I’m officially 22 weeks pregnant today. Every day that passes, I still cannot believe I’ve made it this far. Every time I feel the baby move around and flail and kick, I smile and remember how lucky I am to be able to grow a tiny human inside of me.

While running on the treadmill this morning, I noticed that my belly seemed particularly tight. I’ve gradually been running slower and slower given the weight is noticeable on me more and more as the weeks go by. The tightness eventually went away but came back on and off throughout my workout, so I started doing easier activities just in case. Eventually, the tightness went away, but I was wondering why this was happening.

I did a quick Google search for belly tightness at this stage of pregnancy, and depending on the level of tightness or “hardness,” these could be early Braxton Hicks contractions. They aren’t real contractions in that the baby is not ready to come out, but these are said to be “practice” contractions the uterus does to gear up for the Big Day.

Well, that can be a little scary. Who knew that “practice contractions” were a thing the body does?! I’m constantly learning new things about my body through this whole process and being amazed by it all.