My Elusive Friend, Pregnancy

Click on the above image to better understand how a woman's body can help accomodate a growing baby in her womb.

One of the interesting facts that I learned when I first became pregnant is that early in your pregnancy your body creates a lot of progesterone and something called relaxin. These two things relax muscle tissue all over your body. That's why some women get heartburn and indigestion (thankfully I haven't yet!) Basically what happens is the muscles in your gastrointestinal tract completely slow down so that your food travels more slowly which then allows you to absorb more nutrients into your bloodstream which in turn nourishes your alien baby who sucks all these nutrients from you.

(I learned this from the book "What to Expect When You're Expecting" which I got at the local thriftstore for a mere $0.50.) But of course your other muscles relax as well. My co-worker, Emily, told me that when she was pregnant she was walking to her mailbox and then, BOOM, down she went. She said she fell because her center of gravity was off (big belly) and her muscles were slightly on hiatus. I remember thinking (a month or two ago) when she told me this, "How crazy does that sound! I don't think that would happen to me, I walk a lot, I do yoga, I feel fit." Pregnancy doesn't care. You have no control over your body, I've learned. Every other day is a surprise. You think you're getting the hang of things and then BAM, your belly button hurts from the stretching, or WHAMMO, you are eating 6 meals a day with snacks in between, or PRESTO, no more nausea! You can't predict anything.

This past weekend I went on my weekly hike at the Eno River, ain't it gorgeous?
The hike can take 1 1/2 hours to 1 3/4 of an hour, depending on if we take the extra loop or not and man, oh, man, I could tell I wore myself out towards the end. I even said out loud, "I'm exhausted." With that exhaustion, my weakling ankles and my growing belly, SURPRISE, I went down. I braced myself with my hands but I went down, just like Emily did. Pregnancy laughed in my face and said, "HA HA, gotcha, Miss Fit!" All is well; no broken skin or bones. Just getting to know my elusive friend, Pregnancy.