In December, (6th month of pregnancy) Brandon and I ran around like crazy people. We had decided that we would hold off on baby stuff until after the holidays, and spent every weekend getting settled into our house and preparing for Christmas with our families. I had a lot of energy and felt pretty amazing for the most part. I was finally starting to show a bit, and started to notice that perfect strangers were so much friendlier to me. I even had one guy offer to give up his chair one morning when we were waiting to be seated for breakfast! Who knew that all you had to do was get pregnant for people to be friendly to you?
But of course, along with the friendliness, came some nastiness... And most of it went a little something like this:
"How far along are you? WHAT?!? Are you sure you're that far along? You look awfully small. Is there something wrong with your baby? Are you sure you are eating enough? You shouldn't be worrying about your calories you know.. how much are you eating?. You look awfully skinny still. When I was as far along as you I was MUCH bigger BLA BLA BLA".
I was pretty good at taking these comments in stride and would smile and refrain from responding with a snarky comment. [Side note: If you know me at all, you will know that not speaking my mind to these people was a minor miracle.] But I always felt like I had to justify my size (or lack thereof) by responding with the usual "I eat plenty and my doctor says that my weight and baby are perfectly healthy and on-track". Then one day, a not-so-stranger made a similar comment to me, and I completely lost it. I managed to suck it up during the conversation, and then went home and had a pregnancy sized meltdown to Brandon about how much I hated the world. He was patient. I was dramatic. There were lots of tears.
I know that some people may think that telling me I'm too small is a compliment, and that I shouldn't take it personally or get upset. They would be wrong. There is a difference between telling me I look great, and telling me I'm too small and questioning if I'm eating enough. By accusing me of not eating enough, you might as well accuse me of starving my baby. It is hurtful. It is rude. And people need to learn to keep certain opinions to themselves. I shouldn't have to feel horrible about myself because I eat healthy. Is it okay to walk up to a woman that is pregnant and say "Damn, you are HUUUUGE, are you sure you should be eating that? You look like you have gained too much weight!" I don't think so. So why is it okay to say the opposite? It shouldn't be.
Now thankfully, I am seven months (29 weeks), and I am DEFINITELY showing/no longer getting the too small comments. My stomach is getting bigger by the day, and Liam is getting painfully strong. My skin feels like it's going to burst, and it's getting hard to breathe. I'm starting to worry that he has no more space to grow, but I'm constantly reminded by everyone that he will find a way :)
We have started to get into the nesting mode these past few weeks and IT IS SO EXCITING!! Two weeks ago we spent the weekend registering for Liam. After we finished we were completely exhausted and overwhelmed. Who knew a baby needed so much stuff?!?! Brandon also did an amazing job painting Liam's nursery :) This past weekend we picked up our nursery furniture and set it all up. Since then, I've caught Brandon sneaking upstairs a few times just to look at the nursery again :) It's these moments that make me love him even more than I already do. We've started imagining about what things will be like with Liam. What he will look like, his personality, etc. These next few months are going to be pretty tough to wait for his arrival. But if we can just get through them, I know that all of the waiting will be more than worth it :)
(6 months)
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