How soon to return to riding after baby?

patterdale - Yep, I used to get it in the calves too and yup the muscle would hurt all day after a spasm! I used to get them when I rode a certain horse of mine a few years ago, whenever I pulled my heel up at a certain angle it would happen and I'd have to grind to a halt and desperately try to move my leg to stop the pain!

AprilBlossom - Your comment about the dogs "eating babies" made me laugh. I had numerous people tell me that my cats would "sleep on the babies face". My cats have been too terrified to get within a metre of the baby let alone sleep on its face...!
 
Yes, the lovely leg & back cramps. The morning my daughter was born the only sign I was in early labour was the fact the back cramp came at regular intervals, & even in labour I had back cramp as my contractions.
I agree re post natal ward. On mine the lady opposite had just had a section, & quite rightly had more help from midwifes, passing her baby to feed & change etc, wheelchair for bathroom etc. However the lazy bint opposite actually moaned that she too should receive the same!
 
The grief you get over dogs is nothing compared to the health visitor, who comes round to find you in jods, with several stone of mainly doberman dog, & a terrier who grumbled at strangers who tried to get close to the baby unless I said it was ok.
 
Yes, whilst MW loved our sausage dog and wanted to take her home, and even laughed at 'that very grumpy but pretty little dog' - chihuahua has 'small man syndrome' the HV had some rather pursed lips at the dog trying to be her friend!!
 
littlelegs said:
The grief you get over dogs is nothing compared to the health visitor, who comes round to find you in jods, with several stone of mainly doberman dog, & a terrier who grumbled at strangers who tried to get close to the baby unless I said it was ok.
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hahaha:D yes, my first meeting with our local HV was when i was 8 month pregnant and she was driving about lost, looking for another local new mum. She happened to stop and ask me for directions, as i was bringing my 2 girls in up the road from the field. They were keen to get in! And her stopping me meant they danced about a bit and her face was a picture as she noticed my belly and then she had the cheek to demand to know what i was doing near horses in my condition. Baaahahahahaaa!! It was the start of a beautiful friendship ;):p

LEg cramps, oh yes :mad: I used to get them in my thighs! Both at once!!:eek: It was sheer agony. Bizarrely at the end of pregnancy, going down steps triggered it (but not going up) and I discovered this to my peril as I had humphed myself up 2 flights of steps to get to the upper floor of a shop and literally couldnt get back down them again because every step down made my thigh muscles contract in cramps! A shop assistant came to see if I was ok and I had to ring my hubby who was just along the street to come and rescue me!! :o
 
I've had the 'what are you going to do with the cats' question more times than I can count. Erm, nothing....if they know what's good for them they will soon realise that upstairs on their radiator beds is the safest place in face of screaming newborn and then crawling, grabby small human!
 
Another fellow leg cramp sufferer! 5-6 attacks a night, complete misery! But they did go away with magnesium supplements, I have never taken anything so religiously in my life!
 
No real leg cramps for me, just a triple dose of heartburn! Most days, any time of day, whether I've eaten or not. It laughs in the face of gaviscon now (unless I neck it!) Though Rennies seem to be doing well atm!

A recent professional who visited my horse, while lovely, exclaimed (on seeing our ram) "you are being careful around the sheep!!?"

No, I am often found snogging them :D
 
My health visitor was great, she even bought my very cheeky but lovely youngster I was selling and mentioned about putting my baby in the stable if he is with me when it rains- she was a breath of fresh air! I had one know it all stop me while walking the dog 2 weeks before I popped who insisted we were having a girl because of what our sons heartbeat had been through pregnancy (I didnt tell her we knew it was a boy) and how anyone is stupid not to work it out, I really did want to "mnghhherr" in her face- she then went on to ask how will I cope walking the dog and a baby!!
 
Good things for leg cramps, gin & tonic (just the tonic really due to the quinine), deep heat rubbed in or olbas oil worked surprisingly well too! I have suffered with leg cramps and arm cramp for yonks it's a horrid pain especially when it's at bed time.

My old bosses wife was pregnant at the same time as me, (doesnt work and only ever worked as few hours so she could still to get her benefits grrr) due just after me and from pretty early in the pregnancy he would make calls on her behalf because she was heavily pregnant and couldnt make a phone call, take her breakfast in bed and feed her horses in the morning because she was pregnant - then come into work about an hour late after I had been in over an hour working hard, talking on the phone and had already done my horses myself and walked my dog- I just wanted to punch and or shake the man but I think he liked to be used and walked all over clearly.
 
To be fair Boolavogue, sheep are quite a risk - sheep at lambing time especially are one thing i would avoid.
 
I am married to a sheep farmer so lambing time was v stressful, trying to keep away from everything and not touch his clothes etc!
He gets up every hour in the night and comes back in dirty so I just avoided him like the plague, it was awful :(

Sheep the rest of the year are find though, except I haven't been helping in the pens etc because they have a tendency to leap straight into you when they panic and push you over etc.
I've also got out of wrapping wool as OH shears 15000 sheep a year and so packing 15000 fleeces is usually my job - but that I'm not complaining about!! :D
 
Ooo I had one leg cramp that left me limping for 2 weeks afterwards.
I got a lot of assumptions that I wasn't going to go near horses because I was preggers - I mucked out every day until I was 6 months and felt like it did me a lot of good. However, for the last month of pregnancy I really was exhausted and useless, I wasn't sleeping and all I could do each day was walk the dog once and that took me ages. I found it incredibly frustrating to go from being so active to hardly being able to do a thing.
I had a c section and 3 days after was practically skipping down the road because I felt so much better. I'm getting more sleep now with a newborn baby than I did when heavily pregnant - so not everyone ends up sleep deprived, I've had about 7 hrs sleep a night since baby arrived (touching wood that this continues) :)
 
Oh and I had a lot of people asking me how I was going to cope with a dog and a baby! Erm, fairly easily actually! You just don't tell the health visitor that the dog spent the baby's first night at home nudging the crib everytime the baby made a noise and therefore rocked the baby back to sleep ;)
 
fatpony said:
To be fair Boolavogue, sheep are quite a risk - sheep at lambing time especially are one thing i would avoid.
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To be fair, I think I know more about it than most people! Bit of a case of teaching Granny to suck eggs, telling a sheep farmer about their sheep ;) That's to the non sheep owning, non doctor who was warning me about them, not you BTW :)

Like Patterdale, life went on during lambing, albeit with precautions. Again, you can go with hysteria or good common sense.

