iShimmy.com - Dancing to the Beat of a Different Drum - Swelly Belly * Pregnant and Belly Dancing

Elviza at John Pennekamp State Park
in the Florida Keys 3 days before birth
(all white costume & bikini pix)
(Photo by Kamileh)

First, let me start off with a huge apology to Zaina and our readership. I have been promising an article for well over a year and I feel terrible that it has taken me this long! As a side: I spent 6 months with no computer, and the article below will explain what else has been occupying my time since then, but still, I should have gotten this done long ago. I am honored to be a contributor here and must fight my writer’s block!

Back in early December of 2008, I started getting a little suspicious. I hadn’t paid close attention and realized when it suddenly popped into my mind that it had “been a while”. Thanks to the economy and my crappy financial situation, I had put off going for my yearly check-up. And without going in, they won’t renew the ‘pill’ prescription and so I had been doing without (the pill) for a couple months. I was planning to take care of it right away, really. Luckily I had just landed a day job at a law firm after many months of real estate deals falling through, dancing gigs slowing down, and regretfully having to sell some of my favorite costumes to pay bills. But, before making the appointment, I just got this feeling and decided to take a test and -lo and behold- positive!!

Next 2 photos
Elviza in Homestead Florida - Rock House
8 weeks pre-birth
(Photo by Kamileh)

Well, I just couldn’t believe it! There I was, 38 years old (39 now) with a daughter who was 19 at the time - planning to go away to college the next year, and a 17 year old son! I was really freaked out and didn’t even end up telling my family till a couple months later - so certain that everyone would think I was a total idiot to do this again - now! Not to mention I needed some time to even believe it was real. Since I never show much in the early stages I was able to keep my secret for a while.

Finally I had my family wait in a room while I set up a cradle in my office and then asked them to come in. As they walked in I could see my son’s confused face, my daughter Symphony started to say something about ‘What do we need this for’ but later explained she had momentarily thought it might be that we would be babysitting my friends grandchild, since she had seen the cradle at her house. But before she got any of that out my husband asked if I was pregnant and when I said yes, he just smiled. My son Nick looked more confused, and Symphony squealed and jumped into the air a few times, then fell on the ground kicking her feet and yelling that this was what she always wanted. She added it was the best day of her life and now she wouldn’t have to have a baby anytime soon because she’d have this one!! So definitely a better reaction then the “Are you crazy?” I had feared.

The very next day I went to the hospital and as it turned out I was further along than I had thought -going on 5 months. The sonographer did a 20 minute sonogram and then showed me everything, and he was quite certain it was a girl- and that’s the way it looked to me. My husband and I were happy that it was a girl, both the kids said they wanted a boy. I spent the next month on eBay obsessively shopping for dresses and filled up a bin with the cutest things! A month later, doctor does sonogram—it’s a boy! So I had to start shopping from scratch and now I have all this baby girl stuff that I’m gonna have to list- and I can’t bear to part with some so I may save some for future grandkids (my husband says let’s go ahead and try for a girl but, I don’t know). My mother-in-law insisted the whole time it was a boy and she wouldn’t even look at the dresses—she would have liked a girl but was sure it was a boy. I never heard her laugh so hard in 20 years as when I called her. Then I called my friend Kamileh, who shrieked with laughter. I said, “Why am I getting this reaction from everyone?” “Because I just spent $150 on pink stuff for the baby shower-haaahaaahaaa!” she replied.

Anyway, obviously being a dancer I was concerned about the ole belly. It did a great job of bouncing back the last two times, but I was 18 & 20 then. So I went to Walgreen’s and bought lotions, creams, Vaseline, and a couple varieties of cocoa butter—mostly ended up using the Palmer’s cocoa butter twice a day religiously, but would sometimes switch it up. I had a good scare when I got itchy and a bit red on my belly, and then read that sometimes this itchiness lasts the whole pregnancy (I would have torn myself to shreds by then), and that it may or may not be related to stretch marks. Especially since the itchies started a couple days after one of my dance classes during which I had been doing a side stretch and felt like I was stretching my skin a bit much—after that I was careful not to do any stretches or dance moves that would pull too much (although I forgot this while performing to a degree). I realize cocoa butter probably doesn’t prevent stretch marks and probably doing a side stretch wouldn’t have torn my skin open- I think it’s more genetics and how much weight you gain and how quickly you gain it, but maybe it helps a little to be careful. I had made it through fine on the first two pregnancies- without much bother with creams, but then again I weighed 15-20 lbs. more starting off this time around. So I knew I’d need to monitor myself at least a bit. Remember that eating for two means eating healthy- not eating twice as much, especially if the extra is cake and ice cream! Luckily the itching only lasted a couple weeks, and I could ease it a bit by putting a small amount of peppermint liniment mixed into lotion (not sure of the safety of this so I was careful to use very little, and it did help). All in all I ended up gaining approximately 30 pounds, or a little less- and only went about 5 pounds above what I had for the last two pregnancies- I think I got to almost 165. Now mind you I did have my splurges, like the last couple weeks I got into a thing for McDonalds hot fudge sundaes with extra fudge and had like 5 of them! Also the first couple months that I had worked at my new job they were bringing in cantina- meaning Cuban food- every day for lunch, including desserts.

