How Are You Feeling?

I have learned this is the first thing you say to a pregnant lady: "How are you feeling?"  Rather it's a friend, coworker, family or a complete stranger, I get this daily and it is always the first thing anyone says to me.  I have learned that this question must be the unwritten "etiquette" of how to start a conversation with a pregnant lady.  I never knew this before, but now I know and will use this going forward.  I get the question so often that I just always respond with "Overall I feel really good."  Then the conversation leads into more details about the pregnancy.  I have found that everybody LOVES to talk to a pregnant woman.

With that said I will share how I am truly feeling at 22 weeks pregnant.

Pretty Good
Overall, pretty good.  When I look at the big picture I can't complain and therefore I always say pretty good.

Tired
I am not exhausted like the first trimester, but I tend to lose some steam as the day progresses and I am not able to do too much activity in one day without a nap taking place.  Everyone says that I am supposed to have all this energy in the second trimester, but compared to what?  The first trimester...yes, I do, but compared to pre-pregnancy I do not.  I did find out recently by my doctor that I have been taking all my vitamins at the same time and that is a no-no as my calcium pills are deleting the iron from my prenatal.  Ahhh....that might help explain the tired eyes I have ALL. THE. TIME.  I switched it up and it's been about a week now and I am feeling better and not AS tired anymore.

Constipation & Gas
Ok, so I only asked for two things at the very beginning of pregnancy (1) no morning sickness and (2) no constipation.  Well, this lovely pregnancy symptom kicked in around the 20 week mark...AWESOME!  What can I say, you can't win them all.  Of course you can't be pregnant without having gas right?  It's another lovely benefit of pregnancy.  I am happy that I only have that at night when I am home with Andy and the animals....which I can blame on them most of the time.  HA HA!

Uncomfortable
I started to feel uncomfortable around the 20 week mark.  My back hurts on a regular basis, sitting and standing are no fun, and I am just all over uncomfortable for the majority of the day.  I went to a work function the other night and my back hurt so bad from sitting in the crappy hotel chair throughout the presentation that on the way home I turned on my heated seat while I had the A/C blasting on me  to help relieve the pain in my back.  It helped quite a bit that it's not uncommon for me right now to have my heated seat on while blasting the A/C because it's already 100 degrees outside.  I never thought I would need that feature in my new car since I live on the surface of the sun, but thank you Honda for heated seats in my new car!

BIG
I also started to feel big around the 20 week mark.  I understand that I am nowhere near how big I am going to be towards the end, but compared to where I was at the beginning I am feeling BIG.  I try not to let this bother me, but some days it just does and I can't help it. I am up 8 pounds from where I started and I definitely don't fit into much (if any) of my pre-pregnant clothes.  I wear bella bands for my work pants (which work awesome by the way) and I have purchased some new loose flowing tops for work as well as plenty of dresses.  One thing that has made me feel better is to shop.  Ok, the first time I went shopping it was definitely an emotional disaster, but since then I have come around and learned what looks good on me and found that jersey material is my best friend right now.  I have fun getting creative in the store to find what will work with my fabulous new body and adding accessories to make it look better and not so frumpy. 

Emotionally
So this one is a dousie!   I am all over the place with my emotions.  I have days where I am really down and question becoming a parent and then I have other times where I am so excited for our little boy to come into the world and just can't wait for September.  These emotions are so all over the place that it can happen multiple times in a day.  It makes me feel crazy and like I will be a bad parent...Andrea Yates style!  In reading my books I have learned that these emotions are completely natural for any pregnant woman...whew...I am not a bad/crazy person...I am normal (sort of)!

That sums up how I am feeling at 22 weeks along!  Now you know why I answer that question with "overall, pretty good."  Can you imagine me saying that 10 times in one day...every day?  Me neither.  I will just keep it at "overall, pretty good."