at only 11 weeks pregnant, pregnancy has already changed me in some significant ways:
1) My hair. I have decided to take advantage of the fact that hair tends to grow faster during pregnancy, and not cut it the whole pregnancy (well, I did when I first found out…but not again) in hopes of finally having longish hair. This, of course, only makes sense if I keep my hair helthy. So while I do plan to keep up just enough high-lights to not hate myself (a few foils every 3 months or so) I am no longer blow-drying or ironing my hair daily..only for rare special events. Instead I scrunch it up with some curling gel and leave it to dry naturally. Some days, it works. Some days it doesn’t. By the time I realize it is a bad day, I am already out the door…so I am just living with it.
2) My nails. All those months I did not get pregnant I kept up my bio-gel nails faithfully, telling myself they were a little gift to myself for not getting pregnant. Now, they are gone. I grew them out gracefully for a while, filing down the line and keeping them polished and not too long, but last week they started falling off, so I knawed off what was left of them. My nails are now short, bumpy and the polish peels off easily. Luckily, pregnancy also tends to make nails grow longer and stronger, so they should be looking pretty soon. BTW, I don’t think bio-gel is a problem in pregnancy…it is just that it seems an easy way to start budgetting, and like bad luck to keep them up after I spent months considering them a “not pregnant yet” thing to do.
3) Ice-cream and pop. 2 things I never ever used to have unless they were served to me at a party or someone’s house. Not that I disliked them…but I they just seemed too indulgant to have on a regular basis. I am now living on mint chocolate chip ice-cream and diet cream soda.
4) Exercise. I always planned to keep it up while pregnant, but just like last time, have not. I am walking a lot, but have found myself mostly too easily tired to do anything more exerting. As well, I had a little issue last week. After going to my first belly-dancing class in weeks, and exerting myself (I would say a class is similar exertion to a low-impact aerobics class) for the first time in weeks , I started bleeding. I had an ultrasound the next days and there was no indicaiton of a problem or blood in the uterus, so we don’t know what caused it and are thankful it has not come back. I know the exercise my be unrelated..but it left me fearful to do so again. I will deal with the weight gain after the baby comes. Actually, I found it very easy after the girl (and I gained a lot). Between nursing and being a very social person who was always walking the malls and going for walks with other new moms I met, the weight melted off. What happened when I returned to work is another story though…
5) The belly. I am not sure where it come from. The baby is still the size of a kumquat and quite low…yet I have looked like this for a couple weeks already. Not only does my belly stick out…it is hard. Not as hard as it will get…but harder than just pudge. And no, it isn’t twins. Good thing too…I was wondering how I would ever manage to hide twins from everyone I know the whole pregnancy and delivery so no one would know and try to stop me when when I gave one up for adoption!
6) The girl. I don’t know if she got more annying, or I got more irritable…but she does not stop talking, and I just want her to stop. I feel a rush of love when she is asleep though!
