Pregnancy is a privilege! Even the largest of trust funds, most beautiful & glamorous of lifestyles can't trump the privilege of creating life. I feel grateful everyday I get to carry this little one & to be one of the privileged women to become a Mom.
While I know in my soul that pregnancy is a great honor there are many hindrances along the way that start to chip away at life's greatest privilege. Most people wouldn't consider bi-monthly visits to the doctor's office much of a privilege, especially if there is substantial waiting room time associated with the visit. NO wine, NO soft cheese, NO deli meat, NO sushi, LIMIT fish consumption, LIMIT caffeine, NO diet coke, those limitations on consumption certainly don't make one feel very privileged. What about the day you read a pregnancy website & they tell you to get rid of your facial products that contain salicylic acid, retinol, or essential oils? No home-pampering during pregnancy? No hot tubs, stay out of the heat, keep your hot bath luke warm, don't sunbathe or you will get stretch marks. What about the camping trip when everyone is dousing themselves in bug spray & you get to watch them repel the mosquitos from themselves, meanwhile taking the brunt of the bites! Forget about finding relief from allergies, colds, or the flu, most medications are not approved for use during pregnancy. Swollen feet, swollen hands, puffy eyes, leg cramps, weight gain, & more weight gain. For those of us with 2nd trimester complications: don't exercise, don't lift heavy objects, stay off your feet, pelvic rest (aka no SEX), weekly injections & more & more visits to the doctor. You start to feel like you can't so much as sneeze without having your doctor on-call in case it is a big one! None of this would lead one to believe they are living a privileged life. So while it takes a lot of mental toughness to continue to believe that pregnancy is God's greatest gift it would be nice to have a few token privileges.
Well just when I started to feel like no one recognized how special us preggos really are I pulled into the Best Buy parking lot to find 3 parking spaces front & center & in the shade, labeled "Stork Parking- for expectant mothers". How great is that?! I've started to notice "Stork Parking" signs more & more & sometimes at the most random places. So what we used to be termed "Rock-star Parking" can now actually be called "Stork Parking"! I find myself going to Best Buy to buy a pack of gum & a water, just so I can use the "Stork Parking". I even noticed a "Stork Parking" spot at our local Shakespeare Theater, which I will greatly enjoy this coming Wednesday when we attend an outdoor performance with friends. Whoever thought of Stork Parking is brilliant! Aside from the obvious convenience of not having to make long treks through parking lots with swollen feet & lop-sided weight distribution, it is a privilege to be pregnant so why not enjoy a few token privileges along the way?! Hats off to you Best Buy, Toys'r'us, Boise Shakespeare Festival, & all of you other businesses who appreciate that you don't have to be Paris Hilton to be truly privileged!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Blue Knees
In high school I ran track. Being a die hard dancer, sports weren't really my thing and I did it more for the social aspect & to see what all the sports & competition hype was all about. Because I was tall & flexible from my years as a dancer, one of the events I ran was the 300m hurdles. I wouldn't say I was anywhere near the best in that event and usually placed towards the back of the pack, in fact I don't think I had ever placed in any event except for maybe a relay. One meet at a neighboring high school I tripped over one of the first hurdles & fell flat on my face. I was literally a pancake on the track. I remember that moment so distinctly as the decision making process started to run through my head. Should I lay here & not finish the race, should I get up and walk off the track, or should I get up & RUN? Well, I chose door #3 & got up and ran. Call it my adrenaline or a false confidence I instilled in my competitors, but I passed everyone and ended up winning the race. That was the one and only time I ever won (or even placed) an event in a track meet. I learned a very valuable lesson that day: you have many choices in life & giving up is not one of them. The track I was running on happened to be blue & so were my knees, legs, & elbows for a couple of weeks, so for the rest of my high school days everyone on the track team called me "Blue Knees". I never minded being called "Blue Knees", because it reminded me that even falling down & having the odds stacked against me couldn't possibly stop me or hinder my spirit. Even then, I knew that this lesson would apply to all aspects of life.
So with that story being said, I have officially made it to the 3rd trimester! I am safely past the 28 week mark & almost to 30 weeks. Dr. B sets small milestones each time we meet, I like to think of them as hurdles. My first hurdle was to get to 25 weeks when the baby would be viable. Next, it was to make it to 28 weeks when the baby would be viable and have a really good chance at no long term health problems. Now we are aiming for the 32 week hurdle when most of the organ development will have taken place. Our next hurdle is 35 weeks when all of the organ development is complete & we might even get to take baby home with us. Our finish line is 38 weeks when our baby would be considered full term & we will almost definitely have a healthy baby to take home with us. Crossing each of these hurdles is better than winning a blue ribbon at the end of a track meet. And making it to the 3rd trimester is as good of a feeling as making the choice to get up and run after falling. If falling down to only get back up & win the race has given me hope that even after a tragic stillbirth, 6 1/2 weeks on bed rest, weekly preterm labor injections, & a somewhat turbulent pregnancy, we can still have a healthy full term baby at the finish line, then I guess we could say that "Blue Knees" is back!
