My top 13 pregnancy surprises

Today we're at 33 weeks! Can you believe only 7 weeks to go!!!??? I'm just amazed at how fast this last half flew by!

So in honor of today being 33 weeks I thought I'd share the top 13 things that surprised me during this pregnancy.

1. I'm much more of a space cadet than I expected to be!!! Literally....I'm out there all the time...losing train of thought, forgetting what people have said, forgetting what day of the week it is...and forgetting everything in between. I tried to microwave something in the pantry recently. I bump into walls and furniture constantly. Hormones are to blame I guess!

2. Every pregnant woman looks different. Despite the fact that I am completely on schedule measurably, I still notice that I look smaller or bigger than other pregnant women. I knew everyone looks different in my mind, but it took actually lining up next to other pregnant women of the same week range for me to see how different each woman carries her baby. You can't really make a comparison with belly size!

3. How much I'd stop caring about certain things. As of right now, I am only comfortable wearing Daniel's clothes!!! Ok, ok, I do wear my maternity jeans when I go out in public...IF i don't have any of Daniel's wind suit pants available!!! But I never thought I'd be comfortable going out in public in Daniel's clothes in the first place! I had heard other women explain that they had to wear their husband's clothes at the ends of their pregnancies and I always thought...shesssh, not me! Now...I couldn't care any less. I am not concerned with how I look at all to other people. Whatever is comfortable at the time is what I'm wearing! And I feel like I have the personal right to look large, frumpy and washed out! It surprised me that I'd be ok with that!

4.How much my mood can swing. Sometimes I'm really happy and bubbly, busy and excited. Sometimes I just burst into tears at the thought that I'm home alone or that I didn't get enough done that day! Sometimes I cannot for the life of me figure out why someone is being so idiotic and I have the overwhelming urge to actually ask them why they are so dumb (ps. to that guy who ran the red light yesterday!) On the flip, sometimes I have these huge bursts of compassion and I just want to go out and volunteer or make someone a gift or something. Sometimes I have no desire to move and I literally don't notice what time it is until 2pm. Sometimes I get up, shower and get dressed and made up just to be around the house! Every one in a while I step back and notice these things and I just feel like a mental patient. It's just not me!! I honestly have to get with myself and have a talking to sometimes to get it together. It's silly really how it can swing so far back and forth from one day to the next. But, I guess we can blame that on the hormones too.

5. How my goal list would change. Several times my goal list has changed since I've been pregnant. It went from, read all you can to get all the info you can and make it your priority to learn everything there is to know about babies before this baby arrives; to then - get this house in order before this baby arrives...take any measures necessary! And now my goal each day...big pause... is to shower and do my hair. I try to attempt one "thing" a day. The other day it was Costco. Today it's to clean up the laundry room a bit. But if all I get done is my shower and hair...that'd be all I could ask for! Funny how it's come to that!

6. How much I don't care about my dogs. Ok. No. I'll rephrase. I really care about them. I do! But I am just unphased by their begging, pleading and general "I want to try to walk all over you" attitude! Normally I would feel sorry for them! I'd let them on the bed because I felt sorry for them. Now....if they make any effort towards the bed I'm calling em' down! I do not care any more about their feelings. (The silly part? They never had feelings anyway...haha I know.) My dogs are my best buddies all day long and I really love them, but I've had to make changes for them around here to suit a new baby and I've had no problem making them!

7.How much my Mom saves my life. My Mom has always been helpful. She's always given us a call to ask us if we want food she has fixed and stuff. But it has been surprising to me just how often she has done that during this pregnancy. At least once a week my Mom is driving food over here to us when I'm just too tired to do anything in the kitchen. Many, many people have done sweet things to help us out this pregnancy and we haven't forgotten that at all! Oh no! But it was the most surprising thing for me to see my Mom run out at 7pm just to bring some food over for us! (My Mom cannot see well in the dark at night to drive nor does she even like coming out that late!) She's even gone so far as to run out on a special trip for me just to pick up my craving food quite a few times. That surprised me!

8. That an 18-20 inch long baby lives in my stomach. In fluid. In a little ball. That's just a crazy thought when you think about it! A miracle! But surprising!

9. That Daniel might be more nervous than I am. I can't picture Daniel like that! But...it has been noted a few times throughout this pregnancy. He is nervous for me, and he says so! That is surprising! Normally, Daniel is like "OH HUN! YOU'RE FINE! YOU GOT THIS HUN!!!" You know that voice of his right? Now, I have to wonder what it will be like when he actually sees me in the pain of labor. He gets more concerned every day, especially as we learn more about what it will truly be like in our lamaze classes. That is something I didn't expect from ole strong Daniel.

10. How much privacy I want once we get to the hospital. Ok, I sort of expected this. But I never really went over the whole thing in my mind. I literally have made OCD specific directions for Stacey and my Mom (my first responders and phone tree peeps) about how I want things to go in the hospital. From people coming into our room to updates for the rest of our family, I have made this detailed plan on how I'd like things to go. I never thought I'd be so controlling about it! But I have been! I admit. I think I've done this because of how unsure I am about labor. It must be my way of getting some control over a situation that I have no control over...but honestly, once I took a look at my lists for Mom, Stacey and one for Daniel - in case he has to finish packing for us quickly-I was shocked at how detailed and most likely overwhelming I had been! Sorry guys! :)

11. How much you love your baby before you know him or her. It is funny how much of a connection I already feel with Abigail. And Daniel too. I guess it's not surprising really...but it has surpassed what I thought I'd be feeling for her. It's much greater!

12. Seeing your baby for the first time and/or finding out the gender. That was the best surprise to see that little baby nugget on the first ultrasound! And to wait and wait and then actually hear confirmation of the gender was just too exciting for words!! It's a great surprise!

13. When other people respond negatively to my pregnancy. If nothing else was listed here, I'd have to say that it's people's reactions, comments and tid bits that surprised me the most. Whether they mean to or not, some people manage to come off as rude, lacking in the brain department or just plain irritating. That's just something I think every pregnant woman has encountered at least once and you just have to smile and move on. Luckily there were very few of those types of surprises for me.

I'm sure after the birth, I'll have another whole list of things that surprised me. I'll be surprised at the pain, surprised at the exhaustion, surprised at what my body could do....the list goes on. For now, these are things I can't wait to see Stacey and Casey encounter so I can join in with the head nodding and tell them "YEP! I remember that." Well, minus number 13! And maybe number 4...cuz those just aren't fun. :)

Today, I'm going back to Fly Lady. As I said earlier my goals for the day seem to just be to emerge from the bed or couch and shower lately...so, to stay at least a little bit on track I'm switching myself back over to the Fly Lady system. That will give me 1 priority thing to do a day and it will rotate through so that all the rooms get a little love eventually!

For now, I'm off to eat some breakfast and get to my task!