My active brain!

How a pregnant brain works amazes me. You can’t remember anything that you want to remember and especially what you need to remember! But you have no problem remembering little useless things. And if you have a super creative mind like I do, you can think of some pretty interesting/borderline weird things! ;)

I think everyone at some time or another has recurring thoughts. It might be something as simple as “I want a warm fresh baked chocolate cookie” or something as complicated as imagining their own funeral over and over. The recurring thought or image I’ve had for a few months now is a memory from when we first found out we were pregnant. We were in the living room (yes, I even remember the location of our conversation). Ray and I joked as we tried to imagine the big baby belly I would eventually have. Of course, back then, I had little or no stomach pooch. That fact made our jokes our even funnier.

Ray put the palm of his hand on his lower back, leaned his body back to get an exaggerated posture, did a waddle walk across the floor with a big smile on his face and said, “Are you going to walk like this one day?” I laughed and said, “I don’t know! I just might!” We were having a good time. It was all in fun!

But what’s even funnier is that I do walk like that sometimes, especially when I get up off the couch from sitting too long.

This is kinda what I'm talking about. By the way, this picture was taken on Sunday.

Hasn't our boy grown?!

I think of how my Granny used to get up from sitting too long and say, “I’m all stove up”. It isn’t exactly the same thing because “stove up” refers to more of a bone and joint stiffness. What I experience is my body trying to balance and carry our baby boy the best it can. That requires extra blood flow and strength in my legs, which my legs are sometimes not prepared for! And of course, it also means my mid-section has that extra girth to support. I don’t know how much it helps (if at all), but I sometimes put my hands under my belly to give my stomach a little support.

Before I got pregnant, I heard stories of what pregnant women went through. But for some reason, I thought those were just the ones with bad luck. I thought the most challenging things about being pregnant is having to tinkle all the time and the laboring. Well, there are many more challenges than those two things. But without taking a breath, the next thing I will say is that it is definitely, without a doubt worth it. While being pregnant is challenging, it is also magical. I haven’t ever seen our son or heard his voice. I have only felt his movements. And as odd as it sounds, I feel like I know him quite well…as well as I can. I wish I knew the exact date of his arrival so I could have an accurate countdown. Unfortunately, that is not possible. I just know he’ll be here very soon…and that I cannot wait! I want to look him over, watch him move freely, hear his cries, feel his soft skin, hold him, kiss him, see him and his dad together, and tell him how happy we are that he’s finally here.

~T.T.