ten minutes.

Fourth, if your having trouble with breathing because of congestion try using a humidifier at night. Exercise will also help break up the mucus.

Take heart, your baby is almost ready to be held in your arms rather than in your belly. As baby gets into position to be born, she will drop into your pelvis and you may find it’s easier to breath. This is also called lightening. It usually happens two to four weeks before delivery. If this is not your first child, baby may not drop until right before delivery. As nice as this lightening is on your lungs and diaphragm, it’s not so great for your bladder.

Weekly Miles: My running is very inconsistent at this point. I run on days I feel good and it’s comfortable to run. Other days, baby’s position makes it very uncomfortable. I don’t really track miles. I’m just happy when I’m able to do a little run. Thirty-eight weeks and counting.

Running Preggers: Baby Belly Support

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A maternity belt is going to be a must have for most running moms-to-be as they near the third trimester. Many women even with the support of a maternity belt decide to stop running during the third trimester because it becomes too uncomfortable. There is no shame in taking a brake during your last weeks of pregnancy ladies.

Keep in mind a belly band and a maternity belt are different. If you’re running, a belly band isn’t going to help support your baby belly. The band allows you to continue to wear your pre pregnancy clothing for a longer time and delays the purchase of maternity clothing. It will cover your belly as your shirt creeps up and it will hold your pants up when you leave them unbuttoned and the zipper more and more down as baby grows.

A maternity belt will help lift some of the baby belly weight up and distribute it more evenly across your back and hips. You can start wearing one whenever you want. I started wearing mine around week 27. I actually tried a bit before then, but found that my belly wasn’t big enough to make any difference. I should have bought a size small rather than a medium, which would have allowed me to wear it sooner.

When you reach the third trimester, baby is about 2 pounds, still pretty small, but over the next 13 weeks baby will add on 4.5-5 pounds, and maybe a little more. Running with a medicine ball attached to your abs that increases in weight every week is tough. Many women begin to feel very tired and have round ligament pain as the uterus grows to its max height and baby’s weight increases. Pelvic pain can be problematic because the hormone relaxin is relaxing those tendons/ligaments holding your pelvis together. You can also have a feeling of increasing downward pressure (not time to exit yet kiddo), which is uncomfortable.

I bought the Gabrialla belt after reading some reviews from other running mamas. Things you want to be aware of when selecting your belt are: first, washability. That thing is going to get sweaty and you’ll want to wash it pretty regularly. Second, regular washing, means you want it to be durable. The third thing to consider is breathability. Being pregnant generates a lot of extra heat, so wearing something around your middle that traps heat in, is not going to work.

The Gabrialla goes around your low back and then under your belly. If you do it up too tight it can push on your bladder. You want it snug and comfortable. My daughter will kick and push at the belt before and after our run, but she is rocked to sleep while we are running. You can wear it over or under your clothing. I wore it over just because I didn’t want to risk any chafing.

I’ve had a few women come and ask me about the maternity  belt when I finish a workout at the gym and I’m always happy to help keep another mom-to-be active and happy.

 

Running Preggers: Clothing issues

Nicole Lowe McBrideLeave a comment

Sure, you can just wear larger sizes of clothes, but who really wants to do that? It’s much more fun to show off that baby bump, especially, at the gym, on the trail, or out running on the road. Show the world pregnant women are strong and fit.

The problem is maternity fitnesswear is kinda expensive and then you’re only going to be wearing it for a few months. Every woman and every pregnancy is different and will change what clothes you need and when you need them. If you’re planning on future pregnancies and/or you have extra money (after all the baby purchases), buy the clothes that make you the most comfortable, even if they are a little pricey.

Depending on how you’re carrying your baby (high or low) changes what you may need. If your carrying low, pants and shorts can become a problem before shirts do. If you carry high, shirts are a problem earlier in your pregnancy. By the end, it’s all going to be a problem though. Shorts with drawstrings and longer shirts may be the most cost-effective solution.

Sports bras are another ball game all together. You’re going to need a larger size and you may need to go up a size after that depending on how things play out. If you’re planning to breastfeed your baby, you’ll want to invest in some nursing sports bras, plus their just a bit more comfortable than normal nursing bras.

