Mostly I’m a home-body. I like our home, and our dog, and frankly, even before we got pregnant, my weeks wore me out enough that I just liked watching TV, reading and going to bed early after splitting a bottle of wine with my husband.
(Mmmmmm. Wine. I can’t wait until we’re once again united.)
But oh. Lately. Lately it’s hard not to feel rather pathetic and stir-crazy. I hobble and limp and moan a lot – it’s been a healthy pregnancy, but physically it’s been rough, and here at the home stretch, I’m pretty useless. Scott has been begging me to just sit still and stop trying to pack my time with doing stuff. I’ve gotten better, and try to stay off my feet more, but I end finding something to do because there is seriously only so much napping and lounging I can do. And don’t ask me the last time my husband and I went out and did something together that didn’t include a trip to Target or church or work.
So when Scott asked if I wanted to go out tonight and watch the Windy City Rollers, I gladly accepted. Today, in fact, I took two naps and stayed off my feet so I would be fully rested for the evening. But by the time we headed north to UIC, and I stepped out of the car…YIPES. A sharp, piercing, awful pain shot at my bladder and I could barely stand up straight. I hobbled to the bathroom at the restaurant we stopped at, but it was awful. Frightening, actually. Everything is OK, and I think it was just because I had a full bladder, had a baby who has not been able to sit still and then I got out of the car kind funny, but we opted to turn around and go home to be safe.
And here I am, back on the couch, laptop on lap, watching TV, drinking water, bored.
The baby is still moving around like crazy – seriously, the girl will not sit still, and while that’s a good thing, tonight she’s extra hopped up for reasons I do not know – and I’m glad nothing is wrong but wow. This sucks. I’m incredibly envious of ladies for whom physically pregnancy is a relatively easy, enjoyable task. And while I know it could be worse – it’s not like I’m on bed rest – I’d give anything for a night out with my husband that didn’t include me wincing in pain in some fashion. Or at least the ability to go out at all.
And holy crap I can’t wait to be able to work out again. I’ve already researched a few workouts I can do when out walking with the baby. I assure you, it’s probably small potatoes to worry about, but once I get the clearance to work out again, I’m all over it, even if it’s just 20 minutes at a time. This body, as grateful as I am for it, and for how it’s helping to create this daughter of mine, is just miserably out of whack. I’d do it all again in a heartbeat, but oh I miss running, hot yoga and boot camp.
Clearly I just miss being able to go out for an evening without hunching over in pain because my bladder is being used as a punching bag by my kid.
(I know I said I’m going to do what most moms say they’ll miss, and that’s feeling their baby moving all around in utero, but right now I just want her to cool it since it’s almost 1 a.m. now.)
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Next weekend is my baby shower, very generously being hosted by my sisters Kate and Devyn, my mom and my best friend from college. I bought a cute purple dress that is very form-fitting, and it dawned on me that for the first time in my life I am wearing clothes that totally and completely show off my belly. That’ll change shortly, I know, but I’m enjoying it for now.
I also bought four-inch heels. That’s right. Totally impractical and liable to leave me in pain by day’s end. I DON’T CARE. They’re so cute, and so fierce, and I don’t plan on standing much anyway.
I don’t go anywhere, I have to pee all of the time, I don’t get much sleep, so by God, I will look cute for my baby shower.
The Tempur-Pedic arrived but? The box spring doesn’t fit up the stairs. Long story short, we’ll have the frame and the mattress, but the box spring goes back. Scott, his dad and his friend are building us a box spring next weekend.
The dresser still isn’t in – we ended up having to reorder it – but the changing table is here. Our friends gave us their co-sleeper today, the rug and the lanterns are here and although I’m still missing gobs of things, I have some perspective about it all. Even if we’re not “done,” we’ll be OK. I’ll feel better once the nursery is done. My sister and I are headed to IKEA to pick up a bunch of odds and ends, and probably a whole mess of nonsense I don’t need. If I can at least make it out of there without forgetting what I really need – new window shades and curtains – anything else that makes its way into my cart I can live with. I imagine IKEA is not a good place for a woman who is full-on-nesting.
However, I’m going to take this week off from working on the To-Do list since there is only so much I can do at this point. I wish this week included something fun and exciting, but I think we all know my bladder can’t handle that sort of craziness.
