The Pregnancy Books Were Right

Everything the pregnancy books have said would happen is happening. Okay, maybe not everything is happening, but a lot of things are. To name a few:

*The other night, my husband woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me that I was snoring. Well, he claims that he was nudging me to try to get me to stop, but the end result was that he woke me up. Since pregnancy sometimes causes nasal congestion, I guess now I'm a snorer. Lovely. This will make the perfect addition to my other nightly habits of being startled awake by a sharp leg cramp in my lower calf, and of having to get out of bed to pee 12 times.

*The requisite pregnancy lower back pain has started to kick in — maybe because my belly is finally really growing.

*Then, there are the headaches I've been having. Weirdly, the headaches I used to get pre-pregnancy went away for the most part during my first trimester. I thought the reprieve I enjoyed then was possibly due to the fact that I was avoiding all artificial sweeteners. But now that my headaches are back and I'm still avoiding artificial sweeteners, I guess my headache-free first trimester was a side effect of the pregnancy hormones — one of the few hormonal side effects that are positive.

*Speaking of hormones, they are definitely in full swing as far as my mood is concerned — just as the books said they would be. This weekend I had a major crying fit over issues large and small, including work stress, figuring out our post-baby budget, the fact that Lucy — our dog — got hold of a pen and got ink on our couch, and how hard it is to find reasonably-priced toxin-free organic furniture for the nursery — more on that another day, by the way.

So, basically, I'm the stereotypical pregnant chick — I am a snoring, achy, weepy, big-bellied person. So far, my feet haven't started to swell, and I'm crossing my fingers — and toes, while I can — that I don't have to deal with that one.

The really good news, though, is that despite these minor annoyances, I'm actually loving being pregnant. My overriding emotion (when I'm not crying) is amazement, however cheesy that sounds. I love looking at my growing tummy, I LOVE feeling my baby moving around inside, I love it when my husband can feel her move too, I love hearing her heartbeat at my midwife appointments, I love reading about how she's developing each week, and I love imagining how wonderful it will be to take care of her and get to know her after she's born. Every change my body undergoes, no matter how weird, is pretty miraculous. I still can't quite believe that my body knows how to do this. So, when it comes down to it, I'm counting myself pretty lucky to be the stereotypical pregnant chick — snoring and all.