I have been on bed rest since January 30th due to risk of preterm labor and I'm not going to lie; its been NICE! I've got to see what being a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM) is all about and I've enjoyed it. However, whether its from the pregnancy, or the pregnancy combined with a lot of sitting and laying due to bed rest, I've been having sciatic nerve pain. I complained to my doctor, he recommended Extra Strength Tylenol (which doesn't do shit) and icing/heating. Well, its not working. So the last time I saw him I complained again and he recommended swimming.
Swimming. While pregnant. Which means my lack of exercise thighs will be exposed. Now, I'm not a naturally thin girl. I'm a naturally athletic girl with lots of ass and thigh muscle tone. Now imagine that muscle tone after 11 weeks of no exercise. Yea...not pretty. So, here is my OB recommending swimming, and all I can think about is how fat my ass and thighs will look in a swim suit!
And that's the dilemma. Do I try out swimming to see if it relieves my nerve pain, but means I have to cram myself into a swim suit? Or do I say screw it, keep popping the Tylenol, going through ice like a penguin lives here and burning through heating pads because I use them so often? My answer the last few weeks was the latter. Just keep throwing Tylenol and ice my way!
However, my best friend has a pool, loves my kid (who happens to be her former stepchild-long story for another blog) and is willing to drive the 20 minutes to pick me up so I can get some therapeutically recommended swim time at her house. So what did that mean for yesterday? I went bathing suit shopping. At 31 weeks pregnant, after 11weeks of no exercise.
IT. WAS. HORRIBLE. Seriously scarring and damning. I wanted to cry and rage at AAFES for having fluorescent lights in their changing rooms, I wanted to sue them for the emotional damage of having to see myself under fluorescent lighting while pregnant. Oh, and they didn't have maternity suits. Now I could have gone somewhere else, yes. But I'm on bed rest and really shouldn't be out at all, so I figured right down the road from a hospital was a good place to shop!
But back to the torture. I brought ELEVEN bathing suits in with me the first time around. Varying from size Large, X Large, 12, 14, and 16. The large I didn't even bother pulling past my hips. The extra larges fit my belly, and were falling off my upper body. Size 12? Again, didn't bother pulling up over my butt. The 14 was a lovely one piece red swim suit that showed off every flaw in my skin from my boobs to my butt; that one got taken off quick! Tops too big, belly too big to fit into the stomach area, one gave me camel toe. They were all horrible and I had tears in my eyes.
When I walked out of the changing room, the lady working there took one look at me, my belly, and the bathing suits and said "nothing fit?" Obviously, my face was that obvious. It was red, I was hot and sweaty and hungry and for the first time, pissed off I was pregnant! But, this kind, brave sales lady suggested I look at the "plus size" swim suits. Now, my first reaction was "I'm going to hit this bitch" But she quickly explained that this week alone, she has directed no less than four other pregnant women to the plus size suits and they all ended up buying from there.
And that's how I ended up with size 18 to 22 suits in my hand. I'm proud to say I got an 18. I'm not proud to say when I got home I cried. I've loved my body during this pregnancy and have been proud that I've maintained a somewhat smaller belly. Yesterday was the first day I felt truly unsexy as a pregnant woman. I actually cried over how my body looked; which honestly made me feel worse. Because this baby is a miracle due to the fact that I wasn't supposed to have more kids! Yesterday was truly a Catch 22 day for me!
However, no matter how much of a miracle baby this is, I still hate bathing suit shopping while pregnant. I vow to 1) never be pregnant again and 2) if my some cruel joke of God I do end up with another pregnancy someday, to NEVER going bathing suit shopping while pregnant again. Its simply too horrible.
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