Perks

Although pregnancy is not the most glamorous time in my life thus far, there are definitely a few perks that I have found. Don't get me wrong, I have had a fairly easy pregnancy, with almost zero complications. The only issue I have had was at 8 weeks when I had some spotting and had to have an ultrasound, but luckily everything was fine. Other than that, I have had such an easy pregnancy and I really have nothing to complain about. A little nausea in the beginning, and some heart burn and back pain in the 2nd trimester and beyond. But seriously, that's pretty standard pregnancy stuff, and I'm not going to complain about  symptoms that nearly every pregnant woman EVER has experienced.

But, I must say that as easy as my pregnancy has been, it's not my favorite. I miss my old clothes, my old body (even though I wasn't super excited about my body pre-pregnancy, I look like a swimsuit model compared to now!), and I miss being able to tailgate during football season and wear my game day gear. I have worn my size 10-12 boys Hawkeye Jersey during games for the last 4 years, and it looks like a bra when I put it on now! I miss not needing Benadryl to sleep, I miss being able to see my feet, paint my toes, shave my legs (I do it blindly now), touch my toes, sit on the couch without having to move positions every ten minutes, eating pizza without the fear of heartburn, wearing my jeans and hoodies, etc, etc etc.

Where was I? Ah yes, the perks of pregnancy I was going to talk about!!

• Ice Cream whenever I want to, which has been about 1 or 2x a week.
• No heavy lifting, and minimal light lifting. Apparently I'm either frail or people think the baby will pop out!
• A solid reason to take a nap when I want to
• Joel helping a lot more around the house with cooking/cleaning
• Buying random groceries that don't usually make it into the cart
• People asking me constantly how I am, although sometimes this is a little overwhelming
• An excuse to buy anything cute because, well, Oh-emm-gee she'll look SOOO cute in this/that
• An excuse to wake up late and go to bed early
• Changing my eating habits, some for the better, such as milk. I have loved milk this pregnancy!
• An excuse to get new furniture, redecorate, move things around, etc, all because of nesting

Oh, the list could go on and on. But soon enough, in approximat4ely 6.5 weeks, Tessa will be here, and I will have an entirely different list of perks! And of course, she will be ours to take home and raise.