The home stretch

When I used to race competitively, my best event was the 400m sprint. It's a lie to call it a sprint because it's really not a sprint as a sprint implies, short and fast and the 400 m while being short and fast can also feel like it takes a whole bloody painful lifetime to complete. And that last home stretch, where one can see the finish line, where one's legs feel like they've been filled with lead and there is much pain and the lungs are ready to explode, where it feels like to get to the end, one has to run through thick sludge, feels like it takes a lifetime and a half even if it's only 20 seconds at most.

That's where I'm at right now. The home stretch. Bubs should make an appearance late next week and it's at this point where I think most people go to their Ob-gyn begging for their babies to be taken out and I don't blame them. My feet and hands feel like they belong to clowns. It takes me forever to walk from point A to point B even if point A is my bed and point B the bathroom.

On top of that, there's the whole "heaty" thing going on. My mom started to tell me a few weeks back that I should start drinking coconut water and birds' nest, generally things she refused to allow me to eat or drink when I was trying to get pregnant. Her rationale was that my body was generating a whole lot of heat. That I knew, seeing that the airconditioning and 2 fans were just about enough to keep me comfortable. Anyway, with 3 metabolitic systems running at full speed and the amount of waste that is being churned out, it's no surprise that there are physical manifestations of all this "heat", including rash and ulcers!

So not only do I have clown extremeties and a moon face (I forgot to add, water retention occurs in the face too), I have to deal with ulcers in my mouth and rash on my belly. Everyone tries to console me with the fact that it's only for another week or so, but like I say, running through sludge. I know on hindsight, this week will pass very quickly but for now, sludge I tell you, sludge. And part of me knows that when all this has passed, there will be other issues that I will whine about. Breastfeeding, c-section wound and pain, sleeplessness, the barrage of helpful advice etc.

But like a wise person once told me, the mantra will and must be "this too shall pass" and like all the races I've run, no matter how forever it feels, we do eventually cross the finish line and thankfully, this time, no one's keeping time.

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