Okay, I'm not really a whale. It's difficult coping with my body right now given the fact that I have a watermelon sized belly protruding from my mid-section. It's making it incredibly hard to sleep. In fact, I'm not really sleeping at all. Needing to wake up pretty much hourly at night to pee, which wakes up baby who has gotten extremely strong in the last couple of weeks - I can SEE my belly jump when he kicks, isn't really allowing me much snoozing. Also, baby gets the hiccups at night, there are leg cramps and my husband has sleep apnea and has taken up snoring even with the CPAP mask on. Seriously? My mom jokes that perhaps I might get more sleep once the baby is born. I'm actually starting to believe her.
Oh... and can I mention back pain? I have never experienced back pain like this ever in my life. It extends from my butt, since baby loves to lean on my sciatic nerve at night, all the way to my upper back and around my ribs into the front of my body. It's amazing I'm not tearing in half, actually, the way my uterus is barging through and claiming space.
There is a plus size to my changing body, however. All my life, I have had pretty much the most unattractive back side known to man, or woman I suppose. Now, suddenly, baby got back! It's fantastic! I check out my ass in my yoga pants and I think, damn girl! Do I get to keep this? I think it must be a combination of hormones and dumbbell stiff legged dead lifts with copious amounts of squats. It's funny, the first trimester I was as sedentary as possible. I was EXHAUSTED! I'm afraid to think of what it would have been like had I had morning sickness too. Jesus.... second trimester I slowly began to work in small daily work outs until I got to the point where I was pretty much working out at least 4 times a week, doing a combination of yoga (which I got really sick of), weight lifting and some cardio. Third trimester, the fatigue is starting to creep back but all of the sudden, all I want to do is lift weights. Somehow, while other women are nesting and frantically cleaning house, I for some reason feel like I need to have the world's largest delts and triceps. I'm hoping come D-Day, this new found pregnant body building obsession pays off... Are there cervical raises? uterine press? vagina curls? Perhaps I need to look into this.
Making all of my discomfort all worth while, a couple of weeks ago, my husband and I went to a place to get 3D/4D imaging done. It's pretty damn amazing to actually be able to see what your baby looks like in the womb versus the typical 2D ultrasound done in the doctor's office where you sort of can tell that your baby has a profile, but other than that, you really have no idea what the hell the ultrasound tech is so enthusiastically exclaiming about. Check this out:
Pretty fucking amazing, hmmm? I definitely recommend paying the $250 for this elective procedure if it's available nearby. You even get to discover the fact that your baby boy has some serious attitude and is definitely your son:
Oh yeah, that boy is DEFINITELY mine!
