"Here We Go Loop-Dee-Loo"

"...Here We Go Loop-Dee-La!"

I kept waking up and singing that in my head throughout the night last night. SURELY, I say again- SURELY, it's not already that time of my third trimester where my brain somehow tricks me into thinking I am invincible and no longer need sleep.

Maybe it's just stress?

How sad is it to hope you're insomnia is due to stress rather than natural pregnancy hormones? It's just that I remember how torturous it felt to be deprived of sleep during my third trimester with Micah. When I was in my doctor's office at 37 weeks begging to be induced, it wasn't because of the pregnancy pain or swelling, it's because I wanted to sleep!

I teach Awana's for 2 and 3 year olds on Wednesday nights at church. There are 2 other ladies with me. One who is in her late thirties and has 2 natural kids and one adopted. And one girl who is a freshman in college. Because of my widening girth, pregnancy is often a topic when we get together. And I think we're terrifying the young girl!

She asked me last night when my due date was and I reminded her that it's "End of April or beginning of May." And she said, "So you're hoping it's end of April?" And I said, "Oh yeah!" a little too convincingly, I guess, because she said, "Is it really that bad?"

I told her that really only the last few weeks are bad. When she asked "why," I tried to think of the most conclusive answer. "Well, your uterus grows a huge amount during pregnancy, from a tiny thing, to a massive thing that must fit an 8.5 pound (in my case anyway) baby. So while it grows it pushes every other organ in your body to the side, and smooshes them. So then they seem to work at lower-than-optimal level and you feel a bit like your body is breaking down."

While this is an accurate description, I think it makes the whole experience seem worse than it is when you're actually living it. Or maybe I've still got pregnancy amnesia and I'm not able to vividly remember how bad it was. God's nice to women to allow us to forget! Would anyone have a baby a second time otherwise?

*Some scientific facts, more trustworthy than me:

"(1) Changes in the uterus are phenomenal. By the time the pregnancy has reached term, the uterus will have increased five times its normal size:

(a) In length from 6.5 to 32 cm.

(b) In depth from 2.5 to 22 cm.

(c) In width from 4 to 24 cm.

(d) In weight from 50 to 1000 grams.

(e) In thickness of the walls from 1 to 0.5 cm.


(2) The capacity of the uterus must expand to normally accommodate a seven-pound fetus and the placenta, the umbilical cord, 500 ml to 1000 ml of amniotic fluid, and the fetal membranes.

(3) The abdominal contents are displaced to the sides as the uterus grows in size, which allows for ample space for the uterus within the abdominal cavity."

So, is this good birth control or what?