Things I say in other places

My friend Sarah started a new blog about things that make pregnant ladies cry

http://crycrybaby.wordpress.com/

I submitted to it, because I’m an expert at that now.

Pause and return

How has it been more than a month since I last posted?

I’ve thought of things to post but for no real reason have kept quiet.  Pregnancy has made me pretty scatterbrained so I’ll just blame that.

And yes, I am still pregnant.  I am, in fact, increasing every day as I near the end of my 2nd trimester.  I’ve started taking antenatal (that’s prenatal in American) yoga classes in the hopes that they’ll help keep my arthritis from getting too bad after I give birth.  We’ve checked out a stack of baby rearing books from the library in the hopes that we’ll be able to avoid messing this baby up too much before it has the chance to fight back.  A friend of mine told me the best thing I could do would be to trust my instincts, but my instincts once told me to move to Las Vegas so I’m not so sure about that.

My 22 week scan was last week and everything was as it should be.  We saw fingers and toes waving around, and it’s very strange to think that there is a being with fingers and toes floating around inside right this very second.  Probably with hair too.  I get kicked all the time, especially in the mornings though, my daily cu of coffee makes this kid go crazy.

Jeremy and I are off to America on Friday for what will be our last trip before kid is born.  We’ll only be back for about a week as I want to save up the majority of my annual leave to take right before I officially start my official maternity leave from work.

Everything is moving at a strange speed right now.  Sometimes super fast and sometimes super slow with no real in-between.  It’s a strange state to be in. 

I worry sometimes that I come off as sort of ambivalent about this whole experience, that maybe I’m too honest when people ask me how I’m feeling.  But I don’t want to pretend to be this glowing madonna figure when actually I’m very tired and have a lousy headache and sore joints.  I am excited about this, and I can not wait to meet this baby on the outside, but at the same time growing another human in my womb is weird and not particularly beatific. 

Also, in case you were wondering, it hasn’t changed my politics even a tiny bit.  I’m still as liberal and pro-choice as ever.  In fact, being pregnant has probably made me more so.  I would never want someone who wasn’t fully invested in this process to be forced to go through with it against her will.  It was a big decision to choose to do this, and I did choose, and I was able to choose because of the actions of women and men who came before me and fought for my right to have access to a variety of birth controls, information, and medical procedures as, when, and if they were needed.

Somebody actually asked me if this pregnancy was planned when I started making the official announcements, and I was like, ‘First off, when a woman makes it past 30 it’s rude to ask that question, and second, yes, if I avoided getting knocked up before now you can rest assured that I did it on purpose now.’ 

But just for the record, dear reader(s), don’t ask people that question, it’s rude.  Unless it’s your best friend and you know she’s only been dating that new character for a few weeks. Then it’s sisterly concern.  If she’s been married/involved  for 7+ years just go ahead and make the assumption that she planned this beeswax out ahead of time.

So yeah, being pregnant, it’s amazing and scary all at once, and probably all I’ll be talking about for at least the next 17 weeks.

Well, that and macaroni and cheese which is currently the best food in the world (sorry peirogis, you’ll have your time again soon though, I’ll never quit you).