David and Madi: Pregnancy

I was thinking I should document my pregnancy before I actually have this kid and seeing as how I'm now over 40 weeks, I'm going to take care of that now . . . just in case. Although at this point, I'm fairly convinced that the baby is too comfortable in there/realizes that we have no idea what we are doing and has decided not to come out, ever, so I probably have loads of time to write this post.

All in all, I'd say pregnancy is not too bad. This one hasn't been, at least. I mean, uncomfortable, yes. Emotional. Pukey. Exhausting. Gross, sometimes. Occasionally miserable, even. All those things. But also pretty incredible. I feel lucky to be doing it. Lucky that it has all been working so well. Although I guess luck has nothing to do with it, really.

We found out about this baby early in the morning on September 14th. We'd suspected and bought a test, but I was too nervous to take it for a few days. That morning, I woke up at 6:30, couldn't fall back asleep and decided to bite the bullet. A few minutes later, I crawled back into a bed with a stick that read PREGNANT and showed it to David, who woke up faster than he has ever woken up in his life. And then we went back to sleep, because sleep is how we celebrate.

I spent most of the first trimester reading stroller reviews online and feeling miserably nauseated. Which is why my professors were most of the first people to find out I was pregnant—I didn't want them to be offended and/or fail me because I was leaving class so often to go lay on my stomach in a bathroom stall. (And can I just say, the fact that I was touching the floor of public bathroom stalls at all, never mind spreading my entire body across them, is a testament to me, now that I no longer remember that particular feeling of impending vomit, that I was really, painfully nauseated almost all of the time.) Then the second trimester came and I was so excited because everybody says that's when the nausea leaves and it didn't leave. And it didn't leave and it didn't leave and I never wanted to eat food again in my life right through my 20th week, when I discovered that protein is kind of important, stopped feeding myself a diet of crackers and soup, and promptly got over the nausea (for the most part.) That's been working since then; as long as I'm eating well (lots and lots of eggs), I feel good.

Once we figured out the nausea thing, everything started looking up. It took me a while to show very much, which I was a little sad about at the time, but now am very grateful for, as it meant that I wasn't in those adorable maternity clothes until about week 37, at which point we moved to New Jersey, where I have nothing to do and mostly watch "Gilmore Girls" in my sweats all day, further avoiding maternity clothes.

I feel like I've been very lucky, particularly with sleeping, which I am still pro at. I'm sure the baby will ruin my sleep, but being pregnant hasn't, which is downright wonderful. If sleep were a boy, I would marry it. Actually, David just might be the human equivalent of sleep. I chose wisely.

Other things: better skin. Head hair grows fast, but leg hair is almost non-existent. Lots of food aversions, but not many cravings (except desserts for the past few weeks. And breakfast food, but that has always been true of me.) The intermittent unexplainable crying didn't show up until about April and mostly had to do with not wanting to write end-of-term papers (and also hating some of my students pretty badly.)

My very favorite part is feeling the baby move. I started feeling little flutters, like nerves twitching, during week 14. David felt a kick for the first time on New Year's Day, about 5 weeks after that. During February and March, it started looking like the baby was doing the worm in there, and soon we could distinguish body parts: feet, elbows, a little bum. Every few days, the baby gets hiccups and I can feel little rhythmic bursts right where its back is pressed up on the left side of my belly. I love it. A lot.

Waiting to go into labor these last few days feels sort of like I trained for a marathon for months and months and now I'm lined up at the starting line and the gun guy won't let me start. I mean, I know the marathon is going to be hard and everything and I should probably enjoy myself before I have to start running, but really, I just want to GO.

But I am being patient. Sort of. Trying. David and I are attempting to enjoy these last moments before we become the three of us. Sleeping a lot, of course :). But when it begins, if it ever begins, I am going to be so excited. Because I really, really can't wait to meet this little thing. I think it's going to be a good one.