Pregnancy Sux.

I hate to complain. I really try to keep it to myself. But, I am horrible at journaling and this really needs to be recorded somewhere for some future date that an insane me might consider repeating this experience. So for all 2 of my readers, please excuse the negativity of this post. And, as a disclaimer, I am happy to be pregnant, I am excited for this little bundle of joy...but in the meantime...it really sux.

Dear future self, Here are a few of the things that you need to remember about being pregnant:

1. Brushing your teeth triggers the strongest gag reflex that you have ever experienced and 90% of the time leads to throwing up. Bc of this you are forced to brush you teeth before you eat a single thing in the morning. But once you eat your breakfast (which you try to delay as long as possible) you are left with bad aftertastes that you don't dare brush away.

2. You can only handle eating the one thing that your body is telling you that it will accept. Be it wonton soup, bean burritos, pizza...you have no control over your diet and your body will make you suffer if you give it anything other than what it wants. This in turn makes you feel quite guilty for making your husband go pick up food for you from wherever you may send him.

3. That brings me to point number 3. Your husband hates you pregnant. He tries to be supportive, but with each child the load of his burden increases as you are left leveled on the couch unable to move at times....also making you feel very guilty.

4. You feel like crap. You are tired 99% of the time and want to do nothing but sleep. Your children have no respect for this and crawl all over you and make you get up every 3 minutes to fend for them, making it impossible to get any decent amount of rest to recharge your batteries. This also makes you feel guilty, esp. during the summer when you would love to be taking them to the pool everyday.

5. Your digestive system becomes stubborn, which makes things very uncomfortable. (sorry guys)

6. For some freakish reason your mouth starts to produce 5 times the needed amount of saliva. Being forced to swallow all the time makes you gag and you often run to the sink just to spit. (again, sorry guys)

7. Your freakish ability to smell everything within 2 miles of you. Everything smells 10 times as strong. B/c nothings smells good magnified by 10 (except safeguard soap) it makes you gag... a lot.

8. Bc you feel like junk all the time it sucks away 99% of your productive nature and the house goes to pot. Laundry does not get done and your 'to do' list becomes forever long.

9. The crappy part of your pregnancy lasts a long time. It was 18 weeks with Kate, 20 weeks with Brooke, and will still be a while with this one. And it goes by so slowly.

10. Things don't fit. Your belly gets bigger faster than it did with your first pregnancy. You're already tall making pants very difficult to find. Throwing in the aspect of an increasing belly makes it nigh impossible. (I might be spending this winter in skirts.)

11. Appropriately point 11....your feet. They get bigger. And they are already size....well 11. It makes shoe shopping even more horrible.

12. Dr. appointments. You now have to rearrange your schedule, get babysitters, so you can go to all your check-ups. They draw your blood til you have almost nothing left, make you pee in cups, drink high fructose drinks, and weigh you. And there's the waiting...

13. Holding and cuddling with your children becomes so difficult as you can not handle any amount of pressure on your abdomen. Even your covers at night give you cause to turn on your side as you can't tolerate them laying on your stomach.

14. Your husband feels like he can't even think of touching you...which most of the time he's right.

This is only at 12 weeks. This does not include the horrible ligament pain that makes simple tasks like walking quite painful. And, when you are very large the task of turning over in bed becomes a near impossible feat. At the very end your legs and feet swell, and things like bending, standing up, and such are quite uncomfortable. And so help it if you may happen to sneeze...those ligaments will seize up on you yielding you incapable of moving until they relax..and it hurts.

Then you're going to get sliced open and you are going to have a long recovery while having to care for a brand new baby and all your other kids.

It all passes. But for the moment...it really sux. But you get a sweet little child that you knew you were supposed to have. And that makes it worth it. But consider all the other stuff before doing this again.

Laura