As far as pregnancy goes, I really enjoyed being "with child." I suffered from the typical pregnancy symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, heart-burn...oh the heartburn, and random emotional outbursts, yet I was incredibly blessed and lucky to go through the pregnancy without health problems or issues for Benjamin.
I was, however, terrified throughout the pregnancy of the potential size of the growing baby in my belly, especially since every ultrasound we went to, the tech would say things like, "Wow, he has a big head" or "Look at the size of those hands!" You would think they would teach ultrasound techs not to say things like that to expectant mothers since at some point, we have to actually birth those "big heads" out of us. (For my grammarians, please don't judge my flaws here..I am too tired to edit :)
By the end of my pregnancy, though, I started to have what I will affectionately call "cankles." This would be where I stopped having ankles and my calf just continued into my foot. By the end of a long day of teaching, I would have ankles that startled people when I showed them off. They would say things like, "My god, your ankles are huge" or "That looks like it hurts." Whenever I would tell my midwife about it, she would smile knowingly and say "Yep, that is what 8 months of pregnancy will do for ya" or something else equally infuriating. So, I continued on and attempted to elevate them "above my heart" at night, which was both humorous and impossible since I couldn't lay on my back anymore so I would have to wallow around on my side with my feet stuck up on the end of the couch until I would nearly roll off the edge.
Here is a picture of my cankles in all of their glory. I would get dents in my legs from any kind of pressure put on them because there was so much swelling. HOT! I know, I know. Bizzy did get a kick out of pushing his fingers into my swollen flesh and getting to see his thumbprint impression for about 10 minutes.
This went on for a while until my doctor appointment at 38 weeks when my midwife saw the extent of the swelling and realized my blood pressure was through the roof. They sent us over to the hospital to be monitored and see if my blood pressure came down. This was both scary and overwhelming because we went from thinking we were just having a normal checkup to having someone walk into a hospital room saying, "So, you want to have this baby today?" And my answer was a definite, "Umm no!" You would think 38 weeks of pregnancy would make you ready for a baby, but I had still not come to terms with the fact that at the end of pregnancy, there would be a baby. Luckily, my blood pressure did come down that night, but the midwife put me on "monitored bedrest" for the rest of the pregnancy.
So, I had to leave my students early without saying goodbye and prepare myself that Benjamin would be coming soon. I was told that they would let me go to 40 weeks but no longer due to my blood pressure, so I at least had an end-date in mind. I still can't imagine going 41-42 weeks. You are one strong woman, Mom.
So I retired to the couch at home and began the great wait for Benjamin to appear. We did a poll with my family to guess the date that he would join the world, and I picked Friday, March 30th as my due date.
Some pictures of the end of pregnancy:
The AMAZING diaper cake Mom and Heather created for Benjamin.
Benjamin's nursery was a family effort. He had a lot of people loving him before he ever arrived.
Heather, Mom and I created the eggs. Heather made the very cool banner. Debbie and Mom made the bedding and curtains. Benjamin's daddy painted the room, the furniture, himself...
The three generations of women at my baby shower.
Almost 8.5 months..looking large and in charge here.
To be continued...
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