Thoughts on Riding

Assuming this pregnancy continues, my riding days are definitely numbered. I went out today for the first time in the last couple of weeks, fully intent on this being the first ride of many as I continued through my first trimester (or until I'm told flat-out by my doctor to stop riding). Riding has always made me feel better - at least temporarily - for whatever was bothering me physically, except apparently pregnancy. Hangovers, headaches, colds, cramps - all miraculously stopped bothering me as I rode. Except today, I was so on edge that I actually started feeling worse as I rode. I tried to stay in two-point while I trotted Rudy out because his gaits are so rough, but ended up jogging and loping him for a while anyway. I don't think the concern about riding is really that anything is going to be shaken loose, it's more the risk of falling. And since Rudy is so calm and I still appear to have a pretty sticky seat, I'm not too worried about that. But regardless, I noticed my posture was really pretty terrible and my balance was off as I rounded my back and leaned back more than normal in some sort of protective stance for my belly. And then as I was cooling him down, I started having some cramping in my upper abdomen, and got so worried about doing something stupid that I didn't fully walk him out. So I'm not quite sure what to make of that - if it was all because of my worrying or if there really was a physical reaction to the riding. Either way, continuing to ride without something changing isn't really fair to me (if I'm going to stress out so much) or Rudy (if he's not being properly ridden or cooled down), so maybe I'll try again next week and just try not to overdo it. I realize other people have ridden throughout their pregnancies and other people do more strenuous physical activities than I do normally, so there's a large part of me that thinks this is mostly in my head.