Burgeoning Belly = Difficult Times

Although I have LOVED being pregnant (really, I have!) I am now ready to call it quits and meet our little girl. Just in the past week I have been noticing all of the ways that my ever growing belly causes things to be difficult for me. I have decided to make an informal list of ways that my burgeoning belly can be troublesome and frustrating lately.

*WARNING*: Some of the things on the list may be more information than you want to know - so read with caution (there's nothing TOO bad on here though...I am tasteful).

1. Sitting on the couch. Yes folks, sitting on the couch has become troublesome and difficult. It usually takes me about 2-3 minutes once I sit down to get into a position where my belly is comfortable and thus the rest of my body can finally rest comfortably.

2. Standing up after being in a sitting/laying position for any period of time. Really, you should see me try to stand up after sitting on the couch for a while, or better yet after laying down, it is truly a show. It's almost like watching Shamu hoist himself out of the water. People might be willing to pay money to watch me struggle with this usually simple task.

3. Putting pants on/taking pants off. This is one on the list that is one of the most frustrating things for me. Sometimes it takes me 2 or 3 times to lift my leg in hopes that it will fall into the leg of my pants. Usually when I do finally get my leg into/out of my pants it is out of pure luck. Imagine this: Meghan makes determined face, quickly lifts her leg while making a face as though she's performing a very grueling phyiscal activity, Meghan quickly shakes her pants out in front of her in hopes that the leg of the pants will meet the ever so slightly elevated leg of her humongously pregnant body, repeat process until a success occurs. FRUSTRATING!!!

4. Showering. I admit, showering is no simple task anymore. All I will say about this one is that reaching all areas of the body to clean is quite difficult. Enough said!

5. Shaving my legs. I guess 4 & 5 go together, but shaving is so difficult in itself that it deserves it's own number on my list. Thank goodness for the seat in my shower, but even with the seat I have much difficulty. When you have a belly that sticks out as far as mine currently does it is VERY difficult, whatever position you try, to carefully use a razor on your legs. I have found myself multiple times rocking back and forth to try and gain momentum before attempting to reach my ankles with the razor. Not only is this a difficult task lately but it can become dangerous if I'm not careful. I have given myself a few minor cuts on many occasions over the past couple weeks.

6. Sitting on the floor. Game over: I am sitting on the floor no more. Once I get down, I literally can't get up anymore.

7. Using the restroom. Okay, so using the restroom isn't the problem...it's finishing the deed that is difficult. Have you ever tried wiping with a HUGE stomach!? I never thought I would have a problem with this, but it's definitely not easy to get around the belly to finish this task that most people take for granted on a daily basis!

8. Giving a urine sample. This is one that REALLY frustrates me. If you have ever been pregnant you will know that each time you go to the OBGYN's office they make you give them a urine sample. Until about 2 months ago I didn't think anything of it. Now everytime I go in for my Doctor's appointments, I say a little prayer that when I go to give my sample that the urine actually makes it into the cup and not all over my hand since I can't see ANYTHING past my stomach. So far so good in my case, but it takes a lot of practice and patience. I'm sure there are plenty of other pregnant women out there that haven't had the same luck as I have so far with this task: It's HARD!

9. Sleeping. Sleeping is just plain HARD these days. I usually sleep well for the first two hours and then it all goes downhill. I have to turn over every couple hours because my hips will start to hurt. This doesn't sound so awful, but the catch is that in order to turn over these days I have to sit all the way up first and then make the turn. Sitting up from a laying down position is not simple, as described in #2 above. By the time I turn over then I'm wide awake and usually so is the baby.

10. Teaching. Yes, it's true that teaching is NEVER easy for anyone, pregnant or not. Being this pregnant though makes it SO much more difficult than it even is normally. One day I was teaching a lesson and I needed to make a chart with the students to hang in the room. As the students told me their ideas, I added them to the chart. I quickly found out that leaning across my body to write on the chart paper wasn't happening. I couldn't quite make it all the way across my burgeoning belly to successfully write my students ideas on the chart. The students seemed to understand but I'm sure I looked ridiculous. My coteachers were probably giggling inside - I just wanted to crawl in a hole and hide!

So there you have it - there's my top 10 things that are the most difficult for me to do these days in random order. I'm sure if you check back next week I will have more to add to the list. For now I will continue to try to master these until little Miss Cambria decides to make her debut. Please Cami, sooner rather than later so Mommy can get back to feeling like a normal human being again.