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Monday, February 05, 2007

Symptomatic

It is probably inevitable that if one pretends not to be pregnant for the first 22 weeks or so of one's pregnancy, one will be surprised at how fast things seem to sneak up on one.

Since I've played this game before, it would be reasonable to assume that I would know the rules- and yet I am often surprised by sudden symptoms. I suspect my husband is getting sick of my saying: "Did heartburn kick in this early LAST TIME?" or "Was I really this big this soon with Felix?"

And then there are a few new things that have cropped up to keep me on my toes, literally. When I was pregnant with Felix, I had a really savage case of sciatica for about a month and I am wildly grateful that I avoided it this time. My new companion now is a nighttime visitor: the lurking charley horse. These things pop up in my hips, my legs and my feet every time I turn over, leaving me quite breathless (but unpleasantly so). I've tried the dietary solutions, but I fear this is just one of those pregnancy things, since nothing I consume seems to make much of a difference. (And, indeed, I am aware that what I am calling a charley horse is actually a mild misnomer. The medical term actually refers to a savage contusion in the quadriceps, but the name has fallen into more common use recently.)

The term "charley horse" is actually rather interesting, etymologically speaking. It appears to have emerged from the world of baseball (which, really, is responsible for so many fabulous idiomatic expressions, "chin music" being among my favorites). An extended discussion of the term in the journal American Speech (in the 1949 article "Whence 'Charley Horse'?" by David Shulman) credits the nineteenth century ball player Michael Kelly with the first printed use of the term in his book PLAY BALL: "I could dance in those days, because, you see, I never was bothered with `Charley Horse'." Needless to say, many players and teams (and even one ground keeper in Sioux City) are credited with coining the phrase.

All of this, of course, doesn't do much about the problem, but it certainly works better than an alarm clock at getting me up before the kid.

posted by Elise at 11:13 AM

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6 Comments:

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