No news is good news

Still no news here, baby safely tucked inside and not really interested in moving out yet. Well, that may not be completely true. Today I think I've started what they now call early labour, but used to be called false labour. Erratic painful contractions that pop up from time to time, but nothing to get alarmed by. Of course, the great knowledgeable web tells me that this can go on for days, and in first pregnancies even for weeks before the real thing happens. I guess we'll see :)

In the meantime, I thought I'd compile a list of pregnancy things, while I'm still pregnant :)

My favourite things about pregnancy:

1. Carrying a whole other being inside me - it's been so much fun to be able to see/feel all the different baby parts moving around in there (especially that foot that's been stuck on the left side of my belly, right under the ribs).
   
2. Never being truly alone - I always have someone to talk to :)
3. Feeling healthier than ever - I barely even had a cold the whole 9 months!
   
4. Being able to eat whatever I feel like without any worries
5. Having unusually healthy food preferences: I've been eating more fruits and veggies than I've ever had, and all of it just because that's what I feel like eating - weird but good!
6. So many cute pregnancy outfits out there these days (though to be honest I've only bought a handful of things for the pregnancy, got a whole batch of clothes from a friend and for the rest I improvised with my existing clothes... but at least I knew there were lots of options out there)
7. The hormonal shift - after everything I'd read about pregnancy, I was worried about the mood swings and all that stuff - but it turned out that I had in fact less mood swings than normal. No PMS - gotta be a good thing!
8. People are very nice to pregnant ladies - you get a lot more smiles and offers of help.
9. And of course the cherry on top of the sundae: the promise of meeting the small bundle of joy at the end of it all.
   

And now for the things I don't like about pregnancy:

1. The worrying... I spent the first trimester worrying about miscarriage, and most of the last one worrying about premature birth and wondering about any new symptom that came up. Luckily I managed to keep most of the worrying in check, but it's still no fun...
2. Having to avoid certain foods and medications - especially when my eczema started flaring up with the arrival of winter, it would have been nice to be able to use a stronger cream to get rid of it or at least calm it down. Red itchy hands are never much fun...
3. All the questions, comments and advice that you get from people with strong opinions: "You must do this", "You can't do that", "Make sure you never" etc... I find it intimidating sometimes to have so many people interested in what's happening in my life. I can't imagine how draining that could be for someone who's an introvert! Though I have to admit it hasn't been bad at all, I've only had a handful of those overwhelming experiences.

Can't really thing of many more bad things... Of course the nausea, heartburn, back aches etc... are annoying, but overall I've had it really good when it comes to the usual pregnancy ailments, I really cannot complain.

As you can see from the list, the good outweighs the bad by a long shot. I guess it's been a really good pregnancy. My MIL is suggesting I should have 10 kids, since it seems to agree with me... We'll see about that ;) Let's see how I do with labour first...

Next post may have some more news!