March 19, 2010

Eau de Chlorine

It's official.
Chloe has been in this world longer than she was in my belly world.
39 weeks ago today she made her debut.

I went for a swim the morning before I went into labour. This was not unusual as I swam 25 laps almost every day of my last trimester. It was such an amazing feeling....totally weightless and then I would go to step out of the pool and BOOM! There's the belly I almost forgot I had. I loved the way the sounds of life would become muffled underwater, and I would picture my little girl doing her own laps in my belly as I would move.
The smell of chlorine & protective shampoo will always be a beautiful reminder of the final days before she would arrive.

When I was rolled into the delivery room that afternoon, my doctor was trying to figure out what the strong chemical smell was. I assured her that nothing was wrong...it was just that I could not escape the smell of that lovely chlorine.

So today we swam together to mark the occasion. But we opted for a salt water pool, because chlorine is so 39 weeks ago.



8 comments:

Cassie said...

Exercise till the end. You're quite motivating! Looks like Chloe had fun!

Unknown said...

Such cute pictures :)

Unknown said...

Cute pictures...I have to admit that I love the smell of chlorine!

Kate said...

You were so motivated!

I gave up swimming at about 30 weeks when I had stretched my speedo to its limits!

Great pics!

K said...

I swam when I couldn't run (or walk hardly) anymore. I don't like the smell of chlorine, but found I missed it when I went with my little one for the first time.

Was that her first time swimming?

Averie @ Averie Cooks said...

I love these photos, the love and tenderness just ooozes from them :)

I also remember making a mental note when skylar reached the age on the "outside" as she has spent on the "inside" gestating and remember feeling like even though she was only 9 mos old, I had been at the mother hood gig for 18 :)

Your body rocks, too. :)

And bulk bins. Yes, awful!

Care said...

umm your body is amazing! wow, what a cool story. Those pics are so sweet :)

Unknown said...

I love this description you give of swimming while pregnant :-) good for exercising the whole time!