Roller Derby and Pregnancy

So my first blog back in a while, and of course it's going to be about the two things that *kinda* rule my life. Roller derby, and kids, or at least the process of incubating them.

This is totally happening with my kids!

Yes, yes indeed I am pregnant. Some of you are muttering to your screens, "Again?" Yes again. To answer the next questions that you are muttering to yourself, "Yes I know what causes it. No it wasn't an accident or surprise. Frankly I don't know if we are done yet."

If I'm being frank here, people can be downright rude when you aren't following the society cookie cutter norm for having kids. I told my husband that I wanted 5 kids when we were talking marriage, and he thought "Surely she is nuts!" Well folks, he drank the Kool-aid, and wouldn't send any of them back. Thankfully. Cuz that would really, really, hurt. We were both ready to be done at 4, since we had the perfect set-up and why ruin a good thing, right?! I mean how many people have 2 boys and 2 girls, in that exact order? Statistically it's super rare to have that order of kids, and it's exactly what I wanted! Plus it satisfied my slight OCD. Then one day, while sitting in church, I just knew we weren't done. I leaned over and told my wonderful spouse, and he glared the glare of hellfire at me. After a few months of much arguing, (I couldn't shake the feeling that this was the right decision)
Tony woke up and told me he was okay with it. I swear I looked around the room for lightning strike marks. So then we started planning when would be a good time to to leave things in the hands of my amazing reproductive system and ditch the birth control.

You wanna know the big factor in deciding when?! Roller Derby. Oh come on, you knew roller derby was gonna come in to play in this post *some*time. I looked at the calendar and the season schedule, trying to figure out when would give me the most play time, and a decent recovery time. I wasn't trying to get back to practice after 2 weeks like last time. After all, my body is in it's 30s now.

I found out I was pregnant this spring, and crunched the numbers. I knew I could safely get away with playing through the June game, and was excited to be able to play 5 out of 8 games for the year. I was going to miss playing in the championship bout, but I would survive.....after lots and lots of tears I'm sure. For all of you cringing, thinking about a pregnant lady playing such a high contact sport, you must not have paid much attention during your high school anatomy class. The woman's body is an AMAZING thing, and an even better baby factory. It has super high tech security to protect it's product from unwanted intrusions and outside disasters. In the first half of pregnancy, that uterus is the most safe, cushioned, baby safe ever! I've been playing this sport for years so i was completely aware of my body and what it is capable of. Doctors also encourage you to keep doing physical activities that you are accustomed to doing, just not way up the physical activity cuz all the sudden you are like, "Whoah, I'm gonna blow up like a hippo, I gotta start exercising!" Hey I skated as a carhop up to 7 months into my first pregnancy, (with my OBGYN's permission) and only got off my skates because of rude customers.

Well. my body had other plans. As soon as my stomach muscles realized what they were in for, they rebelled. They wouldn't even hold their normal, very relaxed position, but went on all out hiatus. So all my league-mates started talking about how pregnant I looked, and "Oh look, she did the belly touch!" So I played the May game amidst the rumor mill, and then spilled my beans. There was no use lying. I am just sad I didn't get to play ONE MORE GAME. Stupid stomach muscles. I'd fire them if I didn't need them. Why can't I just play that one more game, you ask? It would be a completely unfair advantage. No one wants to hit a pregnant chic. Dang it.

So now I get to sit (who am I kidding, I'll be on my feet yelling) on the side-lines, coaching and cheering my team on. It'll still be a good season, and in the end I will get a new snuggle bug for Christmas. It's just a tough pill to swallow, to stand by, feeling the wind of the pack pass you by.