Braxton Hicks...who knew?

Just two days ago, it was a beautiful Monday morning, and I excitedly took our precious pup, Maya, out for her morning walk. The cool, crisp air exhilarated me, and I felt like a million bucks! Not only that, it was my day off, which always gives me a crazy high since I get the whole day to myself to do whatever I need and/or WANT to do. Who doesn't love that?

I felt so good, I decided to jog for a few feet but soon after had to stop as Maya needed to do her "business." We briskly walked around the neighborhood with an occasional jog in between only for a few feet. Now, mind you, I am not a jogger usually but I just felt strong and happy and wanted to bounce around if only for a brief moment or two. After about 20 minutes of high intensity, heart rate increasing walking, my tummy started to tighten. It did not hurt but I could tell it was very, very firm and somewhat uncomfortable. I slowed my pace for the last ten minutes and finished the walk home. I did not really think too much of it since I immediately started stretching to cool down and drank at least 24 oz. of water.

About one hour later, I decided I needed to thoroughly vacuum and dust my hardwood floors in the bedroom, kitchen, dining room, foyer, and hallway as well as vacuum the carpet in the living room and the tile in the two bathrooms. First, I used the Swiffer Vac (which is pretty awesome for quick jobs) but decided I need the stronger vacuum cleaner to do a more thorough job. So I basically cleaned all of that surface area - TWICE. The whole intent was to mop and shine the hardwood but I could not do that until I cleaned them first (but of course). After cleaning and leaning, bending and twisting, sitting and squatting, for about 1.5 hours, guess what happened? My tummy tightened up again and made me stop completely! I was SO frustrated because I still needed to MOP everything (the whole purpose for the entire project). But alas, Baby G had other things in mind. I had to relegate myself to the fact that my body was tired and needed to slow down.

Needless to say, I experienced my first real Braxton Hicks contractions twice that day! I've read all about it and it's nothing to be concerned about unless it happens more than four times in one hour and if one feels pressure really low - neither of which applied to me. BUT I did learn that I hate having to stop mid-project! It's just going to take a little longer to accomplish these household tasks when I'm pregnant. Either that, or Mr. Michael will have to pitch in more often!

I did get the floors mopped the very next day, by the way. A clean floor makes me happy, and the shining hardwood was very gratifying. :-)