When a woman is pregnant, especially towards the end of the pregnancy, they say that her balance can be off. It makes sense. My belly was sticking so far out, there was no way that I had my normal balance.
I was careful when I was pregnant but there was one time that I did fall. I was about 7 months pregnant with my second son. I was out running errands with our first son, who was about 18 months old at the time. We were having a great day. We found some cute baby outfits. We treated ourselves to lunch and ice cream. We were on our way to a baby store to look for bouncy seats, big boy bed frames and other baby essentials.
I was carrying my son out of the car. He faced me as I held him, closed the car door and turned to walk towards the store. I tripped on a curb that I didn’t see. (Of course, I didn’t see the curb. I couldn’t see my feet.) It all went so fast. It was as if someone had slid a rope around my ankles and pulled it HARD. I landed on the landscaped area in the parking lot and in true Arizona style, it was all rock. My leg got tangled in a small bush. Luckily, I was able to break my fall with my knees, elbows and underside of my forearms.
I was so thankful that I never dropped my son and that my stomach never hit the ground. But my son was startled and crying. I was shaken and bleeding. As I started to climb up off the ground, I imagined by poor little boy with his shirt ripped and back bleeding from being scraped by rocks. I turned and took him back to the car to examine him. It was a miracle. He was fine. Not a scrape and no bleeding. I couldn’t say the same for me.
Many people may have called it a day at that point and just drove home. But I had driven all the way to a store that I rarely went to and there WAS a sale. So in true shopper form, I wiped away my tears, picked the rocks out of my knees, carried my son and hobbled into the store. I set my son down once we were in the front door. Oh my legs were burning. My arms too. I looked down. There were still marks in my legs where the rocks had been stuck. They were bloody and scraped up. I placed my palms over my stinging elbows. More rocks and more blood. Unfortunately, I was wearing a skirt and that was ripped a bit. That was when the store employees saw me.
“My Goodness! What happened? Can we help you?” They were very kind. They wet some paper towel, helped me clean my legs and arms, even found some band-aids.
That evening, I arrived home with bruised knees but had found some great baby items.
But was it worth the trip?