Pregnancy No-No's that I Miss

I am six months pregnant, with little man due exactly 3 months from today.  Sometimes, I think ahead to when he will arrive, and although I can hardly wait, I feel as though I am really going to miss these pregnant days, too.  There is just something about being so connected to him and feeling all those kicks and squirms and hiccups that is just amazing.

So, in the spirit of the grass being perpetually greener on the other side of the fence, and in an effort to cheer myself one day when I look back and reminisce about how amazing pregnancy was, I am going to focus on making a list of all the things I miss now so that I can remember to fully enjoy them once my son is born.


Coffee.  

This is definitely the one thing I miss more than anything else.  I do occasionally have a cup if I am in really bad shape or if I need to be alert to drive, but I always limit myself to one cup a day.  Before I got pregnant, I was drinking between 8 and 10 cups a day, and now I often find myself thinking that if I could only have all the coffee I want, I could do anything.  I have started putting together a hospital bag list, and the first thing I put on there was my coffee pot and some coffee.  When I get the green light, there will be no burnt hospital coffee for this girl.

Running.  

Yeah, it's going to be really important for me to remember how much I missed this when it comes time to start running again.  I quit smoking a few years ago and started running again.  It was really hard at first because I was in terrible shape, and my poor lungs were filled with poison and tar.  But with time, I was able to really get back to where I used to be as a runner, and I was able to run the whole way through a 5K on Thanksgiving Day, 2012.  But I was also about 6 weeks pregnant at that point, and that was the last major run that I did.

I did do some research initially to see whether it would be okay for me to keep running.  Everything indicated that exercising during pregnancy is generally okay for women with no complications, but it also said that when exercising, pregnant women should not exert themselves to the point where they are unable to talk comfortably while engaging in physical activity.  Unfortunately for me, I have experienced shortness of breath during my pregnancy, and even long sentences leave me gasping for air.  So, no running for me until baby boy arrives.

Walking up the stairs without feeling as though one of my lungs has collapsed.

See Running, above.

Sleeping.

People like to encourage me with optimistic reports of sleepless nights after their own children arrive or declarations that I "will never sleep again" or "won't know what tired is until that baby arrives!"  However, along with an extreme case of shortness of breath, I have also become an insomniac since the beginning of this pregnancy.

People have tried to diagnose the problem as being anxious about the baby, being excited about the baby, or  being uncomfortable.  But none of these are accurate.  I am not anxious about the baby.  I trust in God, so I am anxious for nothing.  I am excited, but when it's 4 in the morning, and you're still tossing and turning, you tend to feel more frustration than excitement about anything.  And yes, I am uncomfortable now that I am getting so big, but that does not explain why I wasn't able to sleep when I was freshly pregnant and not suffering the discomfort that I am now.

I really believe that after little man arrives, I will be sleeping better than I am now, especially because I consistently speak blessings of good sleep over him.