Pregnancy

(This is me last week at 26 weeks.)

I thought I'd update a little about my pregnancy, even though there's not much to tell. My pregnancies tend to be fairly uneventful, thankfully. This is going to be somewhat of a ramble filled with all the thoughts I've had swirling around in my head recently.

I've been feeling very grateful lately. In Relief Society last Sunday, the lesson was on learning to love ourselves so that we could better love others. The teacher had us write down 15 things we liked about ourselves. 5 that were physical aspects, 5 that were personality characteristics, and 5 that were spiritual strong points. A lot of the women were having a hard time coming up with more than 2 or 3 physical traits because they were thinking about things like "pretty eyes" or "nice legs," etc. And so I decided to show them how I'd thought outside the box with this one because I also got stumped for a minute. I raised my hand and told that I'd written down that I was a really good pregnant lady. This drew laughs, but I explained that it was something I felt was a gift. Pregnancy isn't really hard for me. I've been pregnant a total of 10 times now with 5 babies and one on the way to show for it. I don't (usually) get super sick the first trimester like many women (although this pregnancy was an exception, but I got through it). I have a really easy time getting pregnant, which I consider a HUGE blessing given all of my friends that struggle in this area. My heart aches for them.

My body stays strong throughout the pregnancies. In fact, I got teased by neighbors when I was pregnant with June for being 9 months pregnant, with Lady strapped to my back, out weeding the yard. I've had a love-hate relationship with my body for years because I've struggled with loving my body in spite of the fact that it's not at all what the media and our culture tells me it should be. At one point, my dad told me I was "Pioneer Stock." At first that statement angered me. I felt it an insult even though I knew he meant it as a compliment. I'm not ultra-feminine or dainty. And with his statement he pointed out that I wasn't the only one aware of this. But that isn't at all how he meant it. I now take that statement as a HUGE compliment. As I've grown in the gospel and in my testimony of my purpose here on earth, I've realized what a blessing it is to be "Pioneer Stock." I've grown to love my body for all of the hard things that it can do. I may not be the most shapely, feminine, or beautiful woman on earth, but my body is strong and capable and REALLY GOOD at being pregnant and giving birth. With each pregnancy, my gratitude and amazement have grown and I stand in awe of what my body can do. And for that, my body is beautiful to me, and, I believe, to my Heavenly Father. I am doing with my body what He wants me to do. I am fulfilling (at least part of) my calling here on earth by bringing these souls to earth and I'm helping to make and grow their own strong, beautiful, capable bodies. I feel Heavenly Father's love for me very strongly when I am pregnant. And I never feel more "womanly" than when I am pregnant. Even though my belly gets big much more quickly than it did in past pregnancies, I love my temporary "culturally accepted" roundness. I enjoy my new curves. :)

As far as the physical aspects of the pregnancy go, this one is going along just great. I'm in the middle of the "fun" part of the pregnancy now -- the 2nd trimester. I'm past the constant nausea and I'm not quite to the sleepless, have-to-pee-every-5-minutes, no-comfortable-position-to-sleep-in nights. I'm feeling the baby kick and squirm all the time and that is probably my most favorite part of being pregnant. I love when the baby gets the hiccups and my belly bounces. I love letting the kids feel the baby kick or roll under their hands on my belly. The kids are getting SOOO excited! And lately I've been realizing I probably need to let them all watch some birth videos with me in preparation for the birth. Especially Lady, since she keeps asking me when the baby is going to "pop out." I only wish it were that easy. :)

Having older kids that understand what is going on has been one of the best parts of being pregnant again. It's so fun to watch it through their eyes. They love to come rub my belly everyday and tell me how it's getting bigger and so that means our baby is growing strong. They pray for the baby everyday. They talk about the baby all the time. And we've pretty much settled on a boy's and a girl's name, which is unusual for me and Brent. We usually just have a "top 5" list leading up to the birth. This time we definitely have front-runners for each gender, although we do have back-ups in case the baby looks nothing like what we've chosen.

I've been listening to my Hypnobabies scripts more diligently lately. Although I need to figure out how to use my ipod correctly, apparently, since I was rudely awoken by Michael Jackson singing to me in the middle of the night last night and my ipod got flung across the room. I love my Hypnobabies time. The meditation and calm it brings into my life are a definite blessing during my normally chaotic days. It's a chance for me to relax and focus solely on my body and my baby. It helps me connect with my baby like nothing else. And like this baby's older siblings, as soon as I allow my body to relax and unwind, s/he wakes up and is ready to party and greet me with a few hard kicks. It's awesome!

My midwife, Cathy, is coming for another regular check-up tomorrow. I can't wait! I love listening to the baby's heartbeat and talking with Cathy about my awesome kids and how I can't wait to meet this new little one!

Ahhhhh. I really do love being pregnant!!!

Hint: Don't fall down the stairs while pregnant and holding a baby

Yes, Tuesday night I fell down the stairs while holding Lady. Luckily it was only about 4 stairs, not the whole staircase. But in trying to protect the baby in my arms and the unborn one in my womb, I fell a little weird. I landed on my left hip and back, my ribs on that side hit the stair above that and knocked the wind out of me for a few seconds, and then I kept sliding. I'm sure it was a lovely sight. I kind of wish somebody had been videotaping so that I could see how funny I probably looked.

Only it hasn't been so funny ever since. My hip/back hurt like crazy for a few days after, but then something bizarre started to happen. I could feel the pain start to drift up my back. It's gotten higher and higher until now it's in my shoulder. How does this happen? My shoulder was safe in the fall and now I feel like I've got a knot the size of a boulder sitting right on that curve between my shoulder and neck. Oh, and it keeps sending little shock waves up the left side of my head....and they find their exit out my ear. I know, it sounds crazy. But that's exactly what it feels like.

Thankfully Brent has been rubbing it for me, which has helped a lot. (It gives me a couple hours of less-intense pain before the knot decides to knot itself back up.) I slept with a heating pad on it last night. That didn't do much except keep me awake.

So here's a little "vent" post to whine about my troubles. I hope your day is going better than mine! :)

(Oh, and my midwife came over the next day and we listened to the baby's heartbeat....she's fine. Probably had a good ride swimming around in all that amniotic fluid!)