I’m officially 32 weeks along today. THIRTY TWO. That means only 8 weeks left until this little baby boy comes out gets to meet his crazy mom. Weeks these days go by so fast due to work and the house and just … life. And even better news is that I actually really like being pregnant now. Thank goodness. Its like when everybody likes a movie that you KNOW is good, but you just aren’t that into it. You think something must be wrong with you and that you didn’t get it. For me I just figured I was immature, which I probably am. But I’m happy to say ‘I get it’. Finally.
Not everything is awesome about it still, certainly and I know that the discomfort has yet to set in, but at 32 weeks along I’ve officially come to love being pregnant thanks to these five things:
5. Everybody is extra nice to you and chivalry is alive. For better or worse you can kinda get whatever you want when you are pregnant and I’m absolutely not above having a hand on my pregnant belly when asking to use the restroom at a store that I know ‘doesn’t have a public restroom’. Also part of my job the last 12 years has been schlepping bags of stuff like you literally wouldn’t believe. And while I HATE feeling so useless at work and I still try to help as much as possible, people have been VERY helpful. Random people hold open doors, store clerks help me to my car, strangers smile at you for no reason. Its nice.
4. It’s a 10 month Detox. I feel crazy healthy. It’s not just the lifestyle change it’s also the fact that I go to sleep around 10:30pm every day (some days way earlier even) and wake up at 6:30am – that’s a full 8 hours of sleep, folks. I haven’t been working out nearly as much as I should (I’d say 2 times a week at best…and often those are just power walks) but I still feel really healthy because I’m taking such good care of myself. Ever since the 4th month I’ve felt really lucid and fresh every day – conquer the world type stuff. Energy is up, skin is clear – just generally feeling healthy and full of life – literally and figuratively. Was the wedding I went to last weekend less fun for me because I was pregnant? Uh huh. But the next morning I woke up early, got a ton of work done and felt amazing. Poor Brian did not. 🙂
3. You don’t have to suck it in. Ever. In fact, the more you push out the cuter you look. It’s obviously kinda a stupid thing to love and yeah, who cares? But its the only time in your life where you actually look better, bigger. You can wear really tight clothes and it looks actually better than loose clothes. You get to wear elastic waisted pants and big old muu muu dresses. Push it out, add a high belt and stuff your pie hole.
2. You might become strangely obsessed with your partner. Whatever hormone is running through my blood right now needs to be bottled up and sold to married women everywhere. Billion. Dollar. Business. Skinny Girl Margarita style. I just can’t be around him enough or hug him hard enough. I wake him up in the middle of the night to tell him desperately, like last-day-of-our-life style ‘I love you soooo much’. It reminds me of these two below, only we’ll just be sleeping in bed, without a life threatening iceberg looming, when I profess my dramatic non-tragic love to him. Nightly.
I will say that he is extremely nice to me and totally takes care of me which isn’t hurting the situation, but I just desperately want to be near him right now. Before you get all ‘Oh good for you’ on me, please know that this isn’t always the case and not even necessarily the first half of the pregnancy. But for the second half of the pregnancy this love hormone is flowing and its awesome.
And the number one thing I love about being pregnant is ……
1. I love feeling my baby move. It takes 6 months to really feel the baby. SIX MONTHS OF YOUR LIFE before the real action happens. But then when he/she starts moving, forget about it. I don’t want to take away anything from anyone that is not carrying their own child for one reason or another because I’m sure there are some other pre-baby excitement benefits from that. But when you are just gaining weight, moody, bloated, sick, tired etc it all feels a little abstract until you feel him or her inside you moving around and then you that lightbulb goes off, and you feel like an idiot because it’s all of a sudden not abstract, it’s not conceptual – its your child happening, growing inside of you. You can feel his limbs move and his body turn over. He responds to what I eat (namely anything cold) and moves the most when I’m just sitting on the sofa watching TV – namely Jeff Lewis’ show; he just loves Zoila.
So if you are a first time mom-to-be like I am and if you are behind me in weeks and wondering if you are going to ever like it, take it from me that it really wasn’t til 6 months, 24 weeks, that I really liked it. Most people told me to just get through the first trimester and I’d be fine, but nope, it wasn’t til the sixth month that all the fun started. Hang in there.
BUT …. I’m sure I’m missing some things or haven’t experienced something yet. So bring it on, folks … what do you (or did you) love most about being pregnant? (and if you didn’t ever like it, you are NOT alone .. I know a lot of women who never did, so don’t feel weird :)).