Kids, you STILL owe me

When I got pregnant back in 2001, there were many things that were to happen that I did not expect.

I did not expect to LOSE 10 pounds during my first trimester.
I did not expect to come home from the hospital, after giving birth, weighing less than the day of my first appointment at week 9 of pregnancy.
Though losing that weight was H-E-double Hockeysticks (LOTS of barfing for LOTS of weeks), it was a nice perk.

I did not expect to feel that little spot near my va-jay-jay where there were two miniscule stitches, for a whole year.

I did not expect my hair falling out around my baby's 5 month birthday.

Most of these I was fine with...definitely fine with the weightloss, and the hair grew back, and like I said, after a year, everything felt fine DOWN THERE.

However, there have been some other things that I did not expect that I am not ok with.

The first is my shoe size. I remember reading that a woman's shoe size could go up during pregnancy or I guess, as a result of pregnancy. I never suffered from any swelling, so I thought I was fine with this situation. Then after my second baby I started noticing that a lot of styles of a shoes just weren't working with my feet. I didn't understand...until I realized, hmmmmm...maybe I should go up a size?

Now, it's really not a big deal to go up a 1/2 or sometimes a whole size, but the fact that it didn't occur to me, and I passed on a bunch of cool shes (b/c I am dumb), and that I had to replace some of my favorite shoes, is just a little bothersome. The WORST was when I was on a job and they handed me my shoes, and I had to amputate my pinky toes to get them OFF again...THAT'S how tight they were. OUCH.

The second, and most troubling is my allergy situation. I have always had allergies, but they really came out of the closet when I went through puberty. I was given a sheet of paper that was a long list of ALL my allergies and a rating at just HOW allergic I was to each one. Having allergies (foods, animals, indoor, outdoor), is just my lifestyle, and I am fine with it. Right now I take 3 medicines a day, and use my neti pot, and I am VERY healthy. During both pregnancies I did not take meds, and I did really well. In fact, pregnancy and nursing can act as an allergy medicine b/c of the boosted immune system (so my docs said), and many of them told me way back during puberty that a major hormonal change like pregnancy could REVERSE or MAKE BETTER some of my allergies.

NOT SO.

Instead, with each pregnancy I have added food allergies to the growing list.

With Baby #1 I lost Peaches, Pears and Apples. This may not seem like a big deal, but I am also allergic to all melons, bananas, avocados, some citrus, and anything tropical I just avoid. I LOVED these fruits. Cooked or otherwise processed I can still eat some of them.

With Baby #2 I lost peanuts. UGH. I LOVE peanut butter. I love peanut butter candy and ice cream. I love snacks that have that PROCESSED ON THE SAME MACHINERY AS PEANUTS labels. I am annoyed. I am ok with other allergies, like say, shellfish...because I have never even tasted it, I don't know what I am missing, and I have always regarded it as poison. But now, all of a sudden, a food that I love and have eaten my whole life is taken away from me? The other day I was walking down the street just CRAVING chocolate peanut butter ice cream and I was like: I will NEVER be able to satisfy that craving.

The reaction isn't THAT big a deal...it's just a little swelling that causes me to sort of wheeze/cough for a few minutes, but every time you expose yourself to it, it gets worse, and I just can't KNOWLINGLY put something in my body that is possibly harmful.

I am not complaining. I will get used to this NEW change in my lifestyle, but I am just WOWED at what pregnancy has done to me (and I didn't even get to the back fat, and the random bumps on my eyelids that come and go, and the grey hairs...)