>Fortunate

>I’d been feeling a little boo-hooish lately, trying to understand what it is about being pregnant that makes otherwise-sane people tell me that they miss it after the baby arrives.  Sure, it’s hard when the baby comes, getting you up every couple of hours, crying, needing changes, dealing with soreness and fatigue.  But… let me think a minute…yep, I already have to deal with a lot of that, and without the soft, snuggly, sweet-smelling newborn that makes all of it worthwhile.

So the pregnancy has been wearing on me, making me wish away the last six and a half weeks I have left (assuming I’m not overdue…knock on wood), even as I start the mourn the loss of one-on-one time I have with Sebastian.

But just as I was getting immensely large, crabby, and impatient, I received an important lesson from the universe.  It’s one we all are reminded of from time to time, usually right when we don’t want to hear it but clearly need to:  It could be much worse than this.

What’s worse than being 33 weeks pregnant?  Many things, I’m sure, but in my case the answer was being sick and pregnant.

I must have caught some sort of stomach bug, which though I didn’t throw up, kept me feeling so nauseated that I couldn’t eat or even drink much without wishing I could just throw up and be done with it.  By the second day, I had so little in my stomach that standing up made me feel dizzy and confused.  I’m guessing I had a mild fever, too, which resulted in some major shivers and (in the middle of the night) the cold sweat that meant it had finally broken.  Blech.

And so I woke up on the third day telling myself that taking 5 minutes just to roll over in bed, or having restless leg keep me up for an hour every stupid night, or getting miserable acid reflux after every dinner was nothing compared to having the rest of my health intact.

Being stuck in bed for a day and a half also made me reflect on the many other blessings I have in my life, not least of which was a husband who took a sick day in order to take care of Sebastian and ensure that I rested as much as possible, and a munchkin whose face lit up when I dragged my sorry self into his room to hug him goodnight at the end of the miserable day.

I may still need to complain from time to time, and will probably still always wonder why people miss being pregnant, but overall I am feeling like a very fortunate woman today.