So I decided this weekend that there really is nothing that you can say to a pregnant lady that will make her feel good about her size. I posted some pictures on our family website and one of my sister's said that I still looked too skinny and that I wasn't showing at all. Now as flattering as that SHOULD be, I have to say that I was a little offended considering I've gained between 15 and 20 lbs, which is a little more than I'm supposed to have gained right now. So really it's not MY fault. Funny that such a comment would make me feel like I was failing as a pregnant woman. That somehow I wasn't gaining enough, or that I was doing something that was going to somehow harm my child. Two days later my little sister (who is 18) came into town and she saw me for the first time since I got pregnant. Her comment was "Wow, you look a lot more pregnant than you do in the pictures . . . Not that you really look that pregnant, you look really good. . . Did I just offend you?" It was kind of comical that she back tracked because the comment wasn't really that bad, and I wasn't offended, but again, it just didn't make me feel good. So I've got one sister who thinks I'm too skinny and one who thinks I look WAY pregnant in person. LOL. That's how it feels when you're pregnant. Really bothers me that no matter how nice a person is trying to be, I always feel like "How about you just don't comment on my size at all?" So then the next day I was shopping with my hubby when we ran into a woman who I've known since I was ten or eleven years old. Her comment "You know, I wouldn't have known you were pregnant had I not already heard it from (blank)". Again, the comment kind of nagged at me because I feel like I look like a fat cow and I'm sitting there thinking "Wait, I look like this regularly? Pre-pregnancy? I'm going to go SHOOT MYSELF!!! Or wait, even better, I'll go drown my sorrows about my pregnany weight in MORE FOOD!!! YEAH!!!" And the final comment that was probably the one that I felt couldn't be taken in a wrong way was when we ran into one of Josh's friends who I've only met once or twice. Josh told him I was pregnant and he was like "I thought so, but I wasn't going to say anything just in case I was wrong." It made me smile. But anyway, the point of all of this rambling is that I think that you just can't ever say the right thing to a pregnant lady about her size, so best would be to just not comment about it at all. But I have to say that my top five things that I love about pregnancy are:
5. It gives you a glimpse into (sort of) what it feels like to be 20, 30, 40 lbs heavier than you are pre-pregnancy. It's been a real motivator for me to make sure that I start exercising now, and continue even after my baby is born because the aches and pains which I'm experiencing now are not worth the joys of over-eating or no exercising.
4. Even though I'm sure this will be ten times more when the baby is actually born, but it makes you think about somebody else CONSTANTLY. I can't tell you how many times I've sat there thinking about what my baby is going to be like, whether what I'm doing is going to be good for the baby, waiting for her to move so I can just feel her inside me.
3. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm enthralled at the changes that are happening to my body. Easiest example, I've been steadily losing my belly button since about 3 months along. And at 5 1/2 months or so I think it's finally gone. It's been an adventure to watch it get shallower and shallower. It will probably become an outie in the next few weeks, and I know I'm going to get a kick out of that.
2. I love how much everybody tries to do for me. I've had more doors opened for me, I've had more people be courteous, ask me if I need some help carrying something. Just little things in stores, I get smiles, people moving their carts out of my way instead of just shoving me aside. It's rather amusing to watch sometimes.
1. And number one thing I love about being pregnant: I love feeling my little girl kick. Even though it's started into the painful side of it as she gets bigger, I think it's one of the coolest things on earth to feel her moving inside me. I already know that's the thing I'm going to miss the most.
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