12th
Water Bug
Woke up at 5:30 to be at the JCC when they opened. I was the first one in the pool.
While I was pregnant I swam a mile every weekday morning. I think the baby really liked going for a slow Australian crawl, rocking back and forth in the warm water. When I was overdue and still swimming, ladies in the locker room looked faintly alarmed when they asked my due date and I replied, “The twentieth. Last week.” By the end I was huge and had developed PUPPPS. The pool was the only place I could get any relief.
After the baby was born I expected to be back to a daily swim in six weeks. I thought I would have plenty of time and energy the last month of my 10-week leave. My incision reopened and instead I had home health care nurses packing me with gauze until I had surgery again at nine weeks to close it up.
So, with one thing and another, I have only been to the pool once or twice in 10 months. A mile is 70 lengths. The first 20 were hard. I was splashing and lifting my head out to far. My new bathing suit is lovely for the beach, but ridiculous for swimming. I had to tug my bottoms back up at every turn. By 35 lengths I had relaxed into the water, was streamlined. Feeling good now. 50 and I was getting faster. Mostly thinking about how different it was when I was swimming with the baby. How excited I was to finally meet him. 65 and I was sprinting. At 70 I was sorry the mile was over and I had to get out.
This weekend we should take the Bug to the kiddy pool again.
