I was out to dinner at a trendy restaurant/bar in my hometown this past weekend (Lindsay Lohan’s dad was there…weird!) and I ran into a girl I haven’t seen since high school. I was walking by her table and she shouted, “Erin! Hi!” When I came over and gave her a hug, she looked me up and down and said, “What are you like 9 months pregnant?!” Um, no, beotch, I’m not. I’m not even five months pregnant, actually. Gheesh!

I guess my belly is kind of big considering I’m not due until January (and it gets bigger after I eat, that’s for sure…) but why do those comments bother me so much? It’s my second, so of course I popped sooner and I’m pregnant, I should have a belly. I’m also 5’10’’ and not exactly petite when I’m sans child. And yet it still irks me when people feel the need to state the obvious: There is something other than Cheetohs and everything bagels in my belly. When I was pregnant with Alex I was due on September 2 but I always told people “end of August” because it seemed to justify how big I was. What’s my problem? So I look pregnant. So what?

Of course there’s a flip side to all of this, which is people saying you look tiny. A friend recently told me that everyone got all concerned when she told them her due date because they never thought she looked big enough. I guess you can’t win.

How about you? Do you/did you mind when people comment on the size of your belly? What’s the worst/craziest/most annoying sizest comment you’ve ever gotten?

This is what 9 months pregnant looks like,
btw. (I gave birth to Alex a few hours after
this shot was taken.)

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Watch Rachel's belly grow over the course of her pregnancy in this slideshow!

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I'm realizing in these last weeks of pregnancy, now more than ever, that there's a reason we have the stereotypical image of pregnant women lying around with their bare feet up. It's because that's what we should all be doing at this stage! My body is aching in ways I didn't know it could ache, and when I talk to other women who are in their ninth month, they, too, feel discomfort like they've never known before (for the most part). So what is it with our society these days that we work up until our water breaks and try to keep up with normal life until the very last minute before the baby pops out?

 

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Valentine’s Day is not even half over and my day is already complete. My husband and I have plans to go to dinner tonight—much needed plans, by the way, since lately our lives have consisted of hanging around the apartment with me on the couch with a heating pad—so I was already happy that we were going to have an official date. But I just got a lovely bouquet of tulips from him delivered to my desk with a card telling me that I’m beautiful (and several other sweet things). I can’t express how nice it is to hear that someone finds me appealing and loveable while I’m the largest I’ve ever been in my life, and probably the grumpiest too. Now that is what a pregnant woman wants to hear. Of course it made me quite teary—with joy, though, this time, so it’s okay. And fortunately, I tucked a Valentine’s Day card in his bag so that he’d find it at the office and feel loved today too.
 
Even if you think Valentine’s Day is cheesy or commercial, I hope you get to share that lovin’ feeling with someone today—it definitely made me feel better. Read More

So I've been having some very intense, searing pain in my pelvis, leg and back. I had it a few times a little while ago to a lesser degree, and my midwife deduced that it was nerve pain (possibly sciatica pain). She gave me some helpful suggestions on how to alleviate it -- things like shifting position, applying heat, etc. -- similar to what the pregnancy books say about nerve pain. And from what I've read, this pain is not unusual for pregnancy, but lately, it's been back with a vengeance.
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