Summer Pregnancy...

I remember a while ago a friend of mine said she wanted to be pregnant during the summer because the maternity clothes were so cute.  I also remember thinking that was a little strange.  I am here to say being pregnant in the summer is not all its cracked up to be, and the clothes really aren't that cute!  *Disclaimer- this post is not meant to be ungrateful for being pregnant I am just going to state the facts I have found out about pregnancy in the summer.  Here are a few things that are not so fun about being in the last trimester of pregnancy during the summer You will not find this in any of those pregnancy magazines out there...

1. The swelling.  I was doing just fine until the heat started, and now I have canckles.  I made the young women in my class take off their shoes while I taught the class so I could take my shoes off because my feet were squishing out of them and then I didn't feel barefoot and pregnant!  Oh, and did I mention the swelling also hurts and if you want the swelling to go down you must lay with your feet elevated above your heart for a LONG time.  

2.  Heat.  Not only does the heat make your feet swell, it also seems to be amplified!  Now I am not really a stinky person nor do I have an over active sweat gland but someone would think I did!  I looked over at my bishop the other day, he is a very big guy, and I was sweating as much as he was.  I did not have a pregnancy glow, I was sweating like a man!  And for the first time in my marriage, I froze Danny out and I still wasn't cooled off! Yes, I am here to say you are much hotter than the average person during the summer.

3.  Picnics/swimming.  I grouped these two together because of the sitting on the ground factor.  Sitting on the ground during your last trimester has some difficulties.  First, there is not a comfortable way to sit and if you sit too long your legs fall asleep.  Next, you have to try and get up from a sitting position and hopefully no one is looking because you either have to grab something to brace yourself or roll onto a leg that isn't asleep and put all of your body weight on the good leg.  Not a graceful moment.  The other day at the park I asked my friends to just roll me up in the blanket and keep rolling me on home!  Oh, and the same goes for swimming.  Maternity suites have come a long way, but they don't always look so cute on every pregnant body.  When you are 9 months pregnant everyone else is not and they all look so-o good,  and here I am looking like a beached whale.  Now I know swimming is supposed to ease a lot of pregnancy issues, but this is what those magazines don't tell you.  You have to go swimming alone, not with kids otherwise you have to sit in the kiddie pool and make sure you kids are not drowning or wreaking havoc on someone else's kid.  Not a whole lot of relaxation there.  

4. Church.  If you are a mormon and you attend church on Sunday you know it is three hours long.  And sitting in a pew is not comfy when you aren't pregnant there is just not a  cozy way of sitting at church.  Getting up and walking around does help and when the A.C. isn't working splashing cool water on your arms and neck helps.  My bishop found out I was doing this and put in an order to fix the A.C. and it got done,  but the the A.C. didn't work in the Young Women's room!!  Now I am at a church that  it seems to be working, but I could use it colder!! 

5. Mobility.  I feel bad for my kids because I don't get around like I used to nor do I feel like walking them to the park and sitting on a bench or giving underdogs!  So my kids are feeling pent up.  I keep thinking next summer will be different.  

I am sure I could think of a few more, but  I will leave it at that.  I was also thinking of a few things that are fun about the pregnancy.

1. Wil had me drive his cars "over the mountain".  He thought that was pretty funny.

2. Danny likes it when I laugh because my stomach jiggles he says like a bowl full of jelly!

3. Isabelle found out that the baby could hear her talking to it so she would come up to me and talk sweetly to the baby and say good night.  She also loves to hug my belly.  

4. The other day I shook my belly and Grant was watching he said mom you just shook the baby.  I said ya, it was ok.  He then replied, "ya the baby was probably like EARTHQUAKE!!"  

Well, the pregnancy is coming to an end, and our family is about to change again.  I'm sure we will have some struggles to work out but there is such a sweetness of having a new baby in your home that outweighs all the bad.  ;)