How Pregnancy Made Me Clumsy
It’s not like I have ever been the most graceful person in the world. I sometimes trip on things and have slipped on ice a time or two. But never in my life have I ever felt as clumsy as I did when I was pregnant.
Maybe it was the change in my body; the bigger belly, the wider hips, the sore feet, something made me much more accident prone.
In the early days, before anyone could even tell that I was pregnant, I would hop on the train at the end of the day just praying for a seat. As soon as the train started to move my body swayed back and forth and keeping myself upright became the focus of the entire ride. My balance just seemed to be off from the very beginning. It wasn’t uncommon for me to trip on the sidewalk as I made my way from the train station to my office so flats became my every day footwear.
During my first pregnancy I was able to stay fairly active all the way until the end. The day I realized I needed to stop running was the day I almost flew off the treadmill because I lost my footing mid-run. I decided that elliptical machines and yoga were probably a better option.
Sometime around the mid-way point, I slipped on the top stair in my house. I instinctively used my forearms to catch my fall and ended up sliding down an entire, carpeted flight of stairs on my forearms and my feet. I was nursing some severely carpet burned arms for the next few days along with the fear that maybe I hurt the baby. Luckily it wasn’t long before my next scheduled check up with my doctor who assured me that my little one was nicely protected in there.
As I neared the end of my pregnancy my belly became so large that I often misjudged the amount of space it took in front of me. I paid the price one evening while cooking dinner. I reached up above the stove for some salt and didn’t realize just how little room there was between my belly and the wok that was heating on the stovetop. I heard the sizzle before I even felt it. As I reached up my tshirt lifted exposing my bare skin which landed directly at the side of the hot wok. With my skin stretched so thin, it didn’t take long to burn and burn badly. The red line that stretched across my belly eventually scarred and took years to fade. The scar was the first thing to stretch out during my second pregnancy and resulted in my very first stretch mark. The faded white line that crosses the bottom of my belly reminds me of the pain.
I tried my best to be careful but for some reason pregnancy made me clumsy. For nine whole months or 37 and a half weeks to be exact, I was accident prone. I tripped, fell, slid, twisted and burned my way through that first pregnancy.
It was so worth it. Without a second thought, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.
