It's about that time...

Well, I'm crossing into that uncomfortable stage of pregnancy, though I am still nervous about the labor process and being a mom. My doctor's appointment was uneventful, so I went to dance on Thursday night. I managed to do the warm-up skips and the ceili portion of the evening. When we split into groups to work on our steps, the advanced group of adults were all working on the soft shoe steps to music, so really, all I could do was watch. While I know I am blessed to have a healthy pregnancy, it is still hard for me to be okay with just being on the sidelines, watching. As my Facebook news feed filled with feis results this weekend, I again was a little sad that I was missing out. Can I be both happy for the baby and sad about my body at the same time? I think about how athletic I used to be just 7 or 8 months ago. Since it's my first pregnancy, I don't know how I will bounce back, but I do hope to get back to my pre-pregnancy physical condition at some point in the next year or so. 

During hard shoe time at class, I did walk through my particularly troublesome treble jig step. That's the one step that I will likely have the most trouble getting feis-ready. The others I should be able to get up to speed and with music (I hope) fairly easily, especially since I could do 1 of the reel steps and 1 of the treble jig steps before I got too pregnant. I'm hoping that I am not lazy about hopping and kicking my bum post-pregnancy, though. Good technique was one thing that really went out the window the bigger and heavier I got. I did the math and I am literally 1/3 bigger than I used to be. When shampoo or soap or anything comes with, "Now 33% more, free!" it is a good thing, but increasing my size by 33% in 8 months (and the majority of it being on the front of my torso) just gives me a backache.

So my dance class is making plans for stuff, which is cool, because I never had this adult camaraderie with my dance classmates before. I'll of course have to miss out on performing next month, but not because I will be too pregnant, but it's because I won't have the clearance from my doctor to resume normal exercise post-pregnancy yet. Yikes! That means it's almost go time! And they are planning on going to a couple of shows, but I'll have to see if my husband can watch the baby those nights! I've never had to worry about planning for childcare before. My life is about to change, and even though I've been preparing for it ever since that first positive pregnancy test on May 30, it still doesn't mean I'm completely ready! Ready or not, though, the adventure will begin soon. Tomorrow, we'll see if my doctor has any more details about how soon.