Irritation

So I now understand how my sister and friends felt at this stage in their pregnancies. I’m irritable and emotional these days, probably because I feel at least a little uncomfortable most of the time. The typical things you hear about: swollen hands and feet, joint pain (in my hips and hands), having to pee ALL THE FRAKIN’ TIME, waking up a lot at night, losing my breath, etc. I think this is nature’s way of helping you prepare for the pain of labor. You get so uncomfortable you finally say, enough! Whatever it takes to make this stop. Of course, I know my physical discomfort is going to get worse before it gets better, and chances are, my sleeping time isn’t going to magically increase all of a sudden (quite the opposite).

I was telling Nate that the thing that sent me over the edge (and it’s a strange thing) was looking down at my feet one day and thinking they didn’t look like they belonged to me. I’ve always had skinny feet and toes (and hands and fingers, for that matter) and looking down and seeing swollen, plump feet … I dunno, it was weird. It was like looking at a stranger.

I’ve watched my stomach grow gradually over time but my feet seemed to have plumped up overnight. I wore my wedding ring until Monday when I realized my finger was red and abraded from it being too tight. The funny thing was, a woman in our birthing class had just told me: “I’m so jealous you’re still wearing rings.” Ha! All of the rings I used to wear on my middle fingers have migrated to my ring fingers.

These are small things. Logically, I don’t think they should bother me. Yet somehow they do. I guess I’m just generally irritable and anything would bug me at this point. Due date is May 27. We are a month away, presumably.

Things I'm looking forward to: sushi, raw oysters, drinking a couple of glasses of wine at one sitting, going for a run again, sleeping on my stomach, wearing my wedding ring, meeting my daughter.