On Being Pregnant

Today is our due date!  (Though as of this moment, we haven't had a baby yet.)

Here's our entire pregnancy journey in photo form, from the night we found out to one of the last pictures I took, standing in the baby's room.

Through all the life transitions we've had in 2013, being pregnant was only one of many, and is just the start of many more to come.  I didn't do the best job of documenting this pregnancy (the 16 pictures above are basically the only ones I took of my growing self the whole 9 months!), but in these last few days before we welcome a tiny new human into our lives, I wanted to jot down a few final thoughts about what it was like for me, personally, to be pregnant.

I didn't know being pregnant would be easy for me.  Between my back problems and my body's usual way of having extreme reactions every time I get sick or take medication, I fully expected to have a really tough 9 months.  I have been so blessed that nothing could be further from my actual experience, and I really have had nothing to complain about.

I didn't know I would eventually forget what it was like to not be pregnant.  I had always assumed that it would feel so strange and foreign to have this big belly and to feel kicks and flips going on inside of you, but the truth is, it all happens so slowly and gradually, it ended up feeling much more natural to me than I thought it would.  Instead, I hardly remember what it's like to not have a bump!  (I do miss being able to lay on my stomach and the 90% of my closet I can't wear right now, though!).

I didn't know how torturous it would be to wait for something when you don't know when it's coming.  So many other exciting life events - graduation, your wedding day, Christmas, for example - can also be hard to wait for, but the thing about them is, you know the date they're coming.  It is so much harder to be waiting for a baby to be born and have literally NO idea when it will be!  Each day that goes by that he doesn't make his grand appearance, I realize more and more that it's actually possible to miss someone you've never met before; somehow, I miss holding him even though I never even have.  It's excitement and anxiety and joy and dread and confusion and wonder all mixed into one constant, weeks-long emotional state.

2013 will forever be remembered by us as the year as I was pregnant (I've been pregnant for 80% of it!) and it's hard to believe it's almost (and yet, already!) coming to an end.  From 9 weeks in April...

...to 39 weeks in November.

Any day now...we can hardly wait.