My Lovely Baby Bump

I've been complaining about how obvious it is to me that I'm pregnant and first, you need some background knowledge. It's actually a shame that I'm writing this part because it's Grant's favorite thing to tell people. Literally. Total strangers, the first thing he'll say about me.

"My wife used to be a total fatty."

It's true. I was kinda chubby as a kid and things evened out a little with puberty but I never took super great care of myself so when I stopped doing sports and graduated from high school but just kept eating whatever I wanted. Well, you do that for a year or two....

Yup. That's me. At almost my very, very heaviest. Well, eventually I got sick of that and a couple of months after this picture was taken I came down with the flu and was sick for a week. In that week, I lost 4 pounds and I just decided, "I'm NOT putting that back on." And I kept going with it. Over the next year and half I lost about 90 pounds. I put some back on while serving in Hungary (almost 30--yuck) but I got home and just went back into the ole weight-loss mode and not only lost the "mission souvenirs" I trimmed a few more off. Thank you, step aerobics! I actually lost another few pounds after this picture was taken this past February.

So, it's not because he's making fun of me, or even that he has no sense of social grace. He's just proud of me and in awe that the long-haired girl used to be the short-haired girl.

Well, then the long-haired girl got pregnant.

Okay, I won't even touch the engorgements happening north of my uterus, although those have long since become problematic. But the long-haired girl used to have a flat belly. I don't remember how long ago it was I was in the shower and realized...I couldn't suck in my gut anymore! I could make it smaller, but not altogether disappear. The shorts I'm wearing in this picture? Totally put them on because wearing jeans was making me miserable. Even low-rise jeans that don't come up very far.

Grant took a long series of pictures in a row and this was not a face I made posing for them (they were mostly quite smiley--I think he put his camera on continuous and I wasn't expecting it) and yet it was perfect to describe my feelings at times. Especially concerning my waistline.

Don't get me wrong. Pregnancy is a...gift. And I feel guilty that it happened so easily for us that Grant jokes all he has to do is look at me sexy and we'll have a baby because I know there are so many women out there who would kill to have babies as easily as me. But those women have flat tummies. I realized a few days ago that I will be spending the entire next decade either gaining or trying to lose pregnancy weight if all goes according to plan.

Good thing I have experience with weight-loss and know how it's done. First key of preventative maintenance, healthy diet. Well, for the most part, check. Though I never have quite curbed my emotional eating... And of course, gotta exercise, which unfortunately has definitely slacked off since we got married.So we're calling in the heavy artillery.

We're expecting delivery of our own elliptical trainer tomorrow.