What's It Like to be Pregnant?

Dear friends,

After my ranting post the other day, somebody brought up the question - what ARE you feeling, anyhow?  What is it like for you to be pregnant?

Kejmo gave the baby a hug right before I left for Virginia - she wrapped her
arms around my tummy and gave the baby lots of love! 

Truth to be told, I feel like every day I'm waiting to find out.  I'm curious, too - when will It All Begin!?  When will I Feel Really Pregnant!??

For the first few months (i.e. most of the time we were in California) I felt disinterested in food frequently, and sleepy from time to time.  Mr H encouraged me to take walks with him in the evenings when I felt woozy, but of course I couldn't tell anybody how I felt because I wasn't even sure yet if I was pregnant; plus, if I was, I wanted to share the big news when we went home for Christmas.  Since I wasn't complaining and griping and I was, more than anything, just having to cover up my "symptoms" and go about daily life, I never got to indulge in feeling lousy and so I think I was protected from feeling too lousy.  From growing it bigger in my mind, if you will!

Turns out I was pregnant (I finally took a pregnancy test around 3 months ... am I lazy or what?) and a doctor in California confirmed it for us.  By this time, I felt great again and I was happily going to yoga classes, kickboxing classes, and running every morning as per my former usual activities.

As you know, we shared the news with our family on Christmas leave, and they were overwhelmed with happiness for us!

Ever since I returned to Washington in January of 2012, I attended daily fitness classes to stay flexible and strong for the duration of the pregnancy and labor.  Since prior to pregnancy I had been practicing hot yoga every day (yoga for flexibility and strength, in a room heated to about 100 degrees with high humidity and excellent airflow!), I planned to continue doing so.  I asked the doctor in California about this, and she said she heartily recommended I continue with it as I had been doing it previously.

I was blessed to suffer no more sickness and very rare experiences of puking, and so my daily exercise was unhindered for the most part by any weird feelings.  There were two days, consecutive, that I pretty much just sat in class and observed, for fear of losing my stomach contents; but other than that, I practiced with as much freedom as I had prior to gestating an infant in my belly.

Between 4 and 5 months

A little farther along ... 

With all of the deep spine bends and strengthening I've been experiencing through the fitness classes, I haven't had to worry about any back-aches or stiffness.  My stomach has stayed strong and muscular, and I can still see the outline of strong abdominal muscles through a t-shirt!  My legs and arms are always being worked so they, too have retained their strength.  Pelvic floor strength is a part of almost every pose, and so every muscle I will be using to help birth the baby is getting exercised and strengthened daily - hopefully, this comes into play when the baby is coming!

Mr H, leery and a little disgusted - "What are these, baby's first yoga pants?!"

I'm only at about seven and half months along, so all this could change.  I could become too fatigued to carry on with daily exercise, or get sick a lot, or any one of a hundred thousand things that my body could experience during this process of growth.  I don't worry about those things, though; quite frankly, I ignore them altogether.  I just enjoy the moment and process my experiences without passing judgement on them or deciding what a do or don't like;  I just let them be, and let them move on.

(I am on the left) At almost 7.5 months - on the road trip!
On the right: This radiant, powerful Montana-hills mama gave birth
the next day after we took this picture!  I am available to take
pictures for a small fee ... 

The only thing that I can really attribute to the pregnancy right now is an ongoing case of the hiccup/burps!  Mr H has been more than a little entertained by my less than delicate belches, which I try to cover up hastily but are too frequent to be concealed.  If anybody knows any home remedies for that, I'll take your advice in an instant!

But when I'm not hiccuping or burping, I sometimes just feel kinda fat ... pudgy ... Hmm, not sure why that would be; and sometimes I just plain forget I'm pregnant at all, until I look down and see my stomach sticking out!

Visiting the zoo the other day ... somebody asked me if I am having pregnancy
tantrums yet, and when I said I don't know what they're talking about they
accused me of lying!  If I ever presume to throw a tantrum and blame it on
hormones and thereby justify my bad behavior, please put me back in this cage ... 

Mr H took Amanda and I to a mini-golf place near the beach ... I tried to say
my bad shots were because the baby was kicking but really, nobody believed me

Settling in to the new house in Virginia, a little over 31 weeks or so
along.  This was the day I had my first appointment with the midwives!
All of that traveling kinda got in the way .... 

I am curious and eager to meet this new baby soon!  Mr H has a very good time playing with the baby by poking my belly and feeling it kick back (no, we have not discovered the sex of the baby and will not know until birth!), although he wondered out loud the other day if he just jabbed the baby in the eye!  I'll keep you updated on the new experiences but, for now ... that's pregnancy for me!

Mrs H
twitter.com/_mrs_h