when your egg-o is preggo

So I feel like I should write some things down about being pregnant because I heard a) you block everything out after the whole thing is done and b) mommy brain is way worse than pregnancy brain and I won't remember any of the details. Let me start off by saying that pregnancy is different for everyone because every woman's body is different and every baby is different. Some people love being pregnant and others not so much. 

Here are some things I'd like any ladies planning to be mamas someday to know about being pregnant:

• Hormones are a bitch. Crying will occur.
• There will be days that you will want to eat everything in sight. Other days you will have no interest in food. But there will most likely be one food that always tastes good. Too bad that ice cream has no nutritional value.
• You will have at least one experience where you tear everything out of your closet in a mad panic trying to get dressed in the morning before work because your pre-preggo clothes no longer fit. You might contemplate wearing one of your husband's dress shirts. Don't do it. But do put a hair tie around the button of your regular jeans to make them fit.
• Some days you will feel beautiful and womanly and other days you will just feel plain ol' fat.
• Cankles happen. They suck. A little crying may occur
• Yes, you will have to pee a lot. And in your third trimester you'll often haul yourself to the bathroom, get back to your desk/seat/couch and realize almost immediately that you have to go again.
• When your body really starts to change you might have a mini breakdown in the dressing room at Destination Maternity or in the maternity section of Target. Give that maxi dress the finger and move on. Tomorrow you will feel better.
• At some point you will feel like you are not going to be a good mother. Yes, crying will occur.
• People will stare at you.
• Shaving your bikini line will become nothing short of a gymnastic feat.
• At times you will think there is an alien living inside of you. Especially when your kid is throwing elbows at you. 
• Warn your husband. Even the most mild mannered of women will grow horns and breathe fire a few times during the nine months. He'll say something stupid. Or he'll look at you funny. Or he won't look at you. Or he'll breathe too loud. Or, really, he'll just happen to be sitting in the same room as you. It won't be pretty. All you can do is apologize afterwards.
• Your to-do list will seem infinite. More crying could occur.
• Towards the end, getting up out of bed will make you feel like a beetle stuck on its back.
• You might not get beautiful pregnant lady hair and glowing skin. You will feel gipped.

Now, with all that said you probably think I am one of those people who does not like being pregnant. In fact, the opposite is true. I happen to love it. I like having a little friend with me all the time. I am in awe of the fact that my body is capable of doing this; so much so that sometimes it seems like a little miracle. Nothing beats feeling your baby move inside of you. Really, I think this whole pregnancy thing is pretty damn cool. It is not always a walk in the park, but it is pretty damn cool.

My advice? Make sure you are going on this journey with a good man (or partner). It makes all the difference. Just when you think you can't love your person more than you already do, he will read Goodnight Moon to the baby in your belly and you will almost keel over with love and joy.

Just watch out for that crying.

the big jump

These days it feels like I'm going a million miles a minute and playing a waiting game all at once.

Rushing around to pack, to plan, to move. My to-do list never seems to get shorter. Once I've crossed one thing off another one appears. I have to set reminders on my iPhone or everything or else I'm afraid that all the tasks that need to get done will be forgotten, a victim of pregnancy brain.

On the other hand I'm waiting for our baby. I'm waiting for our baby. There's a lot that comes with that statement. I'm not ready in the least bit, but still there's this sense of waiting to see how it all plays out. Questions running through my mind ranging in subjects from what kind of diapers to how the heck do I breast feed to what happens if my water breaks at work to how do we find a day care to dearGodamIgoingtobeagoodmother. You see what I mean? I'm waiting to find out the answers to these questions. Although not sure if that last one will ever really get answered. Guess I just gotta hope I raise a kid smart enough not to get a tattoo of a shamrock or a Chinese symbol.

The big jump comes soon. Wish me luck. I'm going to be a mom. Holy shit.

just the two of us

Yesterday marked 6 years married to husband. We had the greatest day simply hanging out together. While I've been getting increasingly excited to welcome this baby and make us a family of 3, there's something a little bittersweet to me about this change. It has been just the two of us for quite some time and I'm going to miss that. (In fact, this little one is due 12 years to the day that we met.) We are pals, we are a team, we are each other's favorite person. And we've had a blast just the two of us. I wouldn't give up the past 6 years for anything in the whole wide world.

I love you, husband. Everything is better with you.

just to be next to your bones

Stumbled across a beautiful poem the other day thanks to a blog I'm fond of. The end just slays me. A big hit to the heart.

But one kiss levitates above all the others.
The intersection of function and desire.
The I do kiss.
The I'll love you through a brick wall kiss.
Even when I'm dead, I'll swim through the Earth,
like a mermaid of the soil, just to be next to your bones.       

-from The Archipelago of Kisses by Jeffrey McDaniel



* P.S. Archipelago just so happens to be one of my favorite words. Isn't it the coolest?

summertime

While we didn't go away on a real vacation this week (and I was in a foul mood for part of it), we did manage to get in some beach time, some fireworks and some bike races. Here are some pics from the week. Not pictured is the copious amounts of ice cream I consumed. We're both a bit sunburned but well rested. Not too shabby. 

 



oh, life. you are such a kidder sometimes. and a jerk.

Oh well hello there. I guess I took an unplanned blogging break there, didn't I? Sometimes the words don't flow and it's best not to force them. Also, I've been pretty boring lately and haven't picked up my camera in awhile. It's been giving me the stink eye so I guess I should remedy that soon.

June was pretty uneventful. My belly got fatter, husband finished up his first school year in PA, we debated on where to move at the end of the month, and - oh yea - my belly got even more fatter. All in all, a pretty uninspiring month. Sometimes that happens. However, I guess July has another thing in store for me.

Ever have one of those weeks where you just feel like giving your life the big ol' finger? That's this week for me. Nothing catastrophic has happened, but nothing has really gone right either. I took this week off from work but mostly I've been thinking I should have just saved my vacation days. However, you get to the point where you just have to laugh.

Because you'll have a day where you try to rally. You will be in a good mood and you will have a good day. You decide go to a pool. You're going to throw caution to the wind and dress your big pregnant belly in your pre-pregnancy bikini and say screw anyone who looks at me funny. And it will be a disaster from the get-go. It will be unbelievably crowded with some real stand-up looking citizens (on the plus side you will feel amazingly good looking and thin) and the line will be a million people long and you have no idea what you were thinking of when you decided to go to a public pool on the 4th of July. Pregnancy hormones will have clouded your brain. And obviously your husband is too scared of you these days to object.

And then? Then? The moment you have paid your way and made it inside they will close the pool for "fecal contamination". That's right, someone's kid will have pooped in the pool. And all you can do is laugh. Because, really, what else can you do?

So Happy 4th of July, everyone. We're going to attempt to see some fireworks tonight so cross your fingers for me. Anything could happen.