Do not be too alarmed by this photo – the swelling went down after I put my feet up for a few hours. But let it be a lesson: going all day with no socks on and no rest equals elephantine feet and ankles.
New pedicure. 
So, today when I was making our traditional Easter Gumbo, I was painfully aware that standing over the stove continuously stirring the roux was going to result in swollen feet. Stewart was out hiking with the dog, and as soon as he returned home I handed the roux over to him and sat down and put my feet up. Pretty much for the rest of the day. Which is pretty much what I did most of yesterday.
However, tomorrow I have plans to get together with a friend (yay! getting out of the house!) so I need extra, extra rest tonight. The Zantac that my doc told me is safe to take really nips the nighttime heartburn in the arse, thank God.
In other pregnant-lady news, my friend who is pregnant with twins at 31 weeks is now in the hospital because she keeps going into labor. Her babies are only 3 pounds. Her baby shower was supposed to be next weekend, but now it looks like her doctor is just going to keep her in the hospital to let the babies grow in the womb as long as possible. I send her good vibes and lots of love.
During my “feet up” rest period today I watched a movie on the Lifetime Movie Network called “Mom at 16.” It was just starting, so I pretended to watch it while I read my latest New Yorker.
But the New Yorker took too much brain power, so I actually watched this movie – a girl has a baby at 16 and her mom raises it as her own so the girl can continue high school. At the end she winds up giving it up for adoption to her high school P.E. teacher and his wife who is the sex ed teacher – they have been trying to have a baby for years but couldn’t.
I dissolved into tears at the end and wound up sobbing – far too intense a reaction to a Lifetime Movie. Stewart was there reading a bike magazine and he looked up in alarm – “is it because of the movie?!”
Well. It started because of the movie but developed into me realizing that in a few weeks my baby will be outside my body where it will be much harder to take care of him. Right now he is a part of me and I am comforted when he squirms and kicks, and I can feed him just by eating and drinking, and I can give him oxygen just by breathing, and I can hold him just by sitting here. I am used to him.
It’s like falling in love – you want to be so close to another person that you wish you could crawl inside him but you can never get close enough. Well, my baby and I are close enough right now, but soon that will change. I will miss him when he’s on the outside.
Hey you may have swollen elephant feet but at least your toenails are pretty! I remember that… missing feeling my baby inside of me “My Heather Belly”. You’ll fall in love when he comes out, despite all the work and sleep deprivation!
If you think your feet are swollen now, just wait until after the baby is born. It actually gets worse before it gets better! Good Luck from here on out.