What I Have Enjoyed With My Pregnancy

Well hello again blog world! I hope everyone has enjoyed their Monday. Mine was pretty busy for a person who is 36 weeks and 5 days pregnant. I'm so ready ( and so not) to get meet my little man. Being pregnant in Florida during the summer is  no joke! Now that I am in my air conditioned home, I have had the chance to just sit and think of things. Really, there isn't much I can do these days.

Anyway...like I said I have had the chance to just sit and think of things today. As the end of my pregnant adventure draws nearer I started to think of the things I really hated about being pregnant and the things I really enjoyed. It is easy to to focus on the negative aspects of pregnancy, the things no one tells you about before you get pregnant and then suddenly once you are everyone who has been pregnant shares. For instance I could really focus on how I hated having "morning" sickness for eternity, or how I was overweight when I became pregnant and hated the pressure of my doctor watching my weight like a hawk. I could focus on how little by little I couldn't participate in the things I enjoyed doing or that I felt like some friendships became strained. The fact is I could go on and on.

I have taken little time to really stop and appreciate what I have enjoyed about being pregnant. This probably because I believe that I do not have to love being pregnant. I know I'm blessed and that because I want kids doesn't necessarily mean I would have them.  It has not been glamorous. I'm always constantly worried that something bad is going to happen. When I stopped to think about it, there are some things I have enjoyed.

1. Feeling my baby move - This has been the most amazing experience of all. When he squirms or jabs me it makes me pause and realize that I am actually growing another human being. How lucky am I?

2. My new appreciation for vegetables - One of the reasons I am fat is because I have a difficult time eating right. If you've read some of my earlier posts, my relationship with food is strained and I am teaching myself to look food in a different light. While fruit and I will always have issues, over the years I have developed a taste for veggies. Now that I'm pregnant I really enjoy them! Ask me how I feel about zucchini now. Go ahead. I LOVE IT! You want me to eat only chicken and vegetable stir-fry without any type of rice? Yes, I will and I'll even eat the mushrooms too. When I couldn't stand the sight or smell of meat sometimes all I ate were veggies and guess what - I WAS OKAY WITH IT!

3. Breaking my soda addiction - I have stepped away from the diet soda, as well as Crystal Light, during my pregnancy. I had enough people scare me about phenylalanine and what it could possible do to a growing fetus. Also, I really should be drinking water most of the time. I tried to drink regular soda every now and then in the beginning because I was craving it, but it didn't work out. I found it too sweet. I only get a Sprite on occasion and even then it has to have a lot of ice because I find it too sweet and want it watered down. I hope I can continue this trend for post pregnancy living. I'm not going to deny myself a diet soda once in a while because I do enjoy it and life is about things in moderation. I just don't think I'll need 2-3 cans of it a day.

4. Mick becoming more lovey - I have two awesome cats named Sam and Mick. Sam is older and more cuddly. Mick is younger and can be prickly. Since becoming pregnant both cats have picked up on something about me changing. Sam could care less at this point, but Mick now loves to find me and snuggle up near my belly. He either wants to sit on it (ouch! no!) or cuddle up right next to it and rest his head on my belly. He gets all snugly and starts purring like a purr machine. It's really quite sweet. I also have hormonal days when I feel bad about leaving my cats at home by themselves for a certain period of time. I won't miss pregnancy hormones!

I'll feel bad if I don't mention my husband. I always enjoy his company. It's a given. He's been really awesome throughout this whole process. I can't wait for the moment when he gets to meet his son because the poor man has yet to feel the baby move. It's all that extra padding. I love him to death and know he'll be an awesome daddy because he's been a great partner during my pregnancy.

Well that's all for today folks. Tomorrow brings Tuesday and that is just one day closer to the weekend!

I'm Back and I'll Be Better Than Ever!

I cannot believe how long it has been since I have logged into this blog and felt like writing. Really, December was my last post? Oh my, so much has happened since then. Like this one big thing - I found I was pregnant!

That's right folks. My husband and I are expecting our first little one in 3 weeks and 5 days. If you wondered where I went off to, I entered Pregnancy Land. I have not felt like myself for most of it and finally I've been itching to feel like myself again. "Feel like myself again"....I wonder how that is going to work after our little man gets here.

According to the date of my last post it wasn't too long after that I found out I was expecting. My husband and I were overjoyed, scared, excited and a bunch of other emotions. Okay, I think he was mostly in shock for a bit. A lot of things changed once I found out that I was going to be a mommy; from my body to my emotions. I'm apologize to my readers because you were important to me. However, I couldn't think of sharing because for most of my pregnancy I was so afraid and miserable.

 Christmas Day, which was 5 or 6 weeks into my pregnancy, I spotted a lot and it scared me so much. I thought that I did something to make it happen. Even though I was only pregnant for that short amount of time the thought of losing my tiny miracle gripped me with fear that I couldn't describe. I drove straight home from a family dinner, drank lots of water and put my feet up. I didn't want to do anything to jeopardize my pregnancy.

I was good for another few weeks, everything seemed to be fine and then morning sickness hit. Let me rephrase- it was EVERY MOMENT OF THE DAY sickness. I've read a funny little quote somewhere that men were the ones to give that awful period during a woman's pregnancy the  name "morning sickness" and I would be inclined to agree. Those men got it wrong. I was miserable for so long. I was not enjoying a moment of having this little jelly bean grow inside of me. I think I lost a good 10 pounds during that time. This kind of helped me in the long run because my doctor only wanted me to gain around 10-15 pounds during my entire pregnancy. If you don't remember, I wasn't exactly at my goal weight when I got pregnant.

Being pregnant during your first year of teaching is no joke. While I worked hard to keep my sickness hidden from my students, it took every bit of energy I had within me to do it. I didn't think it was fair to feel miserable in front of them. I still wanted to be a great teacher for them. With that and and everything that we call life I was pretty exhausted once I got home. I ate mashed potatoes or toast when I could. There were days when I could stomach chicken soup. In the end I really did not feel up to continuing a blog about feeling and getting healthy when I felt so miserable. I just wanted to focus on getting through my pregnancy as healthy as possible and that turned into me shutting out a lot of things in my life because I became overly cautious.

With the end in sight I am beginning to get excited about continuing my weight loss journey again. I realize that I will have new challenges to face. Right now I'm jobless (budget cuts in my county led to that), I'll have a newborn to take care of and I'll still have the role of a wife to fill. It's going to be a challenge, but I like a challenge. I have so much to look forward to and be thankful for.

Right now I have this picture in my head of my son sitting in his baby seat in the living room. I'm watching him and working on squats while making faces at him. They're probably faces of pain because, oh my goodness I feel so out of use. I feel like the Tin Man when Dorothy found him. Anyway, the faces of pain will probably amuse him. Even though I'm working hard, it hurts and even though I'm most likely sweaty I know I'm happy. I getting healthy again while making exercise the norm in my son's eyes. I'm excited to make that picture in my mind a reality.

So I'm back. I'm going to try to be better than ever. I left off doing well with 30 Day Shred, Weight Watchers and kickball and I'm going to pick it right back up again. I hope you'll join me on this continuing journey because the pit stop is so close to being over!