What to Expect: Rough Patch Ahead!

If you've ever been pregnant, you may have signed up for these weekly emails from the Parents or What to Expect websites. They're full of good information and I look forward to getting the Fetal Development email that tells me what size fruit my baby compares to this week.

They also include a drawing of what your baby might look like right now and in the beginning stages, all I can see in the pictures they send of the baby is that they look like the creatures Ursela turns the mer-people into in The Little Mermaid. Or a less-creepy version of the "real" mermaid at Ripley's Believe it or Not!.

Random side note - Now I'm thinking about those 4D ultrasounds some hospitals do these days. I got a few pictures when I was pregnant with Colin and they are pretty crazy looking. Here is what I mean:

Regular Ultrasound Picture:



4D Ultrasound Picture:



Shane at one time compared the 4D picture to the cover of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, so I know it's not just me.

Anyway, back to my original thought: I've been getting these emails and while I've gone through it all before, it's interesting and helpful to have these weekly reminders of what my body is doing. Not to mention I sit and plead with my email before I open it that somehow I've time-traveled to week 36 and I'm almost done. I'm beginning to feel like this pregnancy has slowed down to slug speed and I'm not even halfway yet. If I haven't even gotten to the point where I can barely get a seat belt around me, should I really feel like this? I guess I need to write to What to Expect to get them to send a "I know you're sick of being pregnant, here's how to fix it" email.

Next week is our scheduled ultrasound where we'll get to see if baby is healthy, hopefully find out the sex and get some pictures that Shane will deem scary enough to land a horror movie poster. I'm sticking by my prediction and crossing my fingers that this will give me the boost I need to waddle through the last couple of months.

Until next week!

How Open is TOO Open?

Before you read any further, I should just warn you that if you don't think you can be open about my "openness", then don't bother reading this. I don't want to have to censor myself and as you read on (if you chose to) you'll see that's just how I am.

I've always had a harder time connecting with people who can't fully open up. I think it's because I have no problem giving the full story if people ask for it and sometimes I want the same in return. Take childbirth for example. Any part of mine you want to know about, I'll tell you. I'm talking about all the things that other people leave out because they either are embarrassed or want to pretend it didn't happen to them. Now, if any of your minds went to the tales of pooping during delivery, that didn't happen to me, BUT I'd have no problem telling you if it did.

I've always been the girl who would sit in the bathroom while her roommate was showering (or vis versa) and have long talks about whatever was going on in our lives. The girl who is completely honest about only washing her hair 3 times a week. The girl who received a banner from her dance team coaches in high school that said, "Miss Teen Oregon - would you still win if they knew you could burp and fart like a logger". - correction...I can't burp but the other rings true.

The reason I'm bringing this up is because while I was at my friend Missy's bachelorette party a few months ago, I had the most interesting conversation with one of her high school friends while dangling my feet in the hot tub. She had just gotten married and as she began to tell me about her relationship with her husband, I was totally in awe at how different our marriages were. She explained how if they were sitting on the couch watching tv and one of them needed to toot, they would, without letting the other person know, go into another room and try to muffle it. Going to the bathroom was also completely private with shut doors and sometimes waiting until the other person wasn't home before you dropped the kids off.

This eternal honeymoon stage just baffled me! She was completely comfortable living in what I saw as the most uncomfortable way to live. Maybe I'm the strange one, but I've always been most comfortable when I can act completely uninhibited around my partner. If you marry someone, why would you want to put on an act for the rest of your life and never feel like yourself in your own home? To maintain that spark? To keep up a vision of perfection that your partner first saw in you? Those sound like good reasons, but in my mind, if you can't still find your partner attractive after you've found out that they sometimes poop, fart or burp, then I think you might have a hard time finding anyone to settle down with.

I get that some people know it happens, but just don't want to know WHEN it happens. That's fine, to each their own. For me, I'm just saying that I need to feel like the person I am with will love me even if I follow them into the bathroom because I feel like what I have to say is much too important to wait.

This isn't to say that poor Shane has to deal with a wife that doesn't put any effort into being like that girl he first met; I do. I want him to always be able to feel a spark similar to the ones you experience when you first begin dating. I enjoy taking the time to make myself up so he can feel proud to have me on his arm when we go out. But, I also like to come home, put on a pair of sweats and laugh uncontrollably when he lets out one of his Polly Pocket-sized farts.

I guess that's just us!


Thanks for reading and feel free to let me know if I'm crazy! :)

Prediction

I just have to make a really quick comment...I'm about 99.9% sure we're having a boy.

That's all.