Pregnancy Complaint 112

I should start a series of these since it seems there are so many. One thing you get a lot more of when you are pregnant is attention. For the most part it's not a bad thing. A lot of people you barely now all of a sudden ask you all kinds of things about the baby & how much longer you have, etc. Of course, strangers do double takes when they see your belly. And, It is really funny to watch people I don't see very often at work checking out my belly discreetly, trying to figure out if I'm pregnant or not (this doesn't happen much anymore because it's obvious now) before they ask.

But the subject of this particular rant (which I feel entitled to since I've made it seven whole months without ingesting someone's head in a hormonal rage) is the never-ending "How are you doing/feeling?" questions. I know most people are just being nice/making conversation. Some are genuinely interested in how I am & how the pregnancy is going & others really do want to hear that I'm uncomfortable as all get out most of the time (those people enjoy others' pain/difficulties). But, when you get asked at least twenty times a day (I promise I'm not exaggerating) "How are you feeling?" "How much longer do you have?" "Are you to the uncomfortable stage yet?" "How's the pregnancy going?" it gets old pretty fast. The biggest reason this starts to grate on my nerves is because I know most of them don't really want to hear my litany of complaints - they just want to hear that I'm doing fine.

Still, I'm sometimes tempted to give them an honest rundown of all the miraculous changes my body is going through making this baby. "Well, actually I can't sleep very well because it feels like I have someone sitting on my lungs, another person using my bladder as a stress ball and a very heavy bowling ball strapped to my abdomen which crushes me if lay on my back or causes me roll over on it if I try to lay on my side. When I do finally get some sleep I wake up to leg & foot cramps every time I try to stretch. Oh, and the very fun kicks/punches in the ribs & feeling like an alien is doing gymnastics in your stomach while you're trying to eat are loads of fun, too. Or, one of my favorites, the sensation that you've just consumed the biggest Thanksgiving meal ever & the skin on your belly is at its absolute breaking point & if you take one more teeny bite you will simply explode - except you have this sensation for hours on end - not just when you eat." I could keep going, but I'll stop there before I get into some of the more gruesome & unpleasant gems of pregnancy.

So, the next time you see a pregnant acquaintance, instead of asking her a pregnancy/baby related question, assume she's already been asked 10 times that day & just tell her she's the most beautiful pregnant woman you've ever seen. :) If you're related to said pregnant lady or she is a close friend, feel free to ask genuine questions of her condition... but only if you want the ugly truth. Rant over with... :)

In other news, Anthony survived our second and final childbirth class this last week & actually said he learned some useful information. As of today, I have only two months left until my due date - hard to believe she's going to be here soon.

Lil' sack of navel oranges...

From my 31 week newsletter: "This week, your baby measures over 16 inches long. She weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. She can turn her head from side to side, and her arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out..."

From 30 weeks (because I forgot to take a picture & post last week - sorry bout' that): "Your baby's having a ball in there! Now that her senses are fully developed, she can taste, touch, hear, see, and smell everything that's going on around her. She continues to practice breathing by inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, which may mean she gets the hiccups more frequently now -- sending your uterus into funny, twitchy spasms!"

She certainly does get the hiccups a lot - at least two or three times a day. I can also start making out body parts that are poking me & play with her feet sometimes when she pushes them outward.

31 week belly pic

Totally hosed...

Anthony has sort of left the baby item shopping/baby room preparation up to me & hasn't wanted to be real involved - which I totally understand. It's a woman's thing to get all excited about teeny lil' socks and sleepers. I do occasionally subject him to the "Isn't this soooo cute!?" comments (while holding up a little flowered dress). He obliges and says, "Sure," but to him I could just as well be holding up a plain paper towel. Again, I understand that all things baby just doesn't float his boat like it does mine. Anyways, there is a point to all this chatter. One of the blogs I check out daily is a mainly scrapbooking one by Erin Lincoln (who works for Creating Keepsakes - which if you don't know anything scrapbooking won't really matter to you). But, she is also expecting, and get this, she is also due on March 26th. So, occasionally she posts about baby-related topics. Well, she posted the video below of her & her husband shopping for baby stuff - had me totally cracking up (mostly because I can see Anthony feeling the same way as her husband about all these gadgets that you 'need' for baby). So, I thought I would share... (can't get the video to embed in my post right, so click here to watch it on YouTube).

We had our first of two (3 hour) childbirth classes last night. I went to them when I was expecting Wesley & certainly haven't forgotten what labor is like, but a lot of things have changed at the hospital I'm going to deliver in over the last seven years so I thought I should take it as a refresher & Anthony should have to go with me as a beginner. Good news! He survived the first one (graphic photographs & all) - although he (jokingly - or at least I hope so) tried to get one of his buddies to go in his place as we were driving there. During one of our breaks he said, "I know what I'm doing when I get home. I'm playing a ball game." Me: "On the playstation?" Him: "Yes!" Me: (laughing) "Why?" Him: "Because I need to do something manly." He cracks me up.

She's Here!

Introducing...[drumroll please]

Ella Grace M.

She was born Tuesday, February 26th at 3:10 P.M. She weighed 8 lbs. 0 ozs. & was 20 1/4" long.

Mom is doing fine, Ella had some trouble breathing at first but seems to be doing fine now. Hopefully they will get to come home tomorrow.

Lil' Butternut Squash...

From my newsletter – “This week your baby's eyes will finally open and she'll begin blinking, even though it's pitch black in there. She's also on a regular sleep-wake schedule, although she's only getting about 20-30 minutes of shut-eye at a time. Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel.”

I’m starting to get the oh-so-lovely comments about ‘waddling’ & ‘growing’. It’s like being a kid again when your aunts & uncles who didn’t see you very often would say, “My how you’ve grown!” Except now it’s a little harder to feel proud about that fact. Practically all of my co-workers did a double take when they saw me after our week & a half long Christmas break & several of them felt compelled to tell me that I had gotten bigger (as if I hadn't noticed). Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not feeling self-conscious of my size at all. In fact, I feel like I'm not gaining enough weight & have started doing things that my younger brother did in high school when he was trying to put on weight for sports - drinking milk & eating ice cream right before bed, eating lots of carbs & peanut butter. I'm still not gaining the suggested one pound a week. Any other time I could just look at food & gain weight. Anyways, back to what I was saying... it's not that my getting bigger bothers me in any way, I just don't understand why everyone feels the need to point out the obvious, especially when they do it in not-so-nice ways. For instance, you can see in the very bottom picture (29 weeks) that I'm wearing a polo shirt. This is one of the many non-maternity shirts I have from work that have always been too big for me (because they insist on ordering in men's sizes, so I can't get one small enough to fit). Well, this morning one of my co-workers comes in my office, glances at my bulging belly and says (I'm totally not making this up or changing her words in any way {yes, it was a woman - one who has had two children herself}), "So, that works as a fat shirt?" I thought, "Excuse me! I'm not FAT, I'm PREGNANT!" I've read horror stories on the pregnancy message board I frequent of the stuff rude people say to pregnant women, and I thought when people started making those types of comments to me that I would let them know in no uncertain terms how rude they were being, but really, it's better just to act like it's no big deal & move on. So, that's my pregnant woman rant for the day. :)

Christmas Day - 26 weeks, 6 days - might as well call it 27 weeks

Didn't feel like taking one for 28 weeks last week...

Today - 29 weeks - somehow I look bigger in the first one, but I think it was just the clothes