Here are some things I have noticed about being this pregnant:

1.) My rings don’t fit. Now, I stopped wearing my engagement ring a few months ago because it was too tight when paired with the wedding band.  I figured I’d be okay with just the wedding band since it’s bigger than the engagement ring. Well, I was wrong. It does not fit. When I have parties and outings, I try to cram it on to avoid the “pregnant single lady” vibe, but yeah, it takes a few tries to tug it off. In fact, at our birthing class I even attempted wearing both the e-ring and wedding band. Imagine my surprise (and horror!) when I was unable to tug them off. As in, NO CHANCE. I had to lube my hands up with Purell to get them off. Of course, after that the meaty underside of my ring finger was all red and swollen. Not so good. Now I bring my wedding band with me to work since I feel naked, and cram it on for appointments. I probably won’t be able to do this much longer.

2.) My hips are spreading. I couldn’t believe it, but it’s true. Pre-preg, I was pretty straight up and down, no real hips/waist to speak of. Now I’ve noticed my hip joints aching. Perhaps it’s the fact that it’s nearly impossible to keep my legs from splaying out when I’m sitting that causes the ache, either way, holy crap it hurts. It’ll just start hurting if I’m just SITTING there, not moving! What IS that? In the morning, if I don’t have my trusty body pillow to snuggle on and wrap my legs around, my hips ache. MY HIPS ACHE. Other than that, I’m not really uncomfortable. Until…

3.) Her movements are no longer cute. Sure, they’re super entertaining and leave me in awe, but they are starting to hurt! She likes to spin around and scrape my insides.  I’ve said it before, but when she moves behind my belly button I could DIE, it is so uncomfortable. It’s like she’s pushing down on my bowels at the same time. It doesn’t really hurt, per se, more of a massive pressure. If this is what it feels like to “drop”, then that will be VERY uncomfortable.

4.) I have hit a new low. I get tired when I’m EATING. Seriously. I sit down to dinner, take a few bites of food, then realize I’m exhausted. I lean on my fist and just try to gather my energy to finish eating. So all you early preggos/possible parents some day: you will get tired EATING.

5.) Speaking of new lows… I now have to lift my belly and lean forward in order to pee. If I don’t, she just sits on my bladder and despite how incredibly bad I KNOW I have to pee, only a small trickle comes out. Imagine a stream trickling to a close, that’s it. I can sit there and wait and wait to no avail. Once I lift the belly and lean forward, the the flood begin! It’s actually kind of entertaining to me, which is possibly sad.

6.) The books say a buildup of fluid will cause you to swell and could start to make your hands and wrists ache- possibly bring on carpal tunnel syndrome. Well, yeah. My hands hurt like a bastard lately. I have a lotion I put on and it helps, but Oh my god, they ACHE!

So far that’s it, but goodness, with less than 6 weeks left I’m starting to panic a bit. I wake up early to go to work and think, “I’m exhausted NOW, how am I going to do this without sleeping through the night??”