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Thursday, July 16, 2009

Me & My 'Pot Belly'

I have to say first off, I do love being pregnant. I’ve been SO lucky to have so far avoided “driving the porcelin bus” (as my family calls it) every morning, and have hopefully spared my husband my devil-like mood swings on most days. Yet, I am not so naïve to neglect to realize I’m only 11.5 weeks in and things have the potential and near-guarantee of getting increasingly miserable each week.

To "help" me on my journey, there are a billion pregnancy books out there. I’ve been sucked into the phenomena enough to buy one of them, thankfully I got it for $5 at the 2nd hand store. The book takes a humorous approach to the alien-like transition your body and mind will go through in the 10 months of pregnancy – yes, it actually is 10. I’m not sure if is successful at being humorous (maybe for certain topics) but it is successful at depressing me to the point of wanting a drink… and scaring the buhjesus out of me while they were at it. Obviously I shouldn’t have read ahead in the book to find out how it ends.

But my only initial complaint for the moment is what one of the pregnancy books affectionately referred to as my “pot belly”. Yes – that’s right. This whole scam of pregnant women being beautiful, glowing and voluptuous is not only a crock to those who are or have to live with a pregnant woman – but even the books themselves call B.S. on such a thing! Literally, at the stage I am at in my pregnancy, apparently it is common for women to have a pot belly. Gee - what an affectionate way to refer to the miracle growing inside of me. Despite the fact that every day about 2pm I try to sneak into the bathroom and take a nap on the toilet, and that my hormones have me raging and laughing within a matter of minutes, let’s go ahead and insult the newly-pregnant women and her body while we are at it!

Long story short, every day I get to wake up and drag this pot belly to the closet to find out what clothes I can squeeze into without looking like an overfed 2-year-old toddler. I have to say, this in-between stage between the suspicious whispers of “she has had a few too many doughnuts” or “is she pregnant” tend to do some damage to your self-esteem on top of everything else you are learning how to deal with.

Now with that said, in the end it is totally worth it. The few glimpses I’ve been blessed to have of this baby via ultrasound have brought tears to my eyes and a smile to my soul. I am anxious to move past the pot belly, and begin to see and feel the baby growing. I realize I’ll likely eat the words above 6 months from now, but right now I am looking forward to an awesome future of getting to know “baby K”.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Need More Patience

pa·tience (noun): good-natured tolerance of delay.

Patience is a virtue – one that I have not been blessed with. Fortunately, I can blame this one on my dad. As much as I love him, he is one of the most impatient people I know (other than me). Patience requires us to “wait calmly for something to happen without complaining.” Wow – sound virtually impossible to me.

But I acknowledge that patience is something I could use a little more of these days. Now don’t get me wrong, I am NOT complaining, but I am overly-anxious for things to happen. For instance, Eric and I are now living in a tiny 2-bedroom apartment that is the worst I’ve endured since college. Each day drags along while we “patiently” wait for our new house to be finished. We go out once each week to see what progress they have made, to which each time we go I’m disappointed that they didn’t get more done! Thank God I married a man who keeps me grounded and deals calmly with my impatience on a daily basis. Basically, the construction of our new house is progressing normally, but it can’t come soon enough for me!

Another aspect of life right now that requires patience is my pregnancy. I am 10 weeks, and being a first-time mom and someone who has waited years for this, I am impatient with the progress. I can’t wait to feel the baby move, I can’t wait to find out the sex and pick a name, I can’t wait to buy cute clothes and design a nursery…and I can’t wait to meet this beautiful miracle baby. Again, I make progress every day but it just can’t happen quickly enough for someone impatient like me. Despite my own desires, I realize that the greatest things in life are worth waiting for – and this is definitely no exception.

But to help counteract my impatience, I have begun to find something to look forward to each and every day. I hope it helps keep me more grounded and focused on the joy of the immediate future. I love my life and look forward to every single day that I get to share with my friends and family. I may struggle with being impatient with some of the more exciting and monumental things in my life, but every day has its own blessings, and I’m not too impatient to realize that.