If you can't laugh at yourself, you'll go nuts!

I guess time makes things better and eventually, we can start to laugh and smile again. Sure, there are the tough days but there is usually some comic relief throughout the day. I live for those moments.

For instance, today was a “shower day” for me. Well, apparently I’ve been in denial about looking at myself in the mirror until this morning when my belly “caught my eye”. DEAR GOD – it’s huge! I’m used to looking at it laying down, covered up, and on my side. What a difference looking at it standing up, naked, head on. WOW. And here's the kicker, my boobs are now resting on my belly (sorry to the men who are reading this, earmuffs). Now, I know those of you who have had babies are shaking your head laughing at me – because I’m sure that everyone has this same realization at some point in their pregnancy. But it does appear to me that since I’ve been here, I’ve doubled in size. Yep, I have that waddle – and the slow moving turtle walk. And yes, I grunt every time I try to get up or lay down. Guess that is all normal. It’s just that I somehow missed two weeks of growth….

I haven’t much mentioned all of my awesome nurses – but they are really the ones that keep me going when I’m here alone most of the day. Hearing about their trials, tribulations and life’s frustrations makes you realize that life is just as normal as always out there and these awesome women are just working to make a living like the rest of us. But with lots of compassion and kindness. I haven’t come across a nurse yet that I didn’t like. Trust me, there are big thanks in store for all of them when we get out of here. You know how sometimes you wish you chose a different career path? Well, this experience has really made me think about wanting to be a L&D nurse. They rock!

Something kinda funny happened yesterday afternoon. There was an irregular shift change at 3pm yesterday and the very first nurse I had back when I got admitted to the hospital for the first time at 19 weeks was my nurse again. I had not had her since that first day when I was scared out of my wits to be here. She was awesome that day – and yesterday too. But I had to laugh at her yesterday.

She wanted to weigh me – aye! I have been getting weighed every day or two up to now due to some of the hypertension issues that they are trying to keep an eye on. By the way, I lost 12 pounds in water weight between Friday and Sunday last week – pretty amazing huh? I can now see my knees again…I’ve gained a total of about 26 pounds so far. Not so bad; but I’m sure it’s going to start packing on now since I’m rolling (literally) into my third trimester.

Anyway…back to my story. So, this cool bed that I am in is an air bed and blows up and deflates regularly to avoid bed sores etc. It also has a scale so that you can be weighed while laying down. I’m working on figuring out a way to get one of these at home when I make it back there eventually. So in an effort to try to zero out the scale on the bed to weigh me, she hit some “WRONG” button and the entire bed began to inflate; especially the lumbar part.

Now, picture this; I cannot lay on my back so I’m always on my side. As the bed begins to inflate, my body is contorting in a way that is physically impossible. I began yelling & laughing that it was inflating and the two of us proceeded to laugh so hard we could not even talk. She had no idea what button she hit to inflate it, therefore could not figure out how to deflate it. She ran out of the room in search of the “maintenance man” which is a particular problem since I am in a hospital gown and can’t exactly spring out of bed to let him figure out the problem. Not to mention these really stylish knee high TEDS that I have to wear to help my circulation. Ever seen them? Chuck really LOVES them – NOT! After about 10 minutes of laying in a terribly wrong position, I called her phone and suggested that we just unplug the bed and maybe it would reset itself. Thank god it worked – within a minute or so, the bed was back to it’s comfy old self. We got a good laugh out of it. And no maintenance man to try to hide from.

Got my IV out today which is a big step. They left the saline lock there so in case I need an IV, it’s there to use. But I’m disconnected from the other appendage that I’ve been trailing around with me, aka – the IV pole. It’s also known as the sleep interrupter since undoubtedly, every night it beeped for some reason – either needed to be refilled or I was lying on the IV line making the fluids cut off. I feel like a free woman – between that and the fact that I have my own nightie on today instead of a hospital gown, I feel liberated! Until tomorrow….