The Belly Dance

(reposted from my other blog, The Drive, at madameduck.blogspot.com)

Well, after my week-long challenge to myself (7 posts in 7 days), I thought I'd write more in the blog.  But, surprise, surprise (or maybe no surprise at all?) it just tapered off again.  My mind's been on other things, like house cleaning, cloth diapers, and due dates.

Photo Credit: Candace O'Brien

So, I decided, why not write about those things instead?  Pregnancy has been completely dominating my mind, so it should be easy to get an entry or two out of it. :)  And here we go.  Where to start.  

Today Baby has just hit her 41 week gestation mark!!  So, according to the early scan I had, I have been pregnant 41 weeks to the day.  And so far, it has been fantastic!  

Being pregnant is much different than I had expected.  I expected it to be difficult, that I'd miss my non-pregnant self and way of life.  But now, my biggest worry is that I'll miss being pregnant after baby comes!! :)  So, without further ado, I present to you what Pregnancy means to me.

Being pregnant is:

• Feeling energized and motivated more than ever before!
• But also taking that 2:00 pm nap without any remorse. :)
• Being continually astounded by my own body's capabilities
• Feeling a connection to all women throughout time everywhere.  Feeling more female than I ever had before, but also much, much stronger
• For once, having a body that really wants to exercise and a mind and palate that really want to eat healthy
• Knowing that I'm changing permanently, but trusting that it's all for the better.
• Really allowing and trusting the people around me to support me 
• Talking to strangers on the street about babies and birth and everything cute and wonderful in the world
• Being surprisingly open to it when said strangers want to rub hands all over my belly while we talk!
• Giggling (instead of being grossed out) when my little one pokes a foot out to one side of my belly

Of course, not all of being pregnant is sunshine and roses.  Granted, the second and third trimesters were definitely more comfortable than the first, so I've probably forgotten some of the less fun parts of it, but here are some other things it means to be pregnant.

• Gagging mid-sentence for no apparent reason (or, more usually, because we were driving past a fast food restaurant and the odor of days-old oil)  This was more of a first-trimester worry
• Sore boobs! - another first trimester worry
• Having swollen, numb, sausage fingers (I wish that were my excuse for writing so little, but the swelling only started recently!)
• Having to pee every 5 minutes.  The bladder has no concept of how difficult it is to find a bathroom in some areas of town!  ...at least one that doesn't make me want to douse myself in purel afterwards.
• Obsessing, and I mean OBSESSING over cloth diapers.  And wanting to buy like 20 of every kind!  Though, I attribute this to the fact that I haven't been able to buy much clothing for baby because my best friend (who just had twins!) has given me ALL of her baby clothes.  So I have to go crazy over something cute and snuggly, right???
• Pseudo-insomnia, as I call it.  Waking up at 3 am to pee and feeling wide, wide awake.  (this is when I do most of my online cloth diaper obsessing, of course.  I'm worse than Gollum and his ring.  I go to www.newandgreen.com and scroll through the sale section, changing "my preciousssssss!"  I'm sure it'll end soon, right? :)

But all in all, I have loved every minute of it.  Stay tuned for more pregnancy and birth related posts -- I have a lot to say about it!  I forgot to add that to the list: Being pregnant also means learning more than you ever thought you would about pregnancy and childbirth.  So, in the comments, let me know if there's any aspects of it you'd like me to tackle first.

Thanks for reading, even though this is a vast diversion from the usual topics of the blog!

Amanda