Teal Burrell Is Using Running Gear to Show Her Baby’s Measurements By Week
With her second pregnancy, Burrell decided to get creative with her weekly baby bump photos.
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Pregnancy apps are nifty in their ability to help moms-to-be track their baby measurements by week. But friends and family also love getting periodic updates with tangible comparisons to understand just how fast that baby is growing (week eight they’re the size of a raspberry, but just three weeks later they’re the size of a lime!). And they might not be a perfect comparison, but they still give women an idea of what to expect on their pregnancy journey.
Instead of comparing her baby measurements by week to fruits and vegetables, Teal Burrell has been documenting baby number two’s progress using items she’s most familiar with as a runner. “I did the produce thing for my first kid, so I wanted to do something different this time around,” she says.
Week eight was the spout of her water bottle. Week 13 was a superhero muffin from Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky’s cookbook Run Fast. Eat Slow.
The most recent, week 22, was a recent copy of Runner’s World Magazine. (Our magazine measures slightly smaller, that’s probably the only reason she didn’t use it. But we sure do love seeing &Mother co-creator Alysia Montaño on that cover!) Burrell, who is due in the beginning of February, has been using The Bump as her inspiration for choosing items that are similar in size.
Burrell is a 2:39 marathoner who has competed in the last two Olympic Marathon Team Trials (her week 19 photo compared her bump to her Trials bib) and runs on the Oiselle team. Though she has kept up running while pregnant so far, she urges other pregnant runners to listen to what is best for their bodies. “Remember that every pregnancy is different, so don’t beat yourself up if you can’t run or it’s too uncomfortable. Even every day is different, I’ve had days I’ve had to stop and walk followed by days I felt relatively good.”
And she remembers the stigma from her first pregnancy: that she was expected to run through the whole thing because she was a skilled athlete. “It’s not about that at all,” she says. “I just worry too many women put pressure on themselves or feel guilty about it and they shouldn’t.”
Burrell’s adorable baby bump photos certainly bring a light-hearted take that moms everywhere can relate with. Like the 17 week photo, where the baby is the size of an energy bar. “Ironic since baby does nothing but steal my energy,” she writes in the Instagram caption.
Follow Burrell on Instagram to see her weekly updates.