Hey Mama!

My mom not-so-subtly reminded me yesterday that it's time for a new post. I've known this for the last 2 weeks now. I even have a few posts swimming around in my head, just haven't gotten them down yet. I told her there was a good reason - it seems the only thoughts swimming around in the mush-that-used-to-be-my-brain are complaints about pregnancy right now.

And that doesn't seem fair.

Because really I'm grateful.

I've waited 6 years for this, so I really can't complain. And in the back of my mind are always my friends I know pine and hunger for this. So as I morph what would be a complaining post into something better, I keep thinking about things I've learned over the last 7 months. In addition to the things I never expected, here are some things I learned to never say to another pregnant woman:

• "Wow! You're huge!" Yup. Yep, I am. I feel it every second of every day too. And no, I don't love it. In fact, me and the mirror are verging on becoming best frenemies right now. Thanks for the reminder.
• "Slow down there..." My cousin Devin said this to me while I was eating a scrumptious dessert at a family picnic for the 24th of July. I didn't think I was scarfing it down, but ever since then I have been so self-conscious about eating in front of people!
• "You're nursery isn't done yet?!?!" or "You don't have a name yet?!?! I had mine as soon as I found out what we were having!" Congrats to you. I'm seriously impressed. However, I don't roll that way, nor do I think it's all that important. So while you are inredulously blown away at my laid-back-ness, I am blown away by your Type-A-ness. The world needs us both to keep going round and round. :)

I have a feeling this list will probably keep growing and morphing into "Things I learned from labor" or "Things to never say to a new mom", etc. I guess it's time to just let go of what people think or say and realize I'm doing my best and that's okay. Plus, I hear you need pretty thick skin to be a mom, so I guess it's time to put it on.

And for my own record, here are some things I want to remember about being 34 weeks and in my last trimester:

• It's not so much fun anymore when she moves around. It used to be cute. Now it hurts.
• I thought I was having a heart attack yesterday because the heartburn got so bad! Not joking. I was crying on the floor trying to decide whether to call Jon or not when the thought came to mind, "you need to calm yourself down. Use your relaxation techniques you've learned for labor and relax. This will be nothing compared to labor!" I was pretty proud of myself for how quickly I was able to calm down and manage my pain.
• My driver's license should probably be revoked while pregnant. I'm a pretty assertive driver as it is, but mix that with zero patience for stupid drivers and lots of stupid drivers on the road and you get a not so happy Alyson. I don't know why the anger hormones are the ones that seem to surface most during driving, but I'm glad it's not all the time!
• This baby girl is going to have an agenda all her own, I can tell. She has already lodged herself head down into my pelvic bone, which has caused it to start separating (this happened at 30 weeks!!!) and the cartilage is now rubbing painfully against the bone bringing all sorts of fun sensations {read:pain} down there. She likes to remind me that she knows what she's doing and will come when she's ready!
• The upside of the pain down there is that, for now, she's low enough that she's not kicking any ribs out of place yet. I'll keep my fingers crossed that that continues.
• My chin looks like a pepperoni pizza right now. I don't think it's fair that not only do I have 3 chins right now, but I have red and purple spots drawing attention to it.
• I'm out of clothes to wear now that the weather is cold. I feel like I wear the same thing every day. But I'm so close now that I don't want to buy anything. So I usually end up raiding Jon's side of the closet to see if he has anything I can wear that won't act like a tourniquet on my belly. I have a feeling it might be jeans and his hoodies from here on out.

34 weeks feels so good when you're weightless in a pool!