The Joys and Perils of Pregnancy and Babies

We are less than two weeks away from my little man turning one. As we are currently planning on him remaining our youngest I thought it would be fun to recap the good and bad of being pregnant and having a newborn baby.

Me and my "babies".

Things I Will Miss About Being Pregnant and Having a Baby

*Feeling my baby kick from the inside (until the last month when he/she kicked my bladder, ribs, etc and it seemed