Whoa . . . That is One Fat Belly!

Well, it's official: I'm pregnant. (Duh!) What I mean is, all of the sudden I feel like I am turning into a "real" pregnant lady. I feel very blessed by the pregnancy that I have had. Now don't get me wrong, my pregnancy hasn't been a piece of cake, but it has been a BREEZE compared to some of the pregnancies that I have watched my friends go through. There have been things to whine to my sisters about, such as enough heartburn, backache, and largely unmedicated headaches and colds to drive me insane, but I haven't had any major complications, or even gained a ton of weight or gotten swollen. (Two things my pregnant friends are always complaining about.) Until now. This week I went to my doctor appointment and I had gained SEVEN POUNDS in 3 weeks! That may not seem like much to you, but I had only gained about 20 in the 32 weeks preceding that---which included the holidays! I had been gaining 0 or 1 pound per week all along, and then WHAM . . . it started to stack on. I must say, I was thoroughly shocked. If it hadn't been in a doctor's office on a reliable scale I would have thought it was a mistake. A few days before that I had also noticed that my feet were swollen. Logan says he can't see a difference, so maybe I'm paranoid, but they sure look and feel swollen to me, and besides, I don't think your shoes can get tighter just from paranoia! :) Finally, I got this pregnancy yoga DVD and about two weeks ago I was doing it and she kept saying things like, "If you're in your third trimester, sit on a chair to modify the pose..." I kept thinking, "Give me a break, lady! I'm a former dancer for crying out loud, I do not have to sit on a chair to stretch my sides!" Yeah, today I needed the chair. I guess that'll show me. So, in honor of my now rapidly swelling belly (and feet), I am going to post one of my family's favorite funny stories from the end of my mother's life. Here goes . . .

At the end of my mom's life she was constantly doped up on morphine because of the intense pain she was in. Because of this she returned to an almost childlike state of mind, very sweet and very blunt. You must understand this because normally my mother would just roll her eyes and laugh at me if I said something like I say in the story below. But, thanks to the morphine, she was in rare form. Ok, I have always been a person that gets very, very uncomfortably bloated, and I have also always been a person that is paranoid about sucking in and feeling like "I look pregnant!" when I'm bloated. (Umm....now I know.) One night my boyfriend and I were standing in the kitchen when my mom came in. I pulled up my shirt and said, "Mooooom! Look how bloated I am! I look pregnant!" She took a good, long look at my belly and then said in a perfectly serious and monotone voice, "Whoa. That is one fat belly!" :) My boyfriend at the time had an absurd laugh, and he was laughing so loud and hard that the whole family came running to see what had happened. It is one of our favorite catch-phrases to this day. (And now it actually makes sense!)

Only 5 more weeks to go!

Best Thing Since I Last Blogged: My amazing final baby shower given by my Aunt Muriel and my mom's best friend, Jane Thomas. I will post on it as soon as possible. I am waiting for someone to email me a few pictures that I want to use in the post.

Worst Thing Since I Last Blogged: We feel like we are living in a sauna! The radiators in our new apartment pump out so much steamy heat that it is insane! No matter how cold it is outside, we sleep with our windows open and only a sheet and I STILL wake up sweaty and uncomfortable. The knobs are stuck on full blast. I have bugged the maintenance people about it a couple of times, so hopefully they will get to it soon! At least we don't pay for the heat.