If you're wondering why this is my first blog post since the beginning of these seven months, you're not alone. Sometimes I think to myself, "why haven't I blogged about this?" The short answer is that I'm scared. It's a slippery slope from one cute, short blog about pregnancy to the 25 way-too-long posts every other day in which I describe every feeling and thought I have. I've always stopped myself from posting a blog about pregnancy because I'd just think to myself, "If you do one, you'll do a million". Kind of an "if you give a mouse a cookie" scenario.... but pregnant. No one wants that.
So why now? Well, I figure I'm more than halfway... how many more posts could I possibly write in such a short time (famous last words...)?
When I first got pregnant, I wasn't afraid of it being too hard . I have 3 nieces and a nephew, so I know basically everything about pregnancy...(that' a sarcastic joke about my naïve self in hindsight.) And really, I have been so blessed with a body that likes being pregnant. I haven't thrown up (so far). Never had any crazy pickle-and-peanut-butter-with cheese-on-top cravings. So, basically I've just been able to sit here, watch my belly grow, and enjoy the little kicks that make it look like aliens are trying to escape from inside me.
There were, however, a few things I wasn't prepared for. Just something here and there that made me wonder to myself, "why didn't anyone tell me this was going to happen?" I guess, for mothers of babies who are no longer inside of them, these little things aren't really issues they think need to be brought up. They probably just seem like such minor details that most non-pregnant mothers just completely forgot about them! But, as they happened to me for the first time, I was surprised and amazed that I didn't see them coming. That brings us to this post.
Here are a few things that no one ever tells you (for some reason or another) about pregnancy.
1. Stretchy stretchy. Oh my goodness. Obviously, I was aware that a woman's belly grows when a little human is inside of them. What I was not expecting, however, was feeling it. Some mornings, I can literally feel myself stretching and getting bigger. Sometimes, it feels like a small cramp. Sometimes it's barely noticeable. And sometimes, getting out of bed feels like something inside is about to rip in half. I remember one day a month or two ago where I spent the whole day practically doubled over because of the "growth spurt" Baby was having inside of me. James can attest to this. I whined a little...
2. Kicky kicky. Okay, this is another "feeling" one, but can we just please invent a word to describe what it feels like to have a baby kick inside of you?! At first, I wasn't sure what to look for, and when it happened I couldn't believe it. My midwife told me it would feel like gas... sometimes it does. But for the most part, it's more of a tickly-twitchy kind of feeling. I wrote in my pregnancy journal after feeling my very first kick, that the only way I could describe it to James was by using the word, "bloop". And really, that still seems like a pretty good way to me. From what I've heard from a friend who's a month ahead of me, the feeling gets stronger. So we'll see what I have to say about that as this boy gets closer to his birthday.
3. Growy growy. Among the people that I see and talk to on a weekly-ish basis, there are 4 or 5 pregnant women. Talk about baby season. Anyway, only one of those women actually looked pregnant at the "appropriate" time. That's because this is her 4th child. A fellow first-timer and I spent months sending pictures back and forth to each other asking if we "looked pregnant yet". I guess this kind of goes along with my first point, but bodies that haven't been pregnant before aren't used to all that stretching. It takes a little longer for our novice selves to figure out how to stretch and grow than a body that has been through it all before. An easy way to say all this is that the, "is she pregnant or just fat" stage of pregnancy lasts much longer in first-timers than veterans. No way around it, you just have to deal with it. Thankfully, that stage in my pregnancy ended about two weeks ago, so I feel pretty free at this point.
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| a little something from when the baby bump finally showed itself. |
So, there we go. Seems a little weird, doesn't it? Those are such little things, that they barely seem worth mentioning... which is probably why I'd never heard about them until they happened to me. Or maybe most people just actually expect them, so it's not surprising to them... either way, this post is out there for the unassuming and possibly a little naïve first timers like me!
4. Bonus: This one comes from seeing many, many ultrasound pictures, but never being in that room until now. We all know that ultrasounds are used to see through you to the baby(that's the preschool way of saying it). But we don't really take time to think about what a look inside will be like. Here is the part that makes sense, but that we never quite grasp fully: THE BABY MOVES WHILE YOU'RE WATCHING HIM ON THE ULTRASOUND SCREEN!! It's fun to take home those little pictures, and show them to friends, but the best part BY FAR is sitting (or laying) there actually watching your baby move around inside of you. A baby whose heart beats, who sucks his thumb, and kicks his tiny little baby feet. It's fun to feel it all from out here, but being in that room with James was definitely a huge highlight of this pregnancy. Needless to say, we're a little bit in love, and we can't wait to meet our little son!
