Oh Hormones!

Goodness, pregnancy hormones are insane.  It’s kind of like the emotional turmoil of PMS . . . but lasting for 9 months!  I am definitely more hormonal these days.  It seems like even in just the past week or so, it has gotten worse.  You remember I mentioned that one of the early indications that I was pregnant was that I started crying at a Folgers commercial – well, today I started tearing up at a news story (can’t remember what).

A note to all of the non-pregnant people out there: pregnant ladies will take EVERYTHING personally.  If you are going to comment on her belly, there are really only two ways to do it.  Say, “It’s so cute!”  Or “You look good!”  Or, the best one I’ve gotten so far, “I can be having a bad day, but the moment you and your pregnant belly come into the room, it just makes me happy”  (said to me by our building receptionist . . . thanks Christina!)  Basically, give her some positive feedback.  And never, EVER tell her she looks “round,” “motherly” or “fat” (seriously, I’ve had people tell me this and I wanted to reach over and smack them!).  Here’s the thing: when commenting on a belly, you can’t win.  If you tell a pregnant woman she is “big” then she will think she’s gaining too much weight.  But then if you tell her she’s still so “small,” she’ll take offense and get a complex that she’s not gaining enough weight.

One weird, but positive thing about the hormones is this (prepare yourself, it’s going to sound super cheesy): Aaron almost always seems to make me happy.  Maybe it’s a weird evolutionary thing, but the moment he walks in the door, my mood automatically lifts.  Maybe it’s because he’s been so good about telling me that he’s glad I’m carrying his baby.  Maybe it’s that he brings me flowers now for no particular reason.  I don’t know.  It’s weird, but I like it. I’m not sure if this happens to other pregnant ladies, but I have definitely noticed a sharp uptick in my mood when my baby daddy is around.  He’s also really good about saying whatever I need to hear at that particular moment in time.  If I’m feeling too big or too small, it doesn’t matter, he can talk me back into a calm state.

I’ve discovered that one answer to hormone craziness (seriously, I wanted to punch someone and/or cry for most of last week) is exercise.  Yes, that laborious activity that most people seem to want to avoid like the plague, is my cure-all drug (it was before pregnancy too, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference).  I went to the gym the other night and felt SO much better!  I did a good half hour on the elliptical and then did a bunch of arm weight training, followed by a little stretching.  I will admit, I was a little jealous of all the people doing ab work.  I miss ab work!  I also took a yoga class from my good friend, Trevor.  He was great about giving me modified exercises to do.  My body feels so much better today!  I hadn’t realized how much tension I was carrying in my neck and shoulders until now.  I might write an entire separate post on how different yoga feels now than it did before pregnancy (hint: it felt like I hadn’t done yoga in about 5 years!)

Oh, and update on my last post, my dad sent me the profile pic of me in the green dress.  Here it is:

 Have a fantastic weekend everyone!!!