I try to avoid talking in fine detail about the various quirks and maladies that accompany pregnancy. But with going on three stints at nine months apiece, I think I'm managing to rack up quite a few of the various and sundry side effects of growing a human being.
It's amazing, really, the way a body can go from barely 100 pounds to full-fledged incubator for a 7-pound child and then back to normal again in just a year's span. Besides the swollen belly, pregnancy has also toted along a great collection of symptoms that have seemed entirely unnecessary to the process. They have ranged from the commonplace -- moderate to severe morning sickness, heartburn, round-ligament pain -- to the more obscure, such as my propensity to grow thick, luscious tresses on my head, while my leg hair completely disappears for about five straight months.
This time around, the list includes a very gnarly varicose vein that spans my entire left leg, which is apparently of no consequence to my well-being, but is unsightly and at times uncomfortable. So upon recommendation from my midwife, I brought home a giant rubber exercise ball a few weeks ago to use as furniture after a day of sitting and standing makes me uncomfortable.
C calls it my bouncy ball. L slides the regular dining chair away from the table at supper time and rolls my special ball into my place while setting out forks and plates. The kiddos delight when they see me bobbing ever-so-slightly side-to-side and up and down at the dinner table--because you just can't keep perfectly still while roosting atop a giant rubber ball.
It's silly the things you endure for the growth and birth of a little child, but you do what you have to until it's all over and a tiny person is staring up at you in total adoration. I suspect Tiny Baby will have a special affection for bouncing and rolling.
You know I call that a birth ball and highly reccomend it during labor for both mom and husband. I'll be glad to talk to you about that and you can google it, too. Tiny baby looks like he/she's growing nicely. OHHHHHHHHHH
ReplyDeleteI know of its birth-ball properties and was all set to use it while laboring L, but it never felt comfortable to me. Perhaps this time around...that's one of the reasons we purchased it, plus N has plans to use it for sit-ups.
ReplyDeleteMy leg hair or under my arm doesn't grow either when I'm pregnant. It's such a nice break...this is probably way more info about me than you wanted to know:)
ReplyDeleteI am so jealous about the no leg hair part. Cause it's not like it's easy to contort enough in the shower during the 8th month to get a good shave. It's rather demeaning :)
ReplyDeleteI loved sitting on our birth ball when I was pregnant with Lauren, and planned to use it during her labor, too. But when the time came, I never thought past, HUSBAND! I need you to hold me STAT! Anything that got in the way of our 'baby dance' was deemed the enemy. Poor birth ball.
Ha, ha! A--you're the only other person that I know who shares that same pregnancy hairlessness. So glad you shared!
ReplyDeleteS--I think that birth dance sounds so sweet. I don't know if I ever danced with N, but I sure did a lot of leaning and dangling.