Thursday, March 15, 2012

Pros and cons

Negatives to NOT being on bedrest while pregnant:
• Taking the subway with the masses every day to and from work, and sometimes even (gasp!) having to stand.
• Spending money on new maternity clothes, despite the fact that this is my second and most likely final pregnancy. I was so smug last time around about how I "didn't get very big" and "barely bought any maternity clothes." Well, it turns out that when you actually leave the house and interact with other human beings every day instead of lying on the couch in yoga pants and a hoodie, you do need to purchase tops that cover your belly so you can look professional (on weekdays) or at least presentable (on weekends).

Positives to not being on bedrest:
• Pretty much everything else.

It's hard to believe that I'm almost 21 weeks pregnant. At this point with Bat Girl, I was already on severe activity restrictions and just a couple weeks away from being grounded for good. I was seeing my OB every 2 weeks, getting cervical measurements every time, and I just looked back at my entries from October 2006 and saw she started doing fetal fibronectin swabs around this time too. I was counting contractions every hour of every day.

Now, I'm just going about my days. I work, I take care of BG, I run errands. I walk places. I take stairs, unless I'm feeling out of breath. I feel the baby move every day. Sometimes I notice a contraction--they happen pretty much every day--but often they barely even register. I've even attempted to have sex with my husband, though the logistics of pregnant sex have proved very confounding. (We weren't allowed last time around, so this is all new.)

It is so new, so miraculous to me, this interacting with the world while gestating another human being. I can go to Target and the farmer's market! I can walk up hills and go out to dinner! When someone says, "Do you want to sit?" I sometimes say, "No, that's okay, I'm fine standing"! (Not always; come on, I'm lazy and sitting is nice.) I'm planning an IKEA trip to get a new bed and dresser for Bat Girl, and decided that the best time for us to make the trip and do all the furniture shuffling would be early June. June! Less than 2 months before my due date!

Eventually I'll get tired of writing these posts about how great it is to be normal, but that sure hasn't happened yet.

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