Ohhh the moms of Oiselle, how do they do it! In my mind they actually are super women. Squeezing in time to train and reach their goals, all while playing mom - countless soccer games, pick ups from day care after work, midday pump breaks in the Nest's "pump-pump" room. They do it all, and they are amazing at it. This blog is a big happy Mother's Day to the moms of Oiselle and all moms being super women in everything you do. I have no doubt you will relate to some of the hilarious answers below!
(Sally with kiddos Isabel and Iris, and Lauren Fleshman with her little dude Jude.)
Meet the Moms:
Christy Turlington Burns
Sally Bergesen
Lauren Fleshman
Kara Goucher
Sarah "Mac" Robinson
Erin Taylor
Kami Beckendorf
Kristin Metcalf
Funny tidbit about being pregnant you didn't know before?
Christy: I became a snorer in the third trimester.
Sally: It's fun! I was expecting more difficulty, but I really enjoyed the process - and having 9 months to look forward to a big, new happening in our lives.
Lauren: Superhuman ability to smell things was not a cool super power. It was just gross.
Kara: Everything was shocking to me. How my body just changed like crazy even though I was running a lot, how big my boobs got, how I had such a prominent linea nigra and chloasma, it was all so strange!
Sarah Mac: Funny is a strong word, I can almost laugh now, but I had no idea how swollen a human could get. Like my feet... there are no words. Also cravings are real. I could have eaten a watermelon a day.
Erin: The food cravings. Somebody get me a burrito!
Kami: No matter how bad you're craving it, don't eat chocolate chip pancakes a couple hours before going in to get glucose testing done! Just kidding, although serious too - not my brightest moment... It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the outcome - you'll end up spending 3 hours in the doctors a few weeks later + multiple blood draws for them to tell you everything is okay! ;)
Kristin: I really had no idea that the human body could stretch so much and that I really wasn't going to be able to see my feet at some point and that it was going to be that difficult to tie one's shoes at a certain point!
(Erin Taylor, founder of Jasyoga, just under 20 weeks pregnant in #flystyle.)
Favorite running styles while pregnant?
Christy: I didn’t start running seriously until after my pregnancies. I was all yoga then right until the end.
Sally: Well, it was before I started O, which means I was probably making do in some threads from the regular running brands.
Lauren: Seamless Flyte Long Sleeve Flyte and Flyte Tank were great because they stretched and were long so they made it through almost the whole pregnancy. If I were pregnant now, there would be TONS of styles that would be great, like In the Fold Tank, Mesh Up, Gather Round, Meter Tights...I would be living in the Lux Tee and Lux Long Sleeve. Oh wait I already am.
Kara: Double sports bras, shorty shorts, tanks. I was pregnant throughout the summer and running a lot. I let my belly hang out!
Sarah Mac: Anything with the wing waistband. Specifically the Go Joggings were my FAVORITE. All caps. And I rocked my Mac Rogas right up to the end... two sizes up.
Erin: Any O hoodie makes a perfect bump pouch, paired with KC Knickers for just the right about of hug. (pic above!)
Kami: If I were to run during pregnancy, my first purchase would definitely be the Birds of a Feather Tank or Long Sleeve. Both are extremely flattering yet have enough stretch to last throughout the pregnancy
Kristin: This was before Oiselle so I don't think you want to know what shorts and cotton tees I was wearing!
(Christy Turlington Burns with her little ones, Grace and Finn)
If you breastfed, where’s the craziest place you had to pump? Or insert funny formula story.
Christy: I mostly pumped at home in my bathroom behind closed doors. Once I was in there pumping both breasts at once while sitting on the toilet reading with my suped up medela pump in style machine working away. I was wearing a special bra with holes cut out to make pumping hands-free easier. My nieces barged in and stopped in their tracks. They were horrified.
Sally: My workplace did not have a place to pump, so I remember doing it in the bathroom stall. Not empowering. I'm glad this has changed/improved for a lot of working women.
Lauren: Pumping in a makeshift locker room 30 minutes before racing Club cross country in front of about 30 women takes the cake. "Well that puts things in perspective" one of them said.
Kara: I had to pump a few times between track sessions and hitting the weight room.
Sarah Mac: Portapotty before the BAA 5k... the corner of a giant empty conference room at the Prudential Center in Boston...a bar bathroom floor.
Erin: Stay tuned... #jasyogababy is coming the first week of October!
Kami: I never had a problem with pumping places - feedings were always an adventure though! For some reason I didn't feel comfortable feeding in public (although it doesn't bother me when other people do) so I'd feed in back seats of cars or the worst - public bathrooms when I was desperate!
