24 weeks

We are 24 weeks in now, and this update is for women who have never been pregnant: You will read that the second trimester is the golden stage of pregnancy. You're showing, which is exciting, but you still feel really good. This is mostly true... You will also read that that around 20 weeks or so your body starts producing a hormone called "relaxin" (I'm not making this up). Relaxin lives up to its name and starts relaxing the ligaments that hold your joints together so that your hips can start to prepare for delivery. I had braced myself for this inevitable truth of pregnancy: your hips widen. What you won't read (and what all other mom's have apparently forgotten since they delivered their little bundles of joy): this process hurts like hell! For the last couple of weeks I have had what I would describe as excruciating pain in my lower back and in the pelvic bone itself. I can't say that I've ever really been aware of where exactly my leg bones attach to my pelvic bone, or where exactly the center point of my pelvic bone is. Now I am. And consistent with pregnancy's normal 1-2 punch, you can't take anything like ibuprofen to deal with joint pain. You just get to enjoy it. And since this hormone travels throughout your body, it isn't just your hips & lower back that get this pleasure. My wrist ached and felt weak to the point I couldn't support my weight on it for a couple of days. This may not sound like a big deal until your center of gravity changes daily and you find yourself constantly trying to catch your balance on something until you locate your feet. I'm happy to report that this seems to have finally passed in the last couple of days, but I still find that walking for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time aggravates my lower back now. I didn't realize I would appreciate benches this much before I hit my gold years! ;o)