So with that story being said, I have officially made it to the 3rd trimester! I am safely past the 28 week mark & almost to 30 weeks. Dr. B sets small milestones each time we meet, I like to think of them as hurdles. My first hurdle was to get to 25 weeks when the baby would be viable. Next, it was to make it to 28 weeks when the baby would be viable and have a really good chance at no long term health problems. Now we are aiming for the 32 week hurdle when most of the organ development will have taken place. Our next hurdle is 35 weeks when all of the organ development is complete & we might even get to take baby home with us. Our finish line is 38 weeks when our baby would be considered full term & we will almost definitely have a healthy baby to take home with us. Crossing each of these hurdles is better than winning a blue ribbon at the end of a track meet. And making it to the 3rd trimester is as good of a feeling as making the choice to get up and run after falling. If falling down to only get back up & win the race has given me hope that even after a tragic stillbirth, 6 1/2 weeks on bed rest, weekly preterm labor injections, & a somewhat turbulent pregnancy, we can still have a healthy full term baby at the finish line, then I guess we could say that "Blue Knees" is back!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
FREEDOM!
As of Tuesday I have been released from bed rest. I went into my appointment with Dr. B fully armed with a very convincing sales pitch. As I explained to him that Frank and I had been in McCall last weekend & that while he may not be happy to hear this I was "up" more than was prescribed and had no problems or issues & felt great! As I continued to ramble on about why he should take me off bed rest he interrupted me in mid-sentence and said "I was going to take you off bed rest today anyway". Those words were the best words I have heard all pregnancy.
While I had amazing support throughout my time on the couch from friends, family and my dear husband, it becomes a depressing exercise to lay around on the couch day after day no matter how positive of a person you are (see blog entry "It's not always sunshine and roses"). For someone who is used to being busy day-in and day-out just the lack of productivity and social interaction is enough to suck the life right out of you. From the outside I know that some might think that bed rest is a dream come true. In fact, one of my guy friends suggested I take up Xbox 360 gaming to pass the time, clearly bed rest is a pipe dream for him. And, many busy Moms made comments such as: "just wait until the baby arrives, you will be wishing for a quiet day of bed rest". I usually smiled kindly & said, "I know, you are right," but inside my head I was thinking "you've clearly never been on bed rest"! A few hours of down time or a long nap might be desired, but being stripped of all freedom & forced to lay horizontally for weeks on end is not all that dissimilar from a prison sentence (I imagine anyway, having never been in prison).
As tedious and frustrating as bed rest was at the time, I do have to say that the time did go by quickly. In total I was on the couch for 6 1/2 weeks and truly it didn't seem all that long. As always there are many worse stories of women being on bed rest for 16 weeks, or on magnesium sulfate in the ante-partum wing at the hospital for 13 weeks, or worse yet, in ante-partum with the bed tilted so their feet are above their head with no "up" privileges leaving them with a bed pan as their only option for "relief". Yes, I did feel lucky to be in the comfort of my own home for my time on bed rest & for the seemingly short duration relative to other women's experiences. Mostly, I am just ever more grateful to be able to get myself a glass of water, go to the grocery store, & help out at work in-person, while the baby continues to reside safely in my belly!
In fact, I've never been so happy to go to work, or do the dishes, or drive myself to the coffee shop. So next time you have a bad day at work, or your to do list feels overwhelming just remember that you have the freedom to go where you need to & do what you want to without recourse. Sometimes we take for granted the most basic notions & I leave the couch pretty confident that I will never take for granted my freedom again!
While I had amazing support throughout my time on the couch from friends, family and my dear husband, it becomes a depressing exercise to lay around on the couch day after day no matter how positive of a person you are (see blog entry "It's not always sunshine and roses"). For someone who is used to being busy day-in and day-out just the lack of productivity and social interaction is enough to suck the life right out of you. From the outside I know that some might think that bed rest is a dream come true. In fact, one of my guy friends suggested I take up Xbox 360 gaming to pass the time, clearly bed rest is a pipe dream for him. And, many busy Moms made comments such as: "just wait until the baby arrives, you will be wishing for a quiet day of bed rest". I usually smiled kindly & said, "I know, you are right," but inside my head I was thinking "you've clearly never been on bed rest"! A few hours of down time or a long nap might be desired, but being stripped of all freedom & forced to lay horizontally for weeks on end is not all that dissimilar from a prison sentence (I imagine anyway, having never been in prison).
As tedious and frustrating as bed rest was at the time, I do have to say that the time did go by quickly. In total I was on the couch for 6 1/2 weeks and truly it didn't seem all that long. As always there are many worse stories of women being on bed rest for 16 weeks, or on magnesium sulfate in the ante-partum wing at the hospital for 13 weeks, or worse yet, in ante-partum with the bed tilted so their feet are above their head with no "up" privileges leaving them with a bed pan as their only option for "relief". Yes, I did feel lucky to be in the comfort of my own home for my time on bed rest & for the seemingly short duration relative to other women's experiences. Mostly, I am just ever more grateful to be able to get myself a glass of water, go to the grocery store, & help out at work in-person, while the baby continues to reside safely in my belly!
In fact, I've never been so happy to go to work, or do the dishes, or drive myself to the coffee shop. So next time you have a bad day at work, or your to do list feels overwhelming just remember that you have the freedom to go where you need to & do what you want to without recourse. Sometimes we take for granted the most basic notions & I leave the couch pretty confident that I will never take for granted my freedom again!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)