Kristin: As many women have probably had this same experience, one of my relatives went into our refrigerator for a party and used my breast milk for coffee creamer!
(Kristin with daughter Mackenzie...and don't forget Luna)
How many diapers did/do you change in a day?
Christy: I don’t remember. In the early days it seemed like dozens. You would put one on, hear a small explosion and then start over.
Sally: I think one day I changed 4,500 diapers, but an average day was more like 3,750
Lauren: Oh god who knows. The diapers are the easy part!
Kara: I can’t remember. You are programmed to forget these things so that you will have another baby.
Sarah Mac: I don't know! If I'm home maybe 6? But I can say I'm like way more interested in diaper content than I thought I'd be. Poop inspection: it's a serious pastime.
Kami: Oh boy! Thankfully she's out of diapers now, but trying to remember back... probably 6-8 per day.
Kristin: Oh gosh! I can't remember. All I can remember is a lot of diapers, a lot of onesies dirtied in one day, and not a lot of sleep for a long time.
(Sarah "Mac" with her peanut Penelope at 7 months old)
Anything surprise you about running post-baby?
Christy: See above!
Sally: I think you should give yourself 2 years to feel "normal" again in terms of being an athlete. It's a long process, but why rush it with a baby at home?
Lauren: It is very hard to train hard when sleep deprived. I thought I would be good at it from college, but in college I could binge sleep to catch up. Not with baby!
Kara: My legs were so strong! I was slow and didn’t have speed, but I could go forever! Since I ran through my entire pregnancy (the day I went into labor I ran 50 minutes and lifted weights) my legs had gotten so strong from running with that extra weight. I felt like I could handle bigger mileage after being pregnant because of the leg strength I had gained.
Sarah Mac: That I didn't "come back stronger" or at least not yet. I had the misconception that baby-having is some like magic speedster pill. It's not easy - and people that come back stronger work very hard at it. I have a lot of respect for "mother runners". So far I don't sleep, I have no time, my belly still looks slightly pregnant (thanks diastasis recti) and my hips hurt. But I still love to run, it's sanity and happiness and it's so good to have it back in my life. And that "bummer stuff"... totally worth it x 1M to have my little PJ.
Kami: I didn't get into running until my daughter was 3 years old so I'm not sure how hard the comeback is on the body, but the part I struggled the most in general with was scheduling my runs into each day. Obviously when you become a parent, your life changes, but fitting in that time for yourself is very important- just takes some adjusting!
Kristin: I was surprised with how quickly the extra weight came off and how quickly my body felt back to normal.
(Kara Goucher pre and post baby Colt)
One piece of advice for moms who are training through pregnancy?
Christy: I have always heard that you should continue whatever it is you do for exercise once you are pregnant or until it doesn’t feel comfortable to do so. The important thing is listening to your body and allowing yourself to rest when you are tired or move when you feel like moving.
Sally: Run if it feels good. Stop if it doesn't. Worry as little as possible about what others think. In fact, stop listening to most people re: pregnancy. For whatever reason many feel at liberty to offer advice on something they have zero experience. You and the universe know what to do. Billions of women have led the way!
Lauren: I say "run" through pregnancy. "Get fit" or "stay fit" through pregnancy. I don't like the term "train" through pregnancy. Pregnancy to me requires workout flexibility, and listening to your body more than ever, but "training" for me is about toughing your way through things and sticking to a schedule as much as possible. It's semantics for some, but for me it's an important difference.
Kara: I loved my running while I was pregnant. After 6 months I stopped caring about pace or distance. I simply ran how I felt. Someday that would be 30 minutes, others 90. I saw so many things on my regular runs that usually I was in too much of a hurry to notice. I felt so close to my son when I was running, like he could feel and understand my hopes and dreams. I loved running when I was pregnant, it was such a special time.
Sarah Mac: Quit if you want. I know, I know that sounds bad in this world of fast fit moms, but if it doesn't feel good don't do it. I put a lot of pressure on myself to run through pregnancy. And it ended up feeling like sh*t. So I quit. Only now looking back do I really see that was okay. I walked A LOT and I found ways to get moving, I'm not saying lay in bed and give up. And on the flipside if it feels good do it! Run and lift and carry on. But either way let yourself be you. Don't look left or right, follow your own intuition, feelings and baby.
Erin: Slow your roll and don't be hard on yourself about it. Be okay with listening to what your bump needs day-to-day, and be willing to respond. This is what I'm practicing right now...
Kami: My best advise would probably just be to listen to your body - obviously staying active is one of the best thing for you and your baby, but not straining your body past limits.
Kristin: Listen to your body! If it tells you to stop then stop, if it tells you to slow down then slow down, and if you feel good then do what you want to do!
