Being pregnant......

[Cataholic]

I HATED being pregnant. Glow? Oh, sure, from perspiring as a result of lugging around so much excess weight! I gained at least 55 pounds, it might have been 60...and I couldn't wear shoes the entire summer. I had NO ankles. None. I did what you are doing. I came home from work, washed my face, put my hair in a pony tail, and sat on the couch! This from a person that ran 3-5 miles a day, and spent 1.5 hours in the gym? LOLOL...I went from being a gym nazi to a couch nazi. I am STILL fighting my way back to something besides a tired mommy. STILL!!!

The people that said, "oh, I loved being pregnant" truly made me wonder. Who knows? Maybe they did nothing before becoming pregnant, so, the inactivity was just more of the same for them? LOL..it is a thought.

The trade-off is so worth it. So very worth it. From the moment they placed Jonah on my belly, it was, for me, instant love at first sight. I wouldn't trade it for all the tea in China.

As for stretch marks? It has WAY more to do with your skin's elasticity than it does with the weight gain. And, usually, you don't see the stretchies until after you have lost the weight. I **might** have one stretch mark. I have more on my thighs- from muscle growth, etc., than I do from child birth.

Who cares...for me? Any physical change is worth it. I **know** you will feel the same way once the baby gets here.

[Karen]

My sister has two children. Her pregnancy with the older of them was not bad, pretty "easy" compared to her second one. Her second pregnancy, 8 years later, she was sick almost the whole time, just miserable. And baby #2 was a fussy, difficult infant as well. When #2, Em, was little, her Dad would look at her sometimes and say "Kid, it's a good thing you were the second kid, because if you had been first, you'da been an only child!"

Each pregnancy is different, just as each child is different!

Some of those who claim to "love" being pregnant have what someone I know calls "maternal amnesia" - just remembering the good parts, and choosing to forget the uncomfortableness, the inability to tie your own shoes - even if they DID still fit on your feet, and all the other not-so-fun parts.