Last Pregnancy Gripe, I Promise!

T-minus ten days! Not that I'm counting down or anything...

I've tried to avoid complaining too much (at least on my blog!), but, man, I need to VENT!

I am so sick of being pregnant. People keep asking me how I'm feeling and I never know whether I should really tell the truth. My nurses ask weekly, "Any pain?" and I'm like, "Do you want a list?" Of the symptoms that are blog-appropriate, here are a few that make life relatively miserable for me (and, by association, Zach):

Heartburn. Tums are my friends. I bring them everywhere. Everything gives me heartburn. Especially an empty stomach. Heartburn wakes me up at night. I have to keep a little pile of Tums next to the bed so I can just pop them in and get back to sleep. (That's how Isaac got a hold of them, by the way.)

Sore hips and everything connected to my hips. Turning over in bed is like torture. Getting out of bed is worse. However, this symptom isn't quite as bad now that I've realized that actually moving around a lot makes it better rather than worse--after sitting on the floor to play with Izey in lots of different positions throughout the day, my hips are less sore.

Getting beat up internally. It always cracks me up when I put my hand on my belly to try to keep my son's limbs from poking through my skin and people stay, "Oh, is he kicking?" First of all, this child does not have room to "kick." It's more of an attempt to get out through my belly button or to make more room in this tiny space for his big fat self. Momma's organs and feelings be damned! Secondly, um, yes, he is always moving. It is really freaky looking now and I'm pretty self-conscious about being around a lot of people, especially if there are people who haven't been around a lot of preggers. You can see arms, knees, elbows, or a butt sticking way out and moving all around. Through my clothes. From across a room. And yes, it looks exactly like the scene in the movie Alien.

Swelling. It's not the worst symptom, but I have had to take off my wedding ring because it was starting to hurt. At the end of some days, you can no longer make out my ankle bones.

Contractions. I've been having Braxton Hickes contractions for at least two months. Whenever you read a definition of these "fake" contractions, it says that they don't hurt. I beg to differ. They are also annoying because when I went into labor with Izey, it started with what felt to me just like all the other Braxton Hickes contractions I had been having. These days I probably have 15 to 20 contractions per day. So, that many times, I think, "Is this the start of labor?" It's torture!

Stretching. I am so proud of myself because I have gained 31 pounds so far, as opposed to 45 wtih Isaac. So while most of my body is out of shape due to lack of exercise, at least it's not much bigger. Most people tell me that I look good, that I'm all belly, that I look smaller than I did with Izey. (One guy, actually the same guy who made a rude comment about my hair way back when I dyed it from blonde to brown, kept going on and on about how I was so much bigger this time than I was last time, but he, apparently, is an idiot.) So that's good. Sadly, though, I'm getting more stretch marks this time. I'm not too worried about them because they did fade SO significantly between pregnancies, but it's never fun to see them show up and lengthen each day. I also feel like my belly is stretching by the minute sometimes. It feels like someone opened up my skin, stuck a heavy bowling ball in it, sewed it back up, and then pushed down on the bowling ball. And lately Thor keeps stretching out his body and pressing his head down as far as he can, which doesn't help matters!

There are others, but I'll spare you.

What I am thankful for, though, is that I am still sleeping really soundly (knock on wood!) except for having to get up once to pee and eat some Tums.

Another fun symptom is that I'm totally nesting. Not every day--in fact, today I just feel like a big lump--but I've had at least three days where the urge to clean and stock up is insatiable. Last week I scrubbed the condo clean, and having run out of rooms inside to clean, yesterday I tackled the inside of our car like it's never been cleaned before.

I'm off to nap, but sometime soon I'll try to post about all the non-physical stuff of getting ready for Thor's arrival. Unless, of course, he wants to make that arrival sooner!