Can I still have Protein Shakes?

Once again the weekend has been and gone. It doesn't really feel like I had 3 whole days off - boo!

On Friday I went and saw my doctor. They have given me a due date of 18th May 2011, though I still reckon it'll be nearer the 21st May 2011 - but heck, what difference does 3 days make?! It was quite strange really, because they didn't check that I actually was pregnant, just totally took it for the truth. I wonder how many time wasters the NHS experience in a year?!

The doctor ran through the basics:
* No undercooked Meat
* No Pate or Soft Cheeses
* No booze
* No Smoking
* Cut down on Caffeine
* Don't take regular vitamins, stick to specialist pregnancy ones
* Folic Acid
* No Vitamin A
* blah blah

She did say that the advice around the risks of undercooked eggs has been relaxed, afterall they are screened for salmonella! I'm not too worried about the risk of having a dippy egg, and if I fancy one, I'll totally still indulge.

Things worth nothing are that I am allowed to use my nasal spray for hayfever. She said during the first trimester they advise people to try and go without, but she said that if it was terrible it was worth using to keep my stress levels down. Its already made such a difference! I've used it twice this weekend (just one spray each time) and its helped keep me sane.

In terms of pain relief, only straight paracetomol are ok. I knew this anyway, but it's worth mentioning I guess!

She asked whether I had any questions, I had two!

1. Can I continue with exercise often and to a fair level of intensity?
Yes! She said I should listen to my body and if it wants to rest, let it rest, if it's ok, carry on. The main thing to bear in mind is that the dizzy factor means I need to be more careful (and I know this I cannot get over how dizzy I get when I stand up now!). She did however highlight the miscarriage risk, but also pointed out that intense exercise was unlikely to cause miscarriage in its own right, but it could trigger a miscarriage that would have happened anyway. I'm ok with that. Apparently I've got a 20% chance of miscarriage anyway, so I'm loving the 80% in my favour for a successful pregnancy.

2. Can I drink my protein shakes for recovery?
Yes! I took in the label of my GNC Soy Protein Isolate (same as the H&B one) and she said there was negligable amounts of things I could worry about. She did say that it was her duty to tell me that the best thing would to be to alter my diet to contain more protein, but in her opinion drinking protein or eating it would make no difference. Taking this into account, I've decided to only drink protein shakes after exercise. So no more protein shakes in the mornings of the days I exercise.

Other than that, I didn't really have much else to ask. I've made a 'booking appointment' with the midwife for the 6th October. This is something like a 2 hour appointment when they'll ask about family medical history, lifestyle, take all sorts of samples, and goodness knows what else. I guess at that point it will start to feel a bit more real as I'll be 8 weeks exactly - only 4 weeks away from my first scan at that point.

Coming up: Re-cap of my weekend (I would have done it this morning, but I forgot my camera cable and I took some awesome photos!)