The second half kicks off

As I type I'm watching Lyon and PSV Eindhoven take penalties in the Champion's League at the end of extra time. In terms of the pregnancy week 20 has just ended so the second half has just kicked off. Let's hope there's no need for extra time in our game!

In the interests off keeping things on track, last night we went to an "early" ante-natal class. It was lead by a physiotherapist and focused on posture and exercises for the mother-to-be. There were lots of exercises for the abdominal muscles and the pelvic floor. The overwhelming message seemed to be "keep doing those pelvic floor exercises ladies, they are dull but essential". They passed around a model of the pelvic region which was useful to me as I know frightfully little about human anatomy beyond a few key muscle groups and how to stretch them.

Hayley has had a few problems with back pain and also some tingling in the top of the legs. To her horror the physiotherapist said this is a condition often found in fat old men! But in this case it is due to the extra weight gained during pregnancy. She explained that during pregnancy the woman will gain more weight in fat than through the weight of the baby itself. The there was then a long list of other things adding weight: amniotic fluid, the placenta, increased blood volume, increased breast volume, etc. The total came to about 2 to 3 stone but can be more.

One woman there also commented that with her first child she lost almost all the weight in a few weeks and attributed this to breast feeding. Is there no end to the wonders it can do!

The men who attended were not spared. We had to roll up our shirts for our posture and muscles to be scrutinized by the group. To my immense satisfaction (and not a little bewilderment) the physiotherapist said I had a very balanced physique with good abdominal muscles and asked whether I do a lot of sport! Thankfully Hayley managed to keep a straight face when answering in the affirmative. Bless her.