Sports bras are expensive especially as the size increases and you need more and more support. No one wants the girls bouncing around and when you’re pregnant it can be painful. If you’re going to be breastfeeding, it is probably worth the extra cost to get the higher quality nursing bras that have good support since you’ll be using them for a while. But, don’t get them too early because once your milk comes in you could go up another size. You’ll want to wait about five days postpartum before you get more than one (because you might want one to wear home after the birth).

What’s a woman to do, when you know your bra size is most likely going to change throughout pregnancy and the sports bras are pricey? Double up. Yep, wear two bras. It does create more heat, which can result in a slight heat rash for some women. But I can get two cheaper bras for less than a really high quality supportive one. If the girls were going to stay that size forever, I’d buy the more expensive one, but they’re not.

Another clothing issue you may be lucky enough to experience is chafing. Your higher body temperature and blood volume make you start sweating earlier in your workouts. Add that to your not so great fitting clothing and you’ll be investing in Body Glide or other anti-chafing cream.

Good luck ladies!

Running miles: I’ve been able to maintain the 3 miles a day at a 10:30 pace. I’m 31 weeks three days pregnant. I’m supplementing with the elliptical or stair master for the rest of my aerobic workout.

Running Preggers: Blood Volume

Nicole Lowe McBrideLeave a comment

As an endurance athlete you already have a higher blood volume. Having higher blood volume reduces heart rate during exercise, delivers more oxygen to hard working muscles, sends more blood to the skin for cooling, and furnishes a reserve supply of internal fluid so that sweat rates can remain high during exercises. Your blood volume begins to increase after just a single exercise session and then reaches its peak within a few weeks.

Aerobic exercise typically reduces your blood pressure and your resting heart rate. But pregnancy increases your heart rate and makes your blood pressure fluctuate. Your resting heart rate can increase by as much as 15-20 percent during pregnancy.

The increase in blood volume due to cardiovascular fitness is much less than the increase seen for pregnant women. Pregnancy increases your blood volume, in fact it increases by as much as fifty percent. You need this extra blood because you’re providing for your growing child. During your first trimester, your blood is going up, but not a lot because the baby is so small and has small needs. By the second trimester, you may experience dizziness or lightheadedness as your body tries to catch up on the need for more blood. By the third trimester all this extra blood can leave you with swelling in your feet and joints.

Additional side effects of increased blood volume in pregnant women can include an increase in body temperature and sweating. All the extra blood volume can make your veins more visible and larger.

Blood volume also accounts for approximately four pounds of the recommended weight gain for a pregnant woman (25-30 lbs). Other fluids, not including the amniotic fluid, like water add another 4 pounds. The amniotic fluid is about two pounds.

That’s a lot of extra fluid floating around in your system by the time you reach the end of your pregnancy.

Weekly Miles: at 30 weeks pregnant, I’m still running but I’ve had to reduce my miles a lot. I run three miles a day at a ten and a half minute mile. Some days are more comfortable than others. I’m supplementing with the various elliptical machines at the gym to maintain my cardiovascular fitness. As the belly has begun to stick out more, the maternity belt works better and is able to reduce the pressure I was feeling in my pelvis while running.

Keep running mamas!

Running Preggers: When you have to go, go!

Nicole Lowe McBrideLeave a comment

Running can have some interesting challenges relating to using the bathroom. If you’re a trail runner, this isn’t so much of a problem, although you should be burying or packing out solid waste. In the woods, you can just duck behind a tree. Looking up and down trail before, of course. As a road runner, depending on the time of day when you run, bathroom access is also pretty simple.

When you’re running for two, it’s not that simple. Why would it be? Every bodily system you can think of is altered when you’re pregnant (although I haven’t heard anything about your perception of sound…). It’s very important that you don’t wait to go to the bathroom, number one or number two.

Holding your urine is not just uncomfortable when you’re running, but it can cause infections, even in non-pregnant people. The real problem is the frequency of needing to go pee. Even in early pregnancy, when the baby is smaller than a pea, women will need to go more often. This is because your body increases the amount of blood it pumps and your blood volume, so you’re drinking more water and your kidneys and bladder are working overtime.

Blood volume increases until the third trimester and making sure you’re hydrated throughout the day will continue this pattern of needing to go all the time. And then there’s the baby. As baby grows he/she puts pressure on your bladder making you feel like you have to go even when you don’t have that much in there.

