10 Things I've Learned During My Pregnancy

  I can honestly say I've learned a lot over the past 39+ weeks. I doubt the majority of people are pregnancy scholars prior to their own personal journey through Pregnancy Land, but I just don't think I was in any way prepared for what was about to happen to me. So, for all those other ladies who are or are thinking of becoming a mother for the first time, enjoy.

1. You will lose the ability to use your abs. This one might fall under the common sense category, but I honestly had no idea that I would no longer be able to sit up on my own. Prior to becoming pregnant, I took my abs for granted, always thinking they needed to be worked on. Turns out, those bad boys were already pretty strong and I used them a lot. 
2. Any kind of maneuvering your body becomes an event. Getting out of bed? Make sure you're lying flat, and then really use your arm strength to slowly roll onto your side, swing your legs over as quickly as you can (which turns out to be a glacial pace), now push up using your hands as hard as you can to hoist yourself up to a sitting position.
3. You will pull muscles doing things that absolutely should  not pull muscles. I moved my pillow one night and pulled a muscle in my neck. That was then followed by a breakdown about how I couldn't do anything anymore. (Poor Anthony!)
4. When it comes to pregnancy, everyone's got a story to tell. And boy do they love to tell it. Go ahead and add 30 minutes to everything you do--fifteen minutes to account for you doing everything at 1/2 your normal pace and another fifteen for random people stopping to tell you about their experience with pregnancy.
5. Speaking of everyone else's stories, they're all horror stories. It's kind of like the customer service rule of thumb: people are more likely to talk about a bad experience than a good one. I know, fun.
6. Don't ever tell someone you're ready to have the baby--it's a trap. This proclamation is always followed by more horror stories about how they walked around 3 cm dilated for weeks before their due date and still wound up giving birth a week late. Super encouraging.
7. Used to getting cat calls when walking down the street? Good news--you'll still have lots of people make comments about your body as you walk along the same street. It's just more like "Whew, you're about to pop" or "Suck in that gut". Because apparently that's appropriate to say to a random stranger. True story.
8. Stretch marks? Two words--Spoiled Mama
9. No massages or aromatherapy during the first trimester. These can kill your baby, seriously.
10. Speaking of things you need to avoid, that list sticks very closely to everything enjoyable in life. Sound dramatic? Just wait, you'll understand.

   There's still so much more that can be added to the list, but I'll stick to these ten. 

   I'll end by saying that I've had an absolutely wonderful pregnancy and will miss my sweet baby boy growing inside of me. Now with that being said, let's go August. Mommy and Daddy are ready to meet you!!