Monday, December 7, 2009

Swollen Feet and Sweaty Palms

These days, I am nothing if not active. I remember a time when I used to schedule my life around my workouts and be sad because I didn’t have anything else to do. I remember a time when I thought life in Delaware was lonely. I remember a time when I said to my husband, “I need more friends! I only have 2 friends in Delaware, and one of them is you!”

Remembering those times are sad, and yet, in times like these, when my life refuses to calm down, part of me misses those days.

I have decided that my newest goal, which I will add to my ever growing list, is apparently to allow myself as little time as possible to sit on my couch and DO NOTHING until the baby gets here. All evenings possible should be filled with running, doing, baking, cleaning, planning, talking, and all other exhausting plights.

Last week, someone asked me if the pregnancy insomnia has begun yet, (for the record, I have been dreading the “insomnia” stage since the first day I found out I was pregnant.) and surprisingly, I was honestly able to reply with a no (so far - fingers crossed). If I had to guess, I would venture to say that is only because I keep myself so busy every day that by the time I hit the pillow at night, my body is screaming for the sleep that I need. ( I can only imagine the devastation this will work on me once this little guy is here and I am used to a good 7 hrs of solid sleep every night.)

This past weekend was a prime example of my busy-ness. Friday night, I ran out of work, drove across town to pick up my husband from his mechanic, then dashed home to start straightening up my house. (I’ve learned there are limits to things that a pregnant woman can do, and I had invited 2 of my favorite teenagers to come over on Saturday in order to try to get my house together. But I had to do a little pre-work—there was no way I was going to let them to see it in the shape it was in on Friday!) After about 30 minutes of that, my girlfriend picked me up and we headed off to a poker party at another friend’s house for the evening.

Saturday was much the same. Up at dawn, groceries, shopping with the mother-in-law, back home to wait for my teenage assistants, wrapping gifts, baking cookies, cleaning, taking Techy to pick up his car, more baking, more cleaning, crafts, and some time around midnight, bed.

Sunday, up a little after dawn, church, more baking, cookie party, youth Christmas party. CONSTANT RUNNING! Needless to say, last night I was EXHAUSTED. As I climbed into bed, I was able to see my feet for the first time all day….they looked like my husbands! You probably don’t understand the full impact of that statement, but I tease my husband ruthlessly about his “Barney Rubble feet”—when my feet start to resemble Barney Rubble’s…well, you can imagine my concern. When I nearly cried over the size of them, Techy kindly offered to rub them before we went to sleep, and I graciously accepted. However, this morning I woke up with the same swollen, manly-looking stubs at the end of my legs – guess the rubbing can only do so much.

I don't think my hands are that much better. Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t swollen, but they are distinctly different than they were pre-gestation. There was a time when my extremities were always cold. Ok, so let’s just be honest, there was a time when my entire body was cold and my extremities were icy. The body that I am currently occupying is rarely cold, and my hands and feet are actually the warmest portions.

Last night, I reached over to pat Techy on the shoulder, and when I made contact with him, he jumped and jerked away like I had hit him. When I questioned the gesture, he leaned over and whispered, “You burned me!” I almost fell out of my chair laughing.

Oh how things have changed!

All that being said, this morning, I started my day with a fairly light week ahead of me, since then I managed to fill up my Tuesday night, Wednesday night, possibly Thursday and Friday, and Saturday was already filled. Considering the events now on my schedule in correlation to my current body issues, I can only hope to find appropriate shoes to fit my enormous, manly feet, since they apparently want to stick around for a while. On the upside, I won’t have to worry about finding gloves to match my outfit, even if it snows, since my hands are the same temperature as the sun!

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