learning how to be pregnant

Someone once told me "We must forget what it's like to be pregnant and give birth, otherwise we would never do it again."

I understand this statement even more now.

Despite my nursing school education, short rotation on L&D/MBU during nursing school, and all my friend's stories, nothing prepared me for being pregnant.

Especially the weekend before I found out, when I laid down in the back of the truck to take a nap and woke up more n auseous than I had been since I got the stomach flu on Christmas some 15 years ago. After about 40oz of 7UP I felt better.

BUT- I must put my symptoms into perspective.

1) I eat 3 meals a day with snacks and my weight gain is on track.
2) I have had only 1 big episode where I lost all my breakfast into the toilet, and about 3 hours later I succesfully kept down a snack.
3) I have been SO blessed to find a new job with more regular hours that allows me to get 8 hours of sleep every night
4) NO HOSPITALIZATIONS
5) NO COMPLICATIONS
6) we didn't have ANY difficulty getting pregnant (seriously, it was on the first try)
7) my husband is home to take care of me every night and will be here for the delivery of the baby and at least first year of it's life.

I meet women on a daily basis who do not have many of those things, so while I like to complain, I also need to tell myself to shut up and be grateful.

I have been especially grateful in light of some situations that good friends of mine have been through. Sometimes I wish I could share some of our good luck with them, but I know that each person gets a different hand dealt to them and it's not up to me to change that but just to be as good of a friend as I can.

I also learned that ANY sappy moment on TV WILL make you cry.

So there it is. Everyone always asks how I feel, and I feel, well, pregnant. But overall, things have been good. I consider my experience a middle of the road one. I am experience all the normal symptoms: nausea, fatigue, moodiness, feeling fat, but in moderate amounts. And for that we are grateful.