I LOVE BEING PREGNANT.

so, since i am a first timer and all, the whole pregnancy thing has been quite a trip. i was thrilled in the beginning after waiting what seemed like FOREVER to get pregnant and then as soon as i could start getting really excited about it, i was puking my brains out. i remember thinking how ironic it was that a few months earlier i would have given anything to be pregnant, and then there i was face buried deep in a toilet wishing i could be doing anything but throwing up. lets just say that i became very well acquainted with the toilet.


really, it is pretty cruel. you are so thrilled about this life-changing miraculous thing going on inside you and the only real reminder you have of it every day is how disgusting you feel at all times. anyone who knows me knows how much i hate being sick. the worst thing is that apparently i am a loud puker, and anyone who has ever HEARD me get sick has had a hard time feeling sorry for me and instead finds they can't hold in the giggles. not funny people.
anyways, i wasn't sure how long all that would last, but was so glad when the nausea stopped around 5 months and i could enjoy being pregnant without wanting to die all the time. i was totally one of those who embraced the belly - i wore maternity clothes as soon as humanly possible just so that people would know that i wasn't just getting fatter for no reason. and through the middle, i was blissfully happy to be prego. sure, heartburn got a little annoying, peeing all the time too, but really i felt good.
now here in the last trimester things have gotten interesting. i don't remember the last time i could see my feet (and it shows- i definitely need a pedicure, but since i can't reach my own toes, have yet to talk clint into painting my toenails, and am too cheap to pay someone else to do something i should be able to do myself - i go on with scary looking feet). i can't recall what it is like to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time without waking up to a throbbing bladder, an itchy belly, or aching hips. i know my husband must be entirely sick of me lying around in my underwear all the time - not a beautiful sight, but clothes are so annoying! need i go on? i am assuming that anyone who has been there knows what I am talking about. or am I the only one?
ANYHOW... on with my point. as you can see, the title of this post is "I LOVE BEING PREGNANT." sounds crazy with all of the weird stuff that goes on, but i was reminded this week why it is so dang AWESOME to be pregnant.
picture this: i was enjoying one of my first days off of work, trying to be incredibly productive (since technically, this baby could come any day now). i decided it was a good idea to go to a few stores and get together some shower gifts for 2 of my other friends that are pregnant. i was in target. by this time, i had already spent a few hours wandering around babies r'us with 2 seperate registries in hand, my big giant belly and had never even really gotten ready for the day. i had also been to marshalls in hopes of finding some great deals (you know how long that takes and how much energy is required to sort through all the junk to find the good deals.) target was the last stop on the list. all I wanted was some baskets. some cute baskets to put all the loot in. of course, i can't find anything cute and definitely nothing cheap enough and so i wander up and down the aisles of target hoping to find SOMETHING, ANYTHING to not make the 45 minutes already spent there a total waste.
so, you know how when you drop something and you are 9 months pregnant it is like the death to you? and yet, somehow you can't seem to hold on to anything and it appears that everything just slips right out of your hands and tumbles below to make certain for an incredibly flattering and graceful moment ahead?
well, here's me, in target, bending over to pick something up that i'd already dropped twice. i am exhausted, sweating, feet totally swollen, you get the idea. out of the corner of my eye i see a woman walk past the aisle, stop, and come back to get a good view. i'm thinking, come on... just let me have my privacy while i struggle to bend over.
but then she says this (bless her dear heart)... " you are.... BEAUTIFUL!!!"
i let out a laugh (really i did) because honestly- there is no way that that awkward stooping moment could have been beautiful. but then she repeated herself:
"no, really, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!"
it took me a minute to register - then i thanked her, totally embarrassed by now and realized later that i should have told her what a saint she was!
really, girls- when in your life has ANYONE (let alone a perfect stranger, and another WOMAN at that) stopped dead in their tracks to stop and tell you how beautiful you are? NEVER in my life has that happened until now. and then my mind went over all of my lovely pregnant moments that i have just revisited with you and that's when i thought, " I LOVE BEING PREGNANT."