Something New

So right now I'm sitting in the recliner pretending that even the small movement of using my fingers to type doesn't hurt. But it does.

I come from a genetic background of bad hips. I'm okay with this. Except when my love of bicycling hurts. And being pregnant hurts. The irony? Even having a c-section with Levi, your hips still start to spread way early. Your body just does SOME things right and naturally I guess. Even when other stuff gets screwed up. But I digress.

This pregnancy? I swear my hips started loosening the moment those two little pink lines showed up. And with our goal of no bedrest, I've been trying to not overdo on everything. So when going to the gym leaves me aching for days, I needed a new solution. Enter My Husband. He knows how to swim. Not just to keep himself alive either. Like he can swim to the other end of the pool and back and back and back. Without stopping. For air. That thing I love. So between him and my chiropractor who also swims and is now teeny-tiny, I was receiving some let's say persistent suggestions to take up swimming. So off we went to find me some goggles that would NOT leak, otherwise, I quit right now. Thankfully we have a newer sports store in town that carries some nicer stuff. So with those and a nose-plug (Call me a dork, but I seem to not have been born with the capability to plug off my own nose internally. Which is not very helpful when you're trying not to drown.) I was set.

Monday we hit the pool. I am slow. I could use a 1-piece suit so my belly doesn't show. No worries, it's a tankini, more modest than most 1-pieces, but it does ride up a bit underwater since it's not a maternity suit. Ah well. Andrew was very patient and gave me some basic pointers on stuff like breathing every so many strokes, and other stuff I don't remember. I did pretty well. Okay, I looked like a elephant trying to paddle, but I didn't drown and I left feeling like I'd worked out. A little weird since you're not all sweaty and your muscles take a while to make you realize you've done some work, but it's a workout nonetheless.

So today I go by myself to swim some laps. Now on Monday I managed to mostly make it the length of the pool without pausing for air. Granted by this point I was GASPING for breath, but at least I wasn't blocking traffic or anything. I'm not sure if I was trying to go faster today, or going slower, or just not breathing right, or baby had just taken up residence in my diaphram, but it was not pretty. I'd make it about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way down the pool, at which point I suddenly realized I was dieing for air and better hussle. At which point I start looking even less graceful and basically drag myself to the end of the pool where I then gasp for air for the next 2 minutes at least. It was not pretty. At all.

This blog was so not going to be about me swimming. But it suddenly is. Because today I either 1. pushed it a little too much 2. Definitely don't have proper form, or 3. Worked muscles hard that usually don't get it. Any one of these would explain the very nice ache I now have in my back, shoulders, neck, arms. But hey, my hips feel pretty good. :)