Hello, strange body.

Perhaps something is happening after all. Although I don't feel like I'm showing (Mo disagrees still), other things are, admittedly, happening.

For example, I almost passed out on BART for the second time yesterday. Apparently my blood pressure is especially high at this stage of pregnancy, or something like this. I've learned not to even bother wearing my coat or sweater on BART if I'm wearing one that day. By the time I walk the four WHOLE blocks to the BART Station and get on, I'm overheated already and then get on the stuffy train and stand for the WHOLE 15-minute ride into San Francisco. 

And twice, it hasn't turned out so well. It's interesting to me how no one seems to care. I mean, it's not like I'm having a heart attack or some other dramatic event, but I *know* that a couple people have noticed as I strip layers, squat with my head between my legs, moving up and down trying to not feel like I'm a car about to start steaming out the hood and putter out. But nothing. No offers of seats, no inquiries as to my well-being -- just a bunch of strangers continuing to try to pretend that we're not in the same place at the same time. My Midwesternness gets in the way of me actually bothering someone to request their seat. They did, after all, get there first.

I just don't feel that I can yet pull the pregnant card since it's not so obvious -- yeah, whatever, lady; nice try -- I'm going nowhere from this seat!! I'm looking forward to that perk -- just walking onto BART with my belly proudly displayed, daring anyone to not offer me a seat! Ha!

And then there's the shortness of breath. I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't in as good of shape as I would have liked going into the pregnancy. So it's a bit difficult to tell what's out-of-shapedness and what's the growing number of pints (liters? quarts?) of blood flowing through my system. It was utterly humiliating a few weeks ago when I went hiking with Tara, with whom I'm usually pretty on par for hiking excursions, despite the obvious differences in our body structures (for those who know her). Mind you, we DID accidentally choose a trail that was nothing but straight up and up and up. But still, I'd never had to stop that often to catch my breath!

Yeah, that's pretty much how I felt -- maybe a walking stick would have helped. Afterward, we went to get our usual nachos and beer (well, sans the beer), and as we were walking back to the car, Tara noticed that I was getting a little out of breath going up a slight incline, which she felt confirmed that it was about the extra blood and that I wasn't THAT out of shape. Yes, yes indeed. I'm SURE that's all it is. Uh-huh.

There's also the newfound difficulty sleeping. Again, it's tough to tell if this is actually the pregnancy or if it's just the stress from my job (since I do generally wake up ranting at my boss, which leads to not being able to get back to sleep). This is all new for me in the last few months. Though I'm a fairly light sleeper, I generally don't have any trouble sleeping through the night (apart from the street noise outside our bedroom window), so this is not a welcome addition. Especially since I know that it's going to be a mainstay once Blueberry joins us in the world, so I'd like to be able to bank up now!