Patterdale, I don't often get leapt on but they will quite happilly try to climb up me for cake! And being as a few of my sheep are very tame, running away from them during lambing made a funny sight :D
 
Heh I don't know what people think you DO with sheep, but TBH it rarely involves touching them for me. Even before being pregnant I'm not strong enough to do most of the handling so basically all I do is put food down for them :) Snogging is definitely tongue in cheek (mind the pun!) because let me tell you, these critters stink! :D
 
Sorry but I now have the image of a 9months pregnant lady, doing the late stage pregnancy penguin waddle at high speed away from chasing sheep!
 
BoolavogueDC said:
Heh I don't know what people think you DO with sheep, but TBH it rarely involves touching them for me. Even before being pregnant I'm not strong enough to do most of the handling so basically all I do is put food down for them :) Snogging is definitely tongue in cheek (mind the pun!) because let me tell you, these critters stink! :D
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Tell me about it - farmers daughter and well acquainted with the stench. Although I didn't complain too much when the naked new zealanders came over to do the shearing in the summer! :p
 
Really interesting thread. I've justbread the whole thing. I have a 14 month old. Before i was pregnant i rode a friends horse once or twice a week but it was about 40 mins away and i bled for 4 weeks at aout 6 weeks pregnant and was on sofa rest for threatened miscarraige. My friend (who is pretty nervey) then banned me from riding for all the right reasons. I then got baaaad pelvis problems so walking was hard and sitting and driving for 40 mins to get there would have been agonny anyway.

So I got out of the habbit and I found it very hard to get back into riding. I have limited childcare and have recently moved to a new area so know no horsey people at all round here. DH is working all hours to keep his business home and can't ever garentee to be home on time so a share horse or something would be out of the question unless I take Florrie with me.

Do you guys think that is realistic? My in-laws think I'm stupid but they were frightened I was going to fall on Florrie and kill her if I used a baby carrier. Ridiculous. Obviously I walked the dog daily with no mishaps.

In answer to your question op I would advise getting back into riding asap so that it is part of your routine from the start. My horrible stitches would have probably made me wait about 5 or 6 weeks but now that I haven't been riding since Florrie was born I'm finding trying to sort it out a bit daunting. I'm not one for riding schools but some schoolmaster lessons might be the answer until she starts school. That just seems so far away.

Suggestions from sensible poeple would be great.

Sorry for hijacking your thread. Jaffa cakes for anyone who has read all of this (although you'll have to be quick I'm munching throu them quickly).
 
I am just starting to get a bit of a waddle on now, I've got that pelvis thing and it's driving me nuts!

OH however thinks it's hilarious, he films me waddling on his phone when I'm not looking, then plays it back and laughs afterwards. He calls me Fatso and says I look like an eggcup in my maternity leggings.

He also constantly compares me to a lambing ewe - Boolavogue does yours do this!?

Lol I think it helps to be laughed at a bit though, makes you laugh at yourself more!

Atlantis is there anyone who can watch the baby for you for an hour or so?
 
patterdale said:
He also constantly compares me to a lambing ewe - Boolavogue does yours do this!?
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strangely enough, no matter how useful OH is around the sheep, he's a liiiiitle bit squeamish of my belly and moving, kicking (feels like it's raving) baby! :D

I have told him, if he so much as tries to go down the business end with any baler twine during my delivery, I WILL manage to defy gravity and kick him in the teeth :D
 
Hahahahahaha yes I get baler twine mentioned a lot too!!
He has also questioned whether I might go around pinching other babies when im due, and asks if I think I will be like a gimmer, and after delivery just run away up the field screaming.


He is very much staying away from the business end.

:D
 
patterdale said:
OH however thinks it's hilarious, he films me waddling on his phone when I'm not looking, then plays it back and laughs afterwards. He calls me Fatso and says I look like an eggcup in my maternity leggings.

QUOTE]

When I mentioned to my OH that i would be interested to weigh myself and find out how much weight I'd put on while preggers, he kindly offered to drive me to the local weighbridge!!

atlantis - whereabouts in Leics are you???
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patterdale said:
, and after delivery just run away up the field screaming.

:D
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PMSL!!! :D :D Can you imagine! We put the dog on the ewes that try that here, I doubt that will have the same effect :)

When lambing, from a distance I watched a ewe, upended on her head and "helped out". I remember the definite feeling of my stomach cringing!:D
 
I'm in Sharnford, just south of Hinckley. I spoke to my MIL today (who is nearby and pretty much my only childcare, she already has Florrie on a tuesday. I work tues wed thurs. Nursery wed thurs) who can't really do any more regular times (they go to Norfolk for a long weekend most weeks) but can do the odd time if they don't go. There isn't anyone else really. Not without putting on people I don't know that well. My mum is in wales and my dad is in MK but i don't see him much at all.

I'm looking forward to when she's old enough to get involved, but I'm not sure how old that is. With my DH working so much I can't see how I'll be able to do anything other than lessons every now and then. I've been thinking about trying Witham Villa.
 
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