Trying for a baby and working with horses?

Not sure where this would go, but figured this to be the best spot. My husband and I both are trying to have a baby currently, but I have questions dealing with my job, as we can't afford to lose my income. I work on a military base stable as a trail guide. Which means I ride horses on trail but also do the manual labor such as cleaning pens, sweeping, and raking. Now I think as time goes on later into the pregnancy I could still clean just not pull the heavy wheelbarrow. I know there would be no issue with that cause we did have a girl on injury who couldn't pull them and was able to continue working. Do you all think it would be ok to continue performing these tasks? Including the trails? My body is very used to doing hard physical work and riding. In fact usually I am happier the harder I work so it wouldn't be a change for my body to do these tasks. Also how should I bring this up with my boss?

I think that the longer you can stay fully active into your pregnancy, the better it will be for both you and the baby. My Mom continued to ride and muck stalls well into her 8th month with both me and my brother. I see no reason why you can't keep your job and take just a few weeks off just before and just after baby is born, providing of course that the pregnancy is healthy. Do as much as you can and feel comfortable doing and you can start tapering off the closer you get.

Such a tough one to answer as even if your doctor said ok, you NEVER know how YOUR pregnancy will go. I think that unless you had unusual problems, you could do the hard labor for the first 5 or 6 months. However, your abdominal muscles become stretched out and you cannot use them the same way you now do when you rake or muck out stalls. I bet if you paid attention to that work, you would notice how much your are contracting your abs to protect your lower back. After awhile you can't do it as well, no matter how hard you try. AND, toward the end of the pregnancy, hormones will cause your ligamented joints to loosen. This is to loosen the pelvis (at the pubic bone joint) to ease the passage of the baby.
There's no escaping the pregancy is really inconvenient. However, somebody's gotta do it, no?
AND, your ability to bring in an income will be impacted for not just the length of the pregnancy, but on and on, won't it? You will have to be able to make financial adjustments through the many years of raising a child.
That being said, I have two sons and cannot imagine life without them.
Horses are wonderful, but they are NOT children (I am going to get flack for that one, no doubt)
Where's your heart on this one, not your head?

I have always wanted a kid but have always worried on the work aspect. But then I began thinking mothers have kids all the time who work with horses so why can't I? Needless to say my husband and I have already started trying.

My doctor advised me to just take things SLOWER not easier on myself while pregnant. I could do just about anything pregnant that I could do when I wasn't. The difference was, taking my time and going slow. Instead of rushing through and cleaning 6 stalls in 30 minutes, I had to slow down and clean the same 6 stalls in 1.5 hrs. Emptying the wheel barrel at half full. When I was really pregnant...8 months or so...my stall cleaning went like this.

'pick pick pick rest' LOL I still did it though!

The real trouble comes in afterwards. Are you going to be comfortable leaving your child with a sitter when they are just a few weeks old? Not to scare you but, what if you have to have a C-Section. That is a required 6 week minimum. There are a lot of unpredictable things about becoming pregnant. You never know how your body will handle it. You could be great...barely notice a difference...or you could end up on bed-rest at 26 weeks.

My point is, think it through. You will have to compromise. You have to decide what is most important.

Oh and tinyliny...I agree. It actually angers me when people refer to dogs/horses/cats as "oh he is JUST like my child" pssht....its not even close. My kids are my world.

Aw - good luck on both fronts! Annnd, frankly, until you are pregnant, it is not your boss's business whether or not you are trying Most people I know wait until their 2nd trimester starts (or they are showing) before letting others know: unless you have some reason that you need to let him know sooner!

Corin: I have no worry on the front of leaving the baby to go to work as my husband works from home so not only would be saving on childcare costs but also the worry factor of a stranger taking care of the baby. I also realize that there are unpredictability dealing with pregnancy. I have talked to some family and they tell me that you can't really plan for those. You deal with them as they arise. I have one brother right now who had an oops baby, they didn't think she could have another one so didn't get maternity insurance, 2 weeks later surprise. They are now racked up with thousands of dollars in debt. There was no way to predict that but they deal with it and they love their now 4 month old little boy.

I think you should do as much as you think you can do in at any given time. I am sure there will be times when you can do a lot more than at other times. Listen to your body and go from that.

I have wondered how much my life will change when and if I am pregnant. We are not trying yet, but we are not trying to hard not to. So unprotected, but pulling out.

I wonder what I will do, as I still want to ride. I believe in this unpregnant moment that I will ride just gently, as I don't want to not ride. What I imagine doing is lots of trail rides until I am just too bulky up front to get on a horse.

I was by no means discouraging you from trying or saying that you would not love to have a baby. Ofcourse you would. You are trying! I'm just saying from the outside looking in, most people see pregnancy as being easy peazy and two weeks after having the baby, you are Gisele back at the gym. For most of us Mortals, you need time to recover. My point is, don't worry so much about how limited you will be while pregnant...tons of women work up until the day they pop. If you were to be put on bedrest, you can file for temporary disability. I would be more concerned with the AFTER.

I'm with Cori on this one. My doctor said that while pregnant I could continue to do what my body was used to doing, as long as you use common sense. Like emptying the wheelbarrow at half full instead of full. I was fine until my 8th month, then everything was just uncomfortable.
Just be as safe as you can. Ride the kid safe horses. Lift with your legs, not your back.
Keep in mind that, like Cori said, it is after the baby that is also a concern. I think realistically you're looking at a good 8 weeks after baby is born before you should be getting back into it full swing.