Cute and distorted

When I see pregnant women at the grocery store, I used to think how cute such a big belly is. Now, I still think that, but it's not the first thought that enters my mind, its the second. The first is, If I feel this miserable now, what am I going to feel like when I look like THAT? I'm about halfway to D-day, and my baby bump just started to be noticeably baby.

My hips ache constantly. I visit the chiropractor weekly, and last week's appointment only bought me about 15 minutes of relief before my joint felt like an unoiled hinge again. Most of the time, its just the left hip, but sometimes, lying on one side will make that hip ache, so I'll turn to the other side for a little relief, and then that hip will start aching…

On some days, I get enough sleep for two, on others, I can't seem to manage to doze off for more than an hour or two at a time. Most of the time it’s because my mind just keeps spinning, thinking about everything, but mostly about the baby. Other times, it’s because I have to get up and pee every two hours.

Did I mention constant trips to the bathroom? The OB nurse told me I should be getting 64 ounces of water a day, and though I try my best, if I'm being honest, I usually only get half that. Still, sipping water all day along with whatever I drink with my meals, I visit the restroom at least twice as often as I did before I was pregnant, on a good day. Some nights, I get up three or four times.

The skin on my tummy already feels taut. Upping the frequency of the cocoa butter seems to have helped some, but it definitely makes me wonder what my skin is going to feel like and look like come October. My skin has stretched enough to accommodate a small cantaloupe, maybe smaller, I'm sure by October it will have stretched to accommodate a watermelon.

My comfortable room temperature now only has a range of about five degrees. In the past few weeks, Michigan has seen weather in the upper 80s and low 90s. If I take a walk outside on my lunch break, I start to feel overheated. When I get back into the office (with air conditioning set at 72, a temp comfortable for most people), I'm adding a sweater (or sometimes two) within five minutes.

In less than two weeks, hardly noticeable flutters have turned into kicks big enough for Dad to feel if he's patient enough. Kicks and flutters are a pretty awesome feeling, so I hope I never get tired of them, but as Trouble runs out of room, I have the feeling kicks and punches might get a little uncomfortable, or at least increase those trips to the bathroom (see above).

I've always thought pregnant women had a particular cuteness about them, but never gave quite as much thought to how all of the extra “cuteness” distorted the body's regular functions—I hope in the next 19 weeks or so, I'm feeling more cute than distorted.