thoughts on pregnancy....

There are certain things you know when you get pregnant are going to happen.  Especially if it's your second baby.  These are, of course, generalizations.... 

1. You will be tired in the first trimester. 
2. You will have gas like a 13 year old boy after eating Mexican from a ta taco truck. 
3. You will have to pee every thirty seconds. 
4. You might have nausea and nope, morning sickness is a misnomer.  It can happen morning, noon, night or driving down the street where there is no where to puke but the day old starbucks bag from the muffin you couldn't resist.
5. You will worry every time you go to the bathroom that there just might be something you don't want to see.  And then when there is not... you sigh a big sigh of relief. 
6. You will complain to anyone who knows about the ache's, pains, gas, peeing, sleepiness. 
7. If it stops you will get scared. 
8. In the second trimester... you will go through a honeymoon phase where everything is great including your energy, appetite and libido.
9. You will develop your bump and think it's so cool to have this new shape.  Round IS a perfectly acceptable shape. 
10. You will think it's kind of cute when the well meaning busybody er neighbor down the street notices and gives you all kinds of unsolicited advice.
11. As you progress through the third trimester, you kind of go back to the first trimester in symptoms.  All of a sudden you are peeing all the time again (due to baby's position).  You have gas that slips out at a moments notice, or not.  You start to pee when you sneeze, laugh or cough.  Your sleepiness returns and is accompanied by insomnia where you think of all the things you have yet to do. 
12. Nesting begins and all of a sudden you HAVE to get everything done and done NOW! 
13. You soon have to be rolled out of bed by your significant other. 
14. Turning over in bed becomes an act of congress where you steal the sheets, covers and real estate from anyone you are sharing said bed with. 
15. You are STARVING and then when you eat you are FULL and can't possibly take another bite. 
16. Your boobs grow so large that they really could have their own zip code. 
17. The entire thought of 'getting busy' with your significant other throws you into fits of giggles and serious contemplation as to how THAT's supposed to work. 
18. And... you begin getting comments from well meaning strangers that say.. "wow, you are about to pop!"  "are you sure it's not twins?"  "There is just no way you can possibly get any bigger than you are!"  "Wow, that just flat out looks painful!" 
19. At about 37 weeks...  you realize the merits in maternity leave and you know why people don't work until their due dates.  :-/
20. And last but not least...  the one thing you absolutely know in your heart of hearts is that you are SUPPOSED to be getting bigger. 

Now... it's the last thing that I want to talk about a little bit and then I will do one last thing you know as I close.  :) 

As a woman growing up... we are drilled about body images and being healthy and being fit and being skinny.  This day and age is actually more about healthy than skinny, thank God!  I am so grateful that my daughter will grow up knowing that eating and living healthy is more important than being 'skinny'. 

But, having grown up with these body images... even knowing that you are supposed to be "round" when you are pregnant is hard.  I get to a point in my pregnancies where even the maternity clothes are not fitting and the short/pants roll down. 

I had one of these such days the other day and it's very difficult to explain how or why you can be thrown into a fit of bad self image.  I have been very blessed to stay active my entire pregnancy and this time I have managed to keep most of the weight to my belly...  but you can know this in your head and you can still feel bad in your mirror heart. 

 Hearing people tell you how big you are...  is never really ok.  Offering suggestions of the latest fashionable mumuu... not ok.  Telling a future mama that she needs two chairs or surely won't fit through that aisle...  not helpful.

I think that even though you know you are supposed to get big as your pregnancy progresses... it's just as hard to squash those niggling self image feelings you grow up with.  And you know what...  I think that is normal too. 

And last but not least... the major thing you KNOW when you are pregnant...  is that you love this little being beyond anything you can possibly imagine.  You plan his/her future.  You imagine what wonderful things they will touch.  The people they will encounter.  The life that will unfold for them.  Their lives... their future... their path... their destiny.  I may have "made that hand, that rib, that knee" which is the ultimate miracle...  but she will determine (with God's help) where she goes with it. 


All worth a few pounds gained, don'tcha think?