Holy Annoying

I have found that people are often surprised that I am staying somewhat physically active throughout my pregnancy. I think it is pretty common to get asked, in some form, "You can run while you're pregnant?!". "Yep - totally. The doctor okayed it and everything." is my general response. For most people, it ends there. "Cool" or "Good for you" or "That's awesome" are common responses.

For some people, they feel like there is no way in hell that I should be running and that I MUST be causing the baby harm. First of all, I don't really think that I seem like the type of person to directly go against doctor's advice and put my baby in harm's way. If I in any way think something is going to harm the baby, I avoid it. I was worried for 3 days after the one time I ate deli meat, for crying out loud. And it's not like I'm training for a marathon here folks. I probably average 15 miles a week. Definitely not craziness. (I recently read in Runner's World that Carrie Tolefson cut her mileage in half from 80 miles/week to 40 while preggers. I love reading about pregnant runners!!)

I recently had a conversation of this sort that annoyed me to the core. My husband's grandmother wanted to know why I was still running. "The baby probably doesn't like that". I responded that I think the baby actually DOES like it. (And interestingly enough, the email of the week that I get from Babycenter said that baby does like movement.) "Well, I'm not sure you're suppossed to be doing that." I assured her that the doctor actually encouraged me to exercise. "Exercise, yes, but probably not running" was her reply. By this point, i was getting pretty pissy. I responded, "Well, I specifically asked him about running before I continued doing it and he said to go for it. The baby is doing fine and I'm not having any complications so it is perfectly safe I'm also on the high end of the weight gain curve so clearly it isn't interfering with that." I still don't think she believed me as she made a few more grumbling comments. I told my husband about this and he apologized saying that he slipped and mentioned my 5K to her. ARGH.

I thought of lots of mean stuff I could say in my head, but I kept my cool. Thanks for letting me vent.