Laughter to Cope with Pregnancy

These days, I'm laughing a lot.  Seems like humor is my new favorite coping mechanism.  It's great until my sides hurt- then it's just uncomfortable.  I think I've laughed until I cried more since I've been pregnant than ever in my entire life.  I'm mindful that sometimes what seems absolutely hysterical to me at a particular moment just flat doesn't convey when I try to re-tell it later << so take that as your warning... this post may be dreadfully boring for some of you >>.

Examples:
1) A while back on the phone with my mom, I casually told her, "This week your grandbaby's the size of a small cantaloupe."
"Oh goody," she squealed with delight. "I have a cantaloupe in the fridge at home."
"When you get home, I think you should pull it out of the fridge and cuddle your melon for practice."  As soon as those words were out of my mouth, I fell into an uncontrollable fit of giggles.



2) After she finished reading a previous post on here, my sister comments on the FB link, "_Whoa, cool! Not sure if this makes me want to have babies or not..._" For some reason, this tickled me bright pink!  It's hilarious to my progesterone poisoned mind that sharing this amazing, ridiculous, miraculous experience with the whole world << who am I kidding, the "hits" I get from Russia and Malaysia are probably just spammers >> would possibly cause folks to re-consider whether or not they should take the plunge... bite the big one... go for the gold... okay, I'll stop now.

3) I definitely laughed at myself for all the fruit I was eating.  If we're friends on Face, you know of my obsession with fruit. Specifically citrus fruit, but there have been other strong contenders.  I've been known to polish off: an 8 lb bag of oranges in less than a week; a pint of blueberries in less than 24 hours; and a 10 - 12 lb basket of mixed fruit in 4 days.  My fruit cravings are the only consistent ones I'm having, and not a moment goes by where I don't think to myself... "Mmmm... oranges...  mmmmm... strawberries... mmmmm..."  You get the point.

Here's the humor: at the height of my fruity cravings, the inside of my mouth was almost one big citrus blister.  I literally had to be cautious how much fruit I ate, otherwise my mouth would react.  One day in particular, a colleague at a lunch meeting says to me, "Jess, I can't believe you're not getting fruit!"  Embarrassed, I was forced at that point to confess my excesses. And believe it or not, I giggled my way through it, recounting all the fruit that I'd eaten in the past 5 hours.

4)  If you know me, you might know that I have an unusual, and heretofore un-matched, talent for memorizing all of the song lyrics to all of the best early 90's Rap music that I grew up jam skating to at the roller rink.  Every now and then a song comes on, and I'll happily sing along.  I might even booty dance, which might take place in the bathroom when I'm getting ready in the morning... at home... by myself (except for the dog).  If I happen to see myself dancing along as I'm rappin' my heart out, I just about fall out. Every time.  There's something << wrong? hilarious? absurd? >> about having 2 large melons up top and an extra-large melon on my waist while shimmying around the room shakin' what my momma gave me that throws me into uncontrolled fits of giggles.

The Cute Side of Pregnancy

The Cute Side of Pregnancy

People make comments like, "You look like you swallowed a melon!"  And when they ask you how you're feeling, they actually stop to listen. They legitimately CARE!

Each week, pregnancy literature compares the size of my baby to FRUIT! At week 8, he was the size of a blueberry. At week 23, he's the size of a papaya.  With as much as I'm craving fruit, it's only appropriate that we refer to my baby as fruit.  Speaking of fruit, this is what happened after a trip to the grocery store a few weeks ago:

Some people might argue that my obsession with fruit is going a little overboard.
I'd suggest you not argue with a pregnant woman.

I might be the *luckiest* girl in the world.  First of all, I'm pregnant, which does not come easy with every couple desiring to procreate.  Second of all, I have felt so good throughout the entire pregnancy (25 weeks), that I will literally forget <<for brief moments only >> that I'm pregnant.  Our little citrus baby likes to remind me when I get too focused on a task that he's there, so he'll usually throw a 'bow or tiptoe on my kidney as a gentle reminder.

I know I whined in the "Not-So-Cute" post about putting away all of my pre-pregnancy clothes <<may they temporarily rest in peace >>, but now I can celebrate Maternity Clothes.  Here's the thing.  The bump precludes anything non-stretchy to even approach my waistline, with the only exception being a seatbelt.  That means I get to sport pretty much all-things-cotton: dresses, skirts, tops, and leggings. In my highly evolved fashion opinion  << NOT >>, maternity shirts have become quite cute. I'm still highly, strongly, deeply opposed to maternity pants (the kind with the wide panel), so my preference is to let all "lower pieces" low-ride.  Below the bump is AOK with me.  In a nutshell, this means that during pregnancy, it may be the most comfortable time in my life for wearing clothes. *High Five*


There's not a part of my body that isn't... well... ROUND.  Redonda, en espanyol.  For real.  I look down, and all I see are curves.  I've *always* found the pregnant figure to be the most beautiful... on other women. I'm working on my own sort of self-love when it comes to my figure at this point.  I'm definitely trusting that this truly is the most beautiful and magical experience a woman can experience.  Let's be honest.  Babies are miracles.  New life is a miracle.  And this time, I get to be an active participant in a miracle.  Now whether or not that fits so accurately with "The Cute Side of Pregnancy" may be up for debate, but my argument for inclusion rests on one simple fact: Babies are Oh.So.Cute.