Bridget's Pregnancy Blog

Just as I begin to get to the point where I’m feeling uncomfortable again in my pregnancy, I’m starting to notice that there are some distinct perks to being pregnant.

I don’t want to complain, not really, since overall I’m still filled with joy every time I feel the baby move and still find fetal hiccups unbearably cute. But there are definitely times when I want to say “Hey- you’re cute squirming around in there, but could you please not press your little hand down into my bladder quite so hard” or “Ouch! That was my rib!” Add to that the fact that my stomach and lungs are being slowly compressed up into my chest, which makes Tums my new best friend, and the increasing difficulty moving from sitting to standing or vice versa. The last trimester is certainly less enjoyable physically than the blissful second trimester was.

Nonetheless, there are a few advantages. For one, I always get a seat on the bus now. Maybe back at month five or six I could have hidden my growing belly under a coat or large sweater, but now I am firmly in the “obviously pregnant” category. This leads people not only to offer up seats, but also to ask if I need help with just about anything from opening doors to carrying groceries to hailing a taxi.

Another odd perk to being really pregnant is that there is always a conversation topic at parties- which works well for this time of year. You know that part of the holiday party where there are a bunch of people standing around who don’t really know anyone else at the party and don’t know how to start a conversation up with any of the other people standing around? Well, I’m the easy answer to that. People come up to me and ask if they can get me anything or ask questions about when my due date is or whether I know if it’s a boy or girl yet. I’m a ready-made source of conversation fodder.

In the home realm, it’s a sympathy-gainer, too. I’m far more likely to get a backrub and far less likely to have to do the dishes while I’m this heavily pregnant. Though Justin has some perks too- he gets to say things like “You’re getting huge” without fear of reprisal and is likely to not complain about catering to my cravings, since me wanting to go get ice cream means he’ll get ice cream, too.

Overall, the biggest perk is, of course, that soon we’ll have a baby in our lives. For that, I’ll tolerate the inconvenient kicks in the ribs and a month or two of constant heartburn.