Even though I didn’t go overboard in my weight gain I think I could have done better- and felt better- if I would have been a little more careful about what I ate and gotten more exercise. Of course there are so many things you are supposed to be careful about eating while pregnant (I haven’t had real sushi for more than a year now! :o( ), that I was afraid to eat even salad sometimes- I did break the deli meat rule but usually with heated sandwiches, and am still on decaf coffee which even that I didn’t have every day. I often ‘survived’ on watermelon, since I had eaten a big lunch I’d have about a half a large watermelon for dinner, and then usually end up snacking on something else later, which is normal for me since I’m a night owl. I really should have attended more dance classes, or at the very least gone for more walks and gone swimming a little more, all of which were comfortable to do most of the time. I was just so tired after working all day I was zonking out.

I was teaching 2 hours a week till early June, and continued performing pretty regularly through March. I did dance for a friend’s birthday in May and my own baby shower in June, about 6 weeks before the baby was born. Surprisingly these went well- I got a little dizzy after the birthday performance but think it was more to do with being hungry, and also hot—THAT’S what would get me! Actually in my classes probably from about the beginning of the seventh month I had Symphony come with me to class just in case, and I ended up having her just take over my adult class. I would be fine for the first hour with the kids, but sometimes trying to go into that second hour I would get a cramp/pull (this also sometimes happened if I tried walking too fast- must have been a baby-position thing), and a couple times the heat got me sort of dizzy/nauseous and I had to go sit down. It made me feel very wimpy since with the other kids I had been very active right up until labor started, and it did turn out I was pretty much able to this time as well, for the most part.

My friend Kamileh insisted on doing two photo shoots, and I’m so happy because the pics came out awesome as you can see. The pink outfit ones were taken about 7-8 weeks before birth at this cool coral rock house near my home. She shot about 325 pix that day. Then came the marathon day where we went to three locations, and photographed four outfits. She took over 1200 photos that day!!! And this was three days before baby was born! I had already been having some pains and wasn’t sure I’d even make it to the photo shoot, then on our way down to the Keys we were stuck in traffic and I started envisioning that I might go into labor right there. Luckily this didn’t happen. I almost didn’t do the bikini shots, wasn’t sure I wanted them and we were both sooo tired by then but I figured fine, we’ll take a few, and they really ended up coming out nice. Now I kind of regret not having photographed in some of my fancier costumes at some point (whichever might have fit!). I don’t normally wear much white but Kamileh had photographed our friend Tata (organizer of Orlando Belly Dance Meet-up) the year before and liked the fact that she wore a white outfit, and this one had been given to me by the lovely Lamis so it was a great opportunity to wear it.

The very next day after the photo shoot I ended up in the hospital because I thought my water started to break. They claimed I was incorrect- I’m still not so sure, but anyway home I went. Next day I had my normally scheduled doctor visit and when I mentioned that that morning I had almost called him because I thought the baby wasn’t moving (and then he had) he started talking about coming in the next morning- which was my due date- to induce labor. Well this scared me good and well because I had pretty long labors the last two times and thought it might be worse if they try to make it start superficially so he then said he’d give me two more days, but due to my age didn’t want to wait past that. The whole night I was having pains so it turned out the next afternoon July 21 (my older son’s 18th birthday!!), I did end up back at the hospital.

Please drop by for the next installment of ‘Swelly Belly’ for the labor, delivery, and getting back to dancing while caring for a newborn. Also, I will be interviewing some other dancing mommas and including some of their experiences as well. Till next time!

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Dancing to the Beat of a Different Drum - Swelly Belly * Pregnant and Belly Dancing