I am Pregnant. Not crazy. Ok. Maybe a little...

I am not the type of person who likes to sit around and do nothing. While I was pregnant with Lilah (our second), I was on bed rest for 15 weeks. You can probably imagine just how torturous that was for me. As I entered the safer part of my pregnancy (30+) weeks, I allowed myself to do more activity, and was told I could do so as long as I 'listened to my body'. Kevin would come home and the whole house would be clean - any excuse to get off of the couch. I know, I was a bad girl...but after 10 weeks of laying there most of the day, I had to do something!

With Clara, I avoided bed rest, and chased our two girls at the beach all summer long. I had some minor bouts with preterm labor and cervical shortening, but other than that, my pregnancy went so much better (and more normal) than it was with Lilah! I was so thankful to have been able to care for our girls with minimal restrictions.

Now, I am pregnant with baby #4, have had a "more normal for me" pregnancy since my nightmare of a pregnancy, and I feel like this one is going well. Before I got pregnant, I had lost almost 20 pounds and exercised very frequently. Because of my high risk status, I've been unable to do any strenuous activity and have not exercised since. Now that winter is here, it's tough to not be active (I feel so lazy), so when I had the opportunity to go skiing earlier in the week, I thought long and hard about it and decided to ski. I know a lot of people probably think I am insane and how could I even take the risk. I didn't make the decision to ski until I knew the conditions and saw how many people were not skiing. In two days of skiing, we did not wait in one lift line, one of the perks of mid-week skiing. I felt great, no cramping, no pressure, and felt as though, I could at least try...if I started cramping or felt a lot of pressure in my cervical area, I would just stop and enjoy hot chocolate at the lodge.

The truth is, when you have three children who are 4.5 and under to take care of, there really isn't such thing as resting, and really, skiing was much easier on my body - ha ha ha! From the second we wake up in the morning, it is go-go-go, from breakfast, to butt wiping, to boo-boo kissing, to taxi-ing to and from school and activities, to anything and everything thrown to me that day - it is busy. I knew exactly what I was getting myself into though. I will have to say the girls are very, very good about resting/napping all at the same time for about 1.5-2 hours each and every day, and almost always, I use this time to rest. When Kevin comes home from work, I try to rest as much as possible for the rest of the evening. Of course, there are days where I have a lot of cramping and/or a lot of pressure down there and I am just uncomfortable, and these are the days where I listen to my body and rest as much as possible. I know when I over do it, and I really try not to. I guess that is why I loved skiing so much - it really isn't a "strenuous activity" - it was relaxing, and I didn't have any cramping at all during the two days. We did take frequent rests, and I was sure to drink lots and lots of fluid, and thankfully, my body didn't think it was too much to handle....

I think if I were a normal pregnant lady that didn't have her cervix sewn shut and have bouts of preterm labor and other high risk issues, I would probably be one of those pregnant ladies - you know, the one on the ski slope, or running during pregnancy, or doing something that most pregnant women are scared to do. I indulge in an occasional glass of wine, [and I've been told that it's okay]....and actually, it will help relax the uterus. Oh yeah....a relaxed pregnant mamma, is a happy, pregnant mamma, so indulge I do. And I think about what our mothers did while they were pregnant with us - my-oh-my! :)

There are days where I wish I was that normal pregnant lady that could just go about her business without worrying about her cervix shortening, being put on bed rest, spending a day at the hospital because I am having contractions, that didn't have doctors appointments almost weekly....wishing I could just exercise, run around the block with my kids, stay active, travel and just do those regular things, but when it comes down to it all, I am thankful that I am able to carry a baby, I am able to get pregnant, I am able to care for our girls while pregnant - So even with all of my worries with pregnancy, no one can ever tell me that it isn't worth it, because it is. Every. Single. Part of being pregnant is worth it. I will do whatever it takes to ensure carrying a healthy baby inside of me. I try to enjoy being pregnant and push all the high risk things aside, because being happy and unstressed is the healthiest way to be for the little baby growing inside of me...