You can be running along enjoying the beautiful day and then bam, you have to go right now. You think, “but I went 15 minutes ago!” doesn’t matter, you have two choices: stop to pee again, or pee your pants. This can make running frustrating at times because jumping into the bushes to pee in a neighborhood is frowned upon. Getting off the treadmill all the time is also frustrating. So, for the potty problems, trails are your best option, in my opinion.

As for number twos, unfortunately, pregnant women don’t have to worry too much about those while they’re running. In fact, most pregnant women wish they had to worry about that when running. Constipation is another lovely side effect of being pregnant. The hormones in our body slows digestion down to a crawl, so the baby can suck as much nutrients out of the food we eat as possible. And then there’s the baby. As baby grows he/she compresses your intestines and shoves most of your organs up into your ribcage further complicating your ability to digest food and move it through your body. All in the name of love.

A maternity belt can help alleviate some of the pressure on your bladder and hopefully you won’t have to go pee, so much. Don’t restrict your water intake to prevent the frequent bathroom stops as tempting as that may be. You could wear very absorbent panties, but they would likely chafe something awful.

Weekly miles: 30 miles this week!

Running Preggers: Healthy Mama; Healthy Baby

Nicole Lowe McBride3 Comments

The default recommendation for pregnant women is to exercise while pregnant, at least three days a week for 30 minutes. Basically, the same recommendation for everyone. There are many benefits to mom if she begins exercising and if she continues exercising while pregnant. Yes, the experts agree it if you haven’t been exercising starting during pregnancy is just fine. You do need to listen to your body and if you have a high-risk pregnancy make sure and check in with your doctor before you start anything.
Many of the benefits are what you would expect because they are the same benefits for everyone: better sleep, better mood, cardiovascular health, decreased levels of stress, weight control, respiratory health, and on.
Mom’s to be also improve their circulation, which helps to prevent constipation (big win). Preventing constipation, of course, reduces your chances of getting hemorrhoids. It also helps with swelling in ankles, varicose veins and leg cramps (ah the joys of pregnancy). Doing some core strengthening can reduce and prevent back pain as well.
But another big benefit for mom’s who exercise throughout their pregnancy is a shorter labor and less likely to have a perineum tear, if you do tear it’s not as bad. Unfortunately, it’s not going to reduce the pain you may experience.
Alright so exercise is good for mama, but that’s not enough to get you off the couch when you are tired, don’t feel good, and moody. Well we can through in a healthy dose of parental guilt then.
An exercise physiologist and anatomist at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, Linda May, conducted a study with 66 moms to be and their fetuses. She measured fetal heart rates at 28, 32, and 36 weeks of pregnancy after splitting the women into two groups: those who exercised at least 3 days a week for 30 minutes and those who didn’t.
Linda May was measuring the babies’ heartrate and the heart rate variability. Variability is the span between beats. Increased heart rate variability means a healthier heart and better overall health because the heart functions more efficiently.
In babies whose moms were exercising, Linda May found by 32 weeks there were differences between the two groups and by 36 weeks there was a “big, significant change”—lower heart rate and increased heart rate variability. The moms who exercised more had babies with lower fetal heart rate and increased heart rate variability.
Those benefits to baby didn’t stop after the baby was born either. The benefits continued to be seen when the babies were brought back in at one month of age. So if you can’t do it for yourself, do it for your growing baby.

Weekly Miles: I’m back running from the knee issue this week and started with 18 miles. I’ve found consistent rolling of  my shins is dong the trick, which I don’t normally roll. I plan on running outside more next week. I also picked up a maternity support belt to take some of the pressure of the baby off my bladder.

Running Preggers: Lots of Snot

Nicole Lowe McBride2 Comments

This is my first post about running while pregnant. I don’t plan on making all my posts about running while pregnant, even as I get further a long in my pregnancy. But, I do plan on throwing them in here every so often.

I know from searching online there’s a lot of personal stories about running while pregnant and what women were running and not running while pregnant. And while all of this is very encouraging and useful, I find that it’s also a little lacking because it doesn’t go into the changes that occur in your body when you’re pregnant and how those change running. So, that’s what I’m hoping to do with my pregnancy posts.

One of the things that began to plague me from early in my pregnancy is the congestion. At first it was only at night. Now at 19 weeks, it’s all the time. The increased congestion is caused by a couple of things. The increased blood volume and hormones. The increased blood volume and estrogen cause swelling in the lining of the nasal passages and that causes more snot. The extra blood also causes the tiny blood vessels in your nose to swell. All of this leads to what has been coined pregnancy rhinitis.

Being congested while you run can be interesting. As your body temperature increases, the snot clogging your noes gets runny, which means you can breathe again, but there’s a cost. It can make your throat sore and irritated because its running down that way or it can make it, so you want to snot rocket all over what ever happens to be to your right or left. For me, that’s another person since I’m running on the treadmill (too much pollution outside). Another pleasant result of the snot beginning to run is then it makes you cough or sneeze.

Pregnancy Rhinitis can begin around eight weeks of pregnancy (yep) and then continue until you deliver the baby. After the baby, it should stop within a few weeks. Having allergies makes things worse of course and the constant stuffy nose can lead to sinus infections.

So what can you do about it? If you start your run all stuffed up, it’s going to make things more interesting when you get going. Using a humidifier at night will keep the drainage action going and help you start your run with clear nasal passages (you have to buy one for the baby anyway, might as well make sure you chose a good one and see how it works). Use saline drops or spray to clear your noes before your run or inhale steam.

If it gets to be too much, contact your doctor or the mother to baby hotline 1 (800) 822-2229 or email them expertinfo@mothertobaby.org They are the experts of what goes through mom’s system and into baby’s. They have tons of research on hand on what medication, vitamins and all sorts of other stuff can be harmful to a baby growing in utero.

I know knowing how much you can run while you’re pregnant is a challenge and it’s all subjective. Let your body tell you how much is okay and be prepared to listen. I’ll post how much I’m running each week at the end of my pregnancy posts, but again how much you should run while pregnant depends on many factors. Make choices best for YOU and YOUR BABY.

Weekly miles: 36, running three days a week.

Rising from the Dead

Nicole Lowe McBride2 Comments

I really must apologize for my serious lack of posting over the last month or so. I had to take my own advice and let one of the juggling balls fall while I kept others in the air. As some of you know, I’m a full-time attorney by day and an ultrarunner by night (and day). I’m also the program director for the Homeless Youth Legal Clinic here in Utah. I sneak in writing when I can (I was hoping to publish another novel this year, but that doesn’t look like it will happen). Oh, and I’m a mom of two amazing sons and now a third little one is coming in May 2018!

Needless to say, between being pregnant and everything else, sleep became more necessary than writing my weekly blog posts. But the first trimester is behind us and the energy is supposed to come back soon…zzzzzz

Here is another confession. I chose not to run after I was five weeks pregnant. I’ve been hating on the elliptical and the stair master for the past eight weeks. However, I will be starting back running now that the first trimester is complete.

Running during pregnancy is a personal choice for each mother and child. And subsequent pregnancies can be treated very differently. It is completely possible for a healthy pregnant woman to run throughout her pregnancy. However, running is not a sport a woman should take up during pregnancy. Other, non-impact, activities are totally fine and should be pursued by pregnant women.

Here is why I chose to back off my running during the first trimester. The first trimester is the time with the highest risk of miscarriage. My chances of miscarriage started at 20% and slowly decreased during the first trimester. There is some research out there that says running can increase the chances of miscarriage during the first trimester.

A research study done with 90,000 pregnant women in Denmark, which found women who exercise more than seven hours a week during the first trimester increase their chances of miscarriage four times. And women who participate in running or ball sports during their first trimester increase their chances of miscarriage by four times.

I don’t think this study says women shouldn’t run during their first trimester. I think it says be smart and know your limits and know your body. I wasn’t willing to increase my risk of miscarriage since it was already higher than average because I’m over 35.

After the first trimester the risk of miscarriage is below 2% and all of the baby’s major systems are established and the placenta is fully functioning. Miscarriages happen for many reasons and most of them are out of the control of the mother-to-be.

Reverting to less impact forms of exercise for the eight weeks after we found out I was pregnant was a sacrifice I was willing to make to increase our chances of a healthy full-term pregnancy. Plus, I’ve come back from low impact training to full running many times and know it’s not as hard as grieving after a miscarriage and wondering if it could have been prevented.

Looking forward to running this new adventure!