21 weeks 6 days – The unexpected September 2, 2009

Unexpected things that I’ve learned about pregnancy:

• I was totally unprepared for this.  I wanted it but I was unprepared.  I hadn’t learned about pregnancy and what happens during it because, well, I wasn’t sure that it WAS going to happen.
• Growth spurts hurt.
• Slowly losing your “innie” belly button hurts.
• There’s really only about one week sometime in the 4th months when you can eat three meals a day of regular size.  Before then I’ll either be nauseous or uninterested in food.  After that my stomach is getting squished and regular size meals hurt.
• Standing and swaying helps the “full belly hurt” feel better.
• I have developed an uncanny radar for the nearest available bathroom.
• In my local grocery store the physical discomfort of not being able to readily find the closest bathroom combined with the end of a long Monday and frustration of not being able to find the cracker aisle can nearly bring me to tears.  Yes, tears.  Hormonal fluctuations anyone?
• It’s possible to look significantly more pregnant at the end of the day than I did at the beginning.
• I whine a lot more than I expected about the uncomfortable parts of pregnancy.  I’ll spare you the gory details.
• I’m not nearly as sentimental about the amazing parts of pregnancy as I expected.  I like to think I’m saving all the sentimentality to lavish on the kid once he’s here.
• Intra-uterine gymnastics at 2:30 every morning for a week are not particularly enjoyable but, at the same time, they kind of are.
• Hearing my husband say “my son” sends shivers down my spine.
• I wish my parents were closer to watch their grandson – or the evidence of him, anyway – grow from week to week.
• My husband makes a great husband to a pregnant woman.  He’s loving, understanding, reassuring, supportive, interested, tolerant, and knows when to crack a joke at just the right minute.  How did I get so lucky?