Being pregnant

As I just typed the title of this, it made me wonder how many people will click on this and read it because they think I am in the family way again? My Mum would probably have a heart attack if she read the title and thought I was announcing a pregnancy on here without telling her about it first, so just to set the record straight, no I am not pregnant! Now that that's clear, I shall continue with my tale.....

When I was out shopping the other day, I was walking behind a woman who was walking really slowly and awkwardly. From the way she was walking, I thought that she was probably pregnant and quite far on in her pregnancy. When she turned, she had a tiny bump, hardly anything at all, even though she was walking like she was about to give birth. It made me think back to before I was pregnant. When I would see women walking like that, I vowed to myself that I would never adopt the pregnant waddle. It seemed like some women seemed to enjoy walking like that as another way of showing the world that they are pregnant, aside from their bumps, of course. (How many of you are hating me now for confessing to thinking that?!)

Then when I was pregnant with Caleb, I realised. It wasn't as bad early on in the pregnancy but from about 30 weeks onwards, it kicked in. Walking was agony; my hips and pelvis felt like they were on fire and I had never known pain like it, along with painful ribs from where they were expanding to make room for the baby. But the walking part and the pain associated with it was the most difficult. I had heard people talking about pregnancy aches and pains and I hadn't really thought that much about it, but I didn't know how painful it could be. I remember having to stand up from my desk to go and get something from a filing cabinet for one of the students and I was literally holding on to furniture as I walked over to the filing cabinet because the pain was so bad. I tried to play it down but I didn't do a great job with that, as my lovely colleague, Kerstin then started to bring me anything I needed so that I wouldn't have to get up. I don't know if I had it, but there is something called symphysis pubis dysfunction, which one in four women suffer from in pregnancy. It basically makes walking and moving around agony. For the most part, I did still try to walk as normally as possible but sometimes it was enough of an issue to manage walking in the first place and so in those moments, I didn't really care how I looked when I was walking, just the fact that I could get from A to B was a victory! When I was pregnant, I never wanted to complain about aches and pains of pregnancy because I knew that it was a blessing to be pregnant in the first place and if you're reading this, I'm not whinging about it now (well, maybe a little, but that's not my intention!). But looking at that pregnant girl walking along in the mall made me realise how much my view of things have changed since being pregnant and having Caleb. We've all heard the saying, "don't judge a person until you've walked a mile in their shoes". Well, I walked the mile when I was pregnant and I have learned my lesson on judging the pregnant waddles! Instead of thinking about how she was walking I found myself wondering how far along she was and if she was suffering with any pains. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't enjoy having those pains, it was a rite of passage that I think I could have happily lived without but in a small way I am glad for them because now at least I feel like I have some sort of an idea of what some people go through. Lesson learnt!

When I was 38 weeks pregnant.