Preparing for Motherhood: The Waddle

You know, I could deny it til the cows come home, but I really can’t. Even my husband, who has followed the “watch what you say and do around your pregnant wife” tip to the very T it means told me, just about two weeks ago “you’re starting to get the pregnant lady waddle” and I didn’t cry or feel offended. Because it’s happened. I’m waddling.

I really figured this would happen later on, when I begin to carry a regulation-sized basketball instead of a baby. But, no, the gods aren’t that kind. The waddle begins before baby gets very large. It’s got to be scientific, is how I’ve chosen to write it off. My boobs are three sizes larger than they’ve been ever before in my life, my belly changes sizes each day, and the proportions just don’t really work well with my muscle memory. The shape my body is used to carrying around has morphed into something totally different and my center of balance is, well, I don’t even know what it is.

So while I practice the best posture I can, shoulders back, head up straight, marching on day by day, it ends up looking a bit more like a duck than a confident woman. I’m working on my sea legs, but the problem is by the time I get it down at the end of the day, I fall asleep and have to start all over again finding a brand new center of balance. It must be similar to a puppy to who is growing so fast that as soon as it learns how to go up and down stairs, it grows again and has to learn it all over.

I waddle about, so conscious of my waddle that I sometimes don’t hear the conversations around. Focusing on straight lines, stepping ahead in non-pregnancy movements is a big thing for me these days. Oh, how I don’t enjoy being the pregnant waddler.

In other news, however, I waddled about so proud on Mother’s Day this past Sunday that you could’ve believed, if just for a second, that this waddle was fabricated for the sake of being a pregnant waddler. Being greeted in Home Depot (hello home projects, such a happy mom I am) with a “HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!!” was pretty freaking fantastic. That’s right. I may not have a little baby to show you, but I’ve got myself a solid, rock-hard bump in my belly and I’ve certainly got myself a waddle.

I am a mom. And motherhood is worth the waddle. Every single step of it.