Varicose veins, heartburn, and hemorrhoids, oh, my!

*EDITED TO ADD ONE MORE NICE THING I FORGOT*

I am not one of those people who enjoy being pregnant. I don't think I'll miss it when it's over and I'll have to think long and hard before I do it again. But I'm also not one of those people who hate being pregnant. On the whole, I just find the entire endeavor really uncomfortable.

That said, there are a few nice things about it:

1) When you're sporting a big pregnant belly, the last thing people notice about you is whether you've shaved your legs, plucked your eyebrows, or have VPLs. I take full advantage of this (switched to an electric razor, pluck my eyebrows ... sometimes, and only sweat the VPLs when I'm wearing something especially VPL-prone. Otherwise, forget it).

2) In England, strangers don't rub your belly.

3) However, they are, for the most part, unfailing nice to you:

• I bought an apple the other day from the canteen in my office building and the guy behind the counter offered to wash it for me.  Now, I've bought plenty of apples from this establishment (and this particular guy) several times in the past and not once has somebody offered to wash it for me. I could get used to this
• *EDITED (see above)*: Sometimes--OK, kind of regularly--I use the pay toilet in the mall on the way to work because I just. can't. stand. the sensation of having to pee during my 10-walk from tube to office. The woman who attends the bathrooms never charges me the regular 30-pence fee, even if I'm in line behind paying customers. Instead, she opens a separate gate for me, smiles and ushers me through, and even insists on holding the gate open for me on my way out. How cool is that?
• People regularly offer me their seat on the train* (although I will admit there is an art to this--if you stand toward the door with your head down, nobody will budge. However, if you make your way to the center pole between two rows of seats and make eye contact, somebody will almost always offer up. It also helps if you don't wear too many layers)
• On the whole, people ask how you're doing, open doors for you, pull up chairs, and just generally greet you with extra kindness and consideration

4) An interesting side effect of pregnancy for me is giggliness. This even happened while I was at the dentist getting my crown replaced. And lucky Yan feels like the funniest guy in the room.

My worst side effect has been really debilitating light-headedness in the mornings. It started in my second trimester, when I started nearly blacking out during my commute into work. Apparently, this is a combination of  low blood pressure (from going from a lying down position to a standing position) and low blood sugar, which fortunately, has no effect on the baby. However, it's made my hour-long commute into work really, really unpleasant.

I've since learned a few tricks to stave off the full-blown episodes of profuse shaking and sweating, though I am often still pretty uncomfortable in the mornings:

1) I wake up half an hour earlier and go into work half an hour later (with my boss's blessing, of course). This allows me to go from a lying-down position, to sitting, to ultimately standing in the shower over the course of two hours. Though I've found that sitting for too long can produce the same effect so I now try to do a little light housework in the mornings (unloading the dishwasher, for example) to get the blood flowing.

2) I drink a full, cold, glass of water as soon as I get up in the mornings. Staying hydrated is really important for blood pressure.

3) I always eat breakfast to keep my blood sugar even.

4) I take short, cool showers and don't layer too much. I am a naturally cold person and the temperature has been in the high 60s here all summer (bless), so this often means I'm a bit on the chilly side. But see above for getting a seat on the train.

5) As the trains are not air-conditioned in London (it can get stuffy underground even in 70-degree weather), I've switched from my regular tall soy chai (that's "tall soya chai tea latte for takeaway" in these parts) to an iced soy latte for my morning commute. I also purchase a low-fat muffin for the road in case the low blood sugar strikes (I was getting a biscotti but that's how I lost my crown [see above]). Switching from a hot drink to a cold drink has made a surprising difference.

6) I am going on maternity leave beginning August 10. Though it appears that my fears about another 100-degree summer are largely unfounded, I didn't want to take any risks. And as I find myself increasingly uncomfortable, I think having those last four weeks off when apparently everything hurts and nothing fits is going to be a real blessing. And yes, I am aware of exactly how lucky I am living in a country that has a proper maternity leave (six months to a year, though unpaid, natch). Part of the reason we wanted to move here.

In any case, I don't know if that was of any particular interest to anybody but me, but however small, I sort of wanted to document it for posterity. (Or to remind myself the next time I'm thinking about taking this little journey). So there you have it. The good, the bad, and the just plain uncomfortable.

.

*There was one middle-aged professional looking dude that cut in front on me to get on the train, took the last remaining seat, and didn't get up when he saw my protruding belly. A woman offered up her seat instead, and dude got off the train a good five stops ahead of me. I honestly don't mind if people don't want to get up--hey, maybe you're not feeling good today either!--but cutting off a pregnant woman and racing her to the last remaining seat is a bit over the top. See how all this niceness can make you feel a bit entitled to it? I'm not ashamed to say that I'm going to miss this part of pregnancy when it's all over.

Comments

[Marcy]

I'm just at 11 weeks right now, and the light-headed-ness has started to hit. I think it started about a week ago or so, but I've definitely noticed that standing too long doesn't work as well, and getting up too quickly will cause near black-outs.

Your train seat story reminded me of when my husband and I were boarding a flight in Paris, and had to take one of those buses to get to the plane. The bus was completely full, except for these 2 American guys (one for sure was American, the other may have been Canadian) that were sitting on 2 rows, each using the seat next to them for their bags. Hubby and I had to stand in the aisle next to them, and even attempted eye contact, but the guy completely ignored us and let his bag continue to take over the seat. Not cool. I look forward to getting a big belly so I can more-justifiably give people the evil eye for that kind of behavior. ; )

[Keely]

One of my favorite things during pregnancy was the upclose parking at Babies r Us for expectant mothers. And everyone smiling and being so nice - but then, people tend to be nice when you have a cute baby so win/win. :)

[kate]

Hey hon, I am glad that us Brits are treating you right (except that asshole who cut you up on the train). I hope you feel good and I hope to see you soon. My last day in London is Tuesday but I hopefully will see you at some point!