Pregnancy Observations

Seeing as we have waited a long time for this, these are definitely not meant to be complaints but observations. Actually, we have been very fortunate with this pregnancy. I haven't had any morning sickness or nausea usually associated with pregnancy so I've been lucky! Here are a few of the changes I have noticed however....

1. After walking all day at Disneyland, I found out that swelling feet are just no fun and create a problem when you are not expecting it. The Monday after our trip to Disneyland, I was sitting at my desk and had slipped off my shoes while working on a project. Up to that point, I hadn't noticed any swelling in either of my feet. I slipped my right shoe back on with no problem, but then low and behold my left foot would not squeeze back into my shoe. Since I needed to go across the hall that presented a problem....it's not as though I could go hobbling around the hospital in one shoe! Now if I worked in a psych ward....maybe!! Since that time, we've had some pretty hot days (upper 90s) and wearing closed in shoes was not fun.......it's taken me a whole bunch of shoe stores and numerous shoes that wouldn't fit but I finally found some shoes that will hopefully work for the whole summer....I've bought them in brown and white.......now I just need to find them in black and I"ll be all set for the rest of the pregnancy!!

2. Unfortunately, not only have my feet decided that bigger is better but so has my ring finger on my left hand (don't ask me why but it's only that finger!). So I had to remove my engagement ring and wedding band. However, so my finger wouldn't feel so naked, Ben, being the sweet man that he is, bought me a "maternity band" that I can wear for the duration of the pregnancy from Tiffany's when we were shopping one weekend.

3. Getting used to going to the bathroom constantly has definitely been a challenge. I used to be able to go all day with limited potty breaks and now I can barely go two hours without having to make a potty run. For someone who has a great aversion to public restrooms this creates many many problems. For example, this past weekend, Ben and I went on a picnic and during our excursion I had to make a stop at one of the park restrooms. Let's just say park restrooms are right up there with beach restrooms as being extra disgusting. By the time I made it out of the restroom, I was gagging and tearing so badly that Ben thought that something terrible had happened....luckily I could him tell him that this was just my normal reaction to disgusting public restrooms!!

4. Sleep - this should be the easiest part of any day but now with all of the rules of how to sleep and with what I have to sleep with in conjunction with point #3 above this is not so easy anymore. I have always slept on my side but once I was told that I HAD to sleep on my side for the sake of the baby my body decided that what it wanted most was for me to sleep on my back or my stomach. The books recommend sleeping with pillows to help with this. Ben surprised me one day by bringing home my very own snoogle (which he had to drive forty miles to find)........which I completely love and would recommend to everyone - pregnant or not!! In addition, to this new addition to our bed I have to sleep with wrist guards on both hands....if any of you have had to wear these for carpel tunnel or other wrist issues you know they are not comfortable. Now imagine having to sleep with these things on....not pleasant at all!

Okay, I think those are enough of our "observations".....I'm sure there will be more to come....