It was a sad day a couple of weeks ago. I was pulling on a pair of maternity jeans when I felt it, a long rip around the top of my butt. I knew they were tight, but my goodness! Oh the joys of the last trimester of pregnancy.
It’s hard to explain unless you’ve been through it. But even maternity clothes don’t fit quite right during that last trimester. My narrow body frame is desperately trying to accommodate my rapidly growing belly, but if I go up a size, I’ll just be swamped in extra fabric. And then there’s finding clothes that work for my job as a television meteorologist. Long story short, some people haven’t been happy with my appearance and have emailed and posted some inappropriate things.
I allowed some of those things to get to me, dealt with my emotions and then made a public post to address the general dislike of a growing baby belly. It went viral. It is not typical for me to respond so publicly, but I had had enough. I’ve gotten these types of comments for all 3 of my pregnancies. And I thought it was important for people to know that I wouldn’t have been able to respond the way I did had it not been for work I’ve done on my own mental health. I struggled with mental health issues just before I had my son and for years afterward. My doctor told me the therapist she thought I should go to, and that was life changing for me. I made my math-based social media post purely for me.
It helped me stand up for myself and take back my power. The next day, I explained the process I went through to make that post in hopes that it would inspire others (including my own children one day) to do the same.
You can find the links to the stories here.
The overwhelming support I have received since writing the post, appearing on the Today Show and even having it published on Yahoo and through iheart radio stations has been amazing. I’m so happy to see that good far outweighs the bad and I hope others who are struggling have the opportunity to see that, too.
In other news, (I think) I have one more month of pregnancy to go!! My son was delivered at 35 weeks, and I just reached that milestone the other day.
Technically I could give birth at any time. My left uterus, which has never been pregnant before, has been acting like a champ. This is counter-intuitive to what we thought when we found out I was pregnant on that side. That uterus started out just a bit smaller than the other one. However, unlike with the right uterus, the baby’s growth has not significantly slowed down for this pregnancy and it continues to measure a week ahead of schedule.
I’m only slightly frightened by what that means for delivery. My last two babies weighed 5 lbs. 10 oz. I know my mother’s stories of having a 9 lbs baby (me). To all the women who have had larger babies, I salute you and your amazing bodies. I’ve had it easy. This time, maybe not.
I failed, then passed the gestational diabetes test. 🤢
My family spent a fantastic vacation in Hawaii.
Discovered how thankful I am that we keep my dad’s snow pants at our house.
And then proceeded to work a blizzard, all while managing to stay pregnant during a rare Colorado bomb cyclone! #winning
More recently, my body HAS been giving me signs that it may go into labor sooner rather than later. Enough signals that I called my doctor and they brought me in to see how I was doing. I was having contractions, but they weren’t that strong and were coming every 12 minutes.
They also had me take a test to see if I would go into labor in the next two weeks. It’s called an FFN, or  fetal fibronectin test. It’s definitive if it comes back negative, you will not go into labor. Not so definitive if it comes back positive. Mine came back positive. So I’ve also been getting a couple of steroid shots to help my baby’s lung development along. So far, (knock on wood) so good. But I would really prefer not to have NICU in my labor and delivery room. And I would also prefer not to go into labor before my cerclage comes out. That happens in just a couple of weeks. Then, for real, it is game on.
Even though the baby has developed A TON, I still struggle with emotional stress from this pregnancy. Just the other night I had a nightmare that I delivered my child and then never saw it… for days. No one would tell me if it was alive or not. So while I don’t want this baby to come into the world just yet, I will be relieved when my healthy child is finally here.
My husband and I have most things organized and moved around so that we are ready for the baby! We’ve moved my son into his new room and have set up the nursery once again. Plus, I fully intend on working until I have to check-in to the hospital for delivery. We are so blessed and so excited to meet this new addition!
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