As I kind of guessed, a lot of you want to know how this pregnancy is going.  It’s weird, pregnancy changes my personality a lot – if not obviously to others, definitely internally.  I become really insular and private.  I feel kind of like a mother cat hiding under the bed hissing at well-meaning intruders.  But, I can recognize it’s hormonal, and a tad nutty, and I’m going to step outside of the comfort zone so that you all aren’t left entirely in the dark.  I’m a good person like that.

I’ll talk more about the photography things and the other questions in later posts – and feel free to leave more if you’re interested!

Susan asked, “Has it been easier to be so far into the pregnancy in the winter, compared to the summer?”

Honestly?  I thought it would.  I was thrilled about a February due date, especially as compared to Dorrie’s late July birthday which also managed to happen during one of the worst heat waves in years.  But no.  Winter in Chicago sucks while pregnant.  The three main reasons – ice, winter colds, and issues with getting to the hospital.

The ice sucks huge hairy donkey balls.  It’s all well and good for people to say “be careful you don’t slip and fall,” but they are not thrown completely and totally off balance by close to 50 lbs of weight carried entirely on the front.  Thankfully (and knocking hard on wood), I haven’t fallen.  But on Christmas Eve I slipped on some ice while carrying Dorrie and managed to not fall, but in the process pulled something in my pelvis that made getting into and out of cars and climbing stairs excruciatingly painful.  Two days of trying to avoid moving my legs at all (days which of course involved Christmas and 2.5 hour drives and visiting family in various places) and not being able to sleep and I was about to call the midwife – but then it suddenly started getting better fairly dramatically and I’m back to normal.  But now I am practically PTSD about ice.  Not interested in messing about with that crap again.

Pregnancy suppresses your immune system which sucks during winter.  I don’t get sinus infections really – I get some colds with sinus pressure, but over New Years (yeah, it was a lovely holiday season this year) I got a sinus infection that had me honest to goodness thinking seriously about using my husband’s drill to drill a vent hole or two in my cheekbone.  Simply Saline helped quite a bit and I am now over it, but the thought of another sinus infection makes me cringe.  Certainly I’ve had a lot more colds this time around, and it seems like every time I’m within 100 feet of someone with a cold I get it.

Extra stuff to worry about is my favorite part though.  Especially since I’m going to a hospital 50 minutes away with no traffic at all.  Mid-February would be prime time for a blizzard, or ice storm, etc.   I mean rush hour would/will suck either way – but add in a blizzard and I think we’ll be nicknaming the baby “Tri-State” or possibly “Eisenhower.”

All that said though – I didn’t have kidney stones with this kid. Therefore I’m continuing on with my policy of not complaining about a damn thing as long as I don’t get kidney stones ever again.   (And yes, kidney stones are aboslutely 100% worse pain than childbirth.)

Dawn and Bronwyn both are wondering how I and “fetus 2.0″ are doing.

Aside from the above complaints, really well.  It’s been nice to have an uneventful, relatively side-effect-free pregnancy.  Dorrie’s excited, we’re excited, everyone’s pretty boringly happy.  I am getting to the stage where I constantly have someone else’s kneecap lodged in my rib cage, but really it’s been pretty enjoyable on the whole.

Miz S says, “Are you happy that your husband doesn’t have to take the bar at the exact same time that the baby will be born?”

O. M. Effing. G. Yes.  And he had best not miss this one, even if he has to put off an appendectomy or something.

Beth, who is obviously a bit of a snot, is requesting belly pictures.  It’s pretty far out of my comfort zone to even be taking them, but I’m working on my photography and do have some decent ones.  And really, I invited the requests for an overshare so it’s all my fault.  But you’re going to have to make do with a small-sized silhouette one, and like it.

This is from 33.5ish weeks – I’m now at 35.5.  Yes, I do look like I’m going to topple over.  No, I am not measuring ahead in the least (the midwife will measure fundal hight which is supposed to be within 2 inches either way of the number of weeks you are – at 34.5 weeks I was 34.5 inches).  Yes, if you ask me if I’m having twins I will sucker punch you in the kidney.  When you’re 5′2″ there’s only so much space for a baby to hang out before it starts going straight forward.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 8:32 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.