The Bump: Claire Jedrek

Gorgeous Singapore maternity photos in Sassy Mama’s ‘The Bump’!

This month’s ‘The Bump’ features gorgeous maternity photos of Claire Jedrek, courtesy of Bambini Photography. Claire Jedrek is Singapore’s only female race car driver. She is also an emcee and writer, and is expecting her first baby, a boy, next year in March. We couldn’t wait to catch up with Claire to hear about her whirlwind pregnancy and funny bare-all pregnancy moments.

What was your reaction when you first found out you were pregnant?
Well, I was a bit surprised and unprepared that it happened a bit sooner than expected. In March this year, I planned to try get pregnant in the next 4 months as I had a window to have a kid before March 2018 given my husband’s racing season off time is November to February and we didn’t want it to clash.

I went to see a fertility doctor to speed things up and I pretty much got pregnant after seeing him! After breaking the news to my husband, I then bawled as it meant I wasn’t able to go racing that season, reality shock!

Your funniest memory over the 9 months?
No one told me about the possibility of bloating and gas, due to acid build up and hormones! I was in Bali for a week and one night I was pretty much a bagpipe. I was letting mini ones rip every 5 minutes and it wafted under the sheets and my husband looks at me horrified and says “Oh my god, I’m on holiday Claire”. We laughed hysterically and he pretty much burrito’ed himself in the sheets so nothing would escape to him!

Any great books and resources that prepared you for when your baby arrived?
I haven’t really read anything bar flipping through a book my husband randomly bought online “What to expect when expecting “ by Heidi Murkoff but I haven’t really researched too much, just gone with the flow. Unless there was something unusual then I referred to my doctor, but I have been randomly keeping track of a rough guide on baby growth with the mobile app GLOW. I’ve recently joined a pre-natal class as well by UFIT, and it’s 7 weeks of classes to attend, prepared by nutritionists, physios, doulas, and fitness experts and that’s been quite an eye-opener for information that I would have never thought of.

What do you think every woman should know before getting pregnant?
I’d say the biggest challenge would be your own ego and your own thoughts.  I think when you can, try let go, take it easy and not too be hard on yourself and accept the changes you are experiencing.
Everyone will try to tell you what is best, but I’ve found that I have my own recipe as to what I’d like and what I want to do, as my pregnancy is so different from everyone else’s.

What was the easiest trimester and which one proved most difficult?
I’ve yet to experience the last trimester but mentally and physically I was pretty miserable at the first trimester and swore I wouldn’t think about even having a second kid, but I also know now I put so many road blocks up for myself and I kept pushing myself to want to feel normal and do my normal daily things.

Did you follow a fitness programme while you were pregnant?
Being someone who was used to working out 5 times a week, I decided to carry on working out as much as I could. I suffered terrible acid reflux in the first 3 months and took medication which was a huge relief! I was quite unmotivated for that time and had gout, but with a bit of coaching from my husband to just sleep and not fight it, I pretty much woke up one day and felt totally fine.
I haven’t gone back to running as my lower abs and tummy seem to be stretching out a little bit and get sore, but I’ve been swimming lots, cycling, swapped the running for treadmill hiking and slow running, HIIT workouts with lower weights and skipping the abdominal workouts. I’ve taken up a bit more yoga, though it bores me, but because my back and glutes get crazy tight from the changes, it really helps.

Any fashion tips and tricks for maternity dressing?
I haven’t actually bought any specific maternity clothes, or bras. I’ve upgraded to a well padded sports bra, high cut yoga pants, track shoes or padded slip ons from Clarks.

I have heaps of tight dresses and I’ve pretty much kept them and since I’m showing more, I’ve just let the bump show. I’ve bought a few more tops and dresses that are pretty much rectangles and squares and I will just wear a belt above the belly. I’ve also invested in some regular dresses that are in a wrap style, so I can use them for after birth!

Did you have any weird and wonderful cravings?
Sadly I was looking forward to this, but I didn’t get anything crazy as I had acid reflux and I didn’t have the best of relationships with food, though at 5 months it’s a lot better. If I had to say what I enjoy more  – it is Vegemite and salty items, as well as lemony, tangy drinks and cold drinks!

What did you struggle with most being pregnant?
What hit me like a frying pan was the acid reflux and sudden urge to sleep all afternoon. Mentally, I struggled as I felt like I was being lazy and I didn’t try enough to stay awake and do work. I also failed to maintain energy during mountain bike sessions, so I scaled back and excepted I was going through a lot of changes.

Name a mama you find inspiring and why?
That’s a tough one but I find Lisa Clayton an awesome inspiration running around with 3 kids, and her boundless energy to stay positive mentally and physically. I love mothers who tell you the positives about motherhood and who never harp on about sleep etc.

What are your thoughts about finding out the sex in advance?
I wanted to initially keep it a secret then I changed my mind as I felt like it was for my own little game and Yuey’s grand dad is 102 and being the only grand parent between us left, it was more important for me to get pregnant and let him know my process, I know it really meant a lot to the old boy.

Did it take you some time getting pregnant or were you one of those mamas who got lucky on the first try?
I would say I was overall a little bit lucky with some help. When I decided to try for the first month, I put no effort in remembering when to start my cycle with the Clear Blue machine to pee on so the next month I remembered to start the cycle on my first day my period then the machine basically told me I didn’t peak or ovulate, so I got impatient at remembering to start again and decided to go see a fertility guy who gave me Ovamit and boom – it happened after I took it the following month.

Any local businesses that made your pregnancy journey easier?
I’ve enjoyed using the mobile GLOW app to look at everyone’s progress around the world and how they do things and their doubts and fears, celebrations etc. as well as the guide to the babies progress.
I’ve found the UFIT prenatal 7-week program to be pretty beneficial for information for both parents to think about and important questions to ask about birthing and practices and what we may want.

What are your hopes and dreams for your baby?
I definitely want to be as calm and relaxed a parent as possible and to look forward to having our boy in a positive environment. We don’t have specific hopes – we have really been taking things day by day and week by week.

We are parents that are constantly on the move and fly every two weeks to a month, so we just decided we will figure out what we and our boy will need and just strap him to our back and deal with it! We’d only ever want to create opportunities for our child and give him the best foundation for later in life!

Thank you so much for your time and best of luck Claire! And many thanks to Bambini Photography for the gorgeous photos!