I had to write again to rave about my lunchtime activity: swimming!  I went to the high school pool during my lunch hour.  I changed into my one piece swimsuit and laughed when I caught a glimpse of my belly in the mirror…yep, you can definitely tell I’m pregnant!  Anyway, jumped into the cold water and after a few warm up laps got into a nice rhythm!  It felt so good.  It was hard too, in that I haven’t done it in so long that I had to figure out the whole breathing thing and actually felt like I got a good, heart pumping workout in.  And my back felt great. 

 Swimming while pregnant is so much different than running while pregnant.  The extra weight you’re carrying doesn’t seem to make very much of a difference in the way you feel.  Also, since your belly is below you, you don’t get that bouncing/pulling, pressure on your bladder sensation that I was getting with running.  It gave me a nice escape to feel like me again.  I took it nice and easy and felt my arms tiring.  I was passing the guy in the lane next to me and for those 30 minutes I just felt like me again…not pregnant me, which is how I always feel now when I’m running. 

 That may sound selfish, but as any woman who’s ever been pregnant can tell you, its not.  There comes a point in the pregnancy when you constantly are aware of your present condition of being with child and everyone around you is glaringly aware too.  It can make you feel sort of like your only role in this world is to provide a nice home for the life growing inside you.  Your body changes and while its beautiful and wonderful, its so easy to forget that there’s a woman inside there too with hopes and dreams and fears.  Even at work right now its hard to not think about the baby with every decision.  I want to grow in my career, but in the back of my mind, I know I’m going on maternity leave and how difficult it would be to start training on a new job only to take 12 weeks off and have to learn everything all over again.  So yes…there’s been some opportunities that have come up that I admit I haven’t fully gone after.  I don’t regret that.  I am happy in my current position, so its not like I’m itching to move on.  Yet, I know that I eventually want more for myself and my family and my boss knows that too.  So, in some ways pregnancy feels like everything else in your life is temporarily put on hold.  Running used to make me feel free of all that, but with the discomforts lately, its yet another thing I do where I can’t forget that I’m carrying another life.  Swimming gave me that feeling of freedom today and it was so very much needed.

 I get bored with swimming, so I’m sure my new passion will fizzle out once I’ve been doing it on a regular basis but in this moment I feel great so I’m just going to enjoy it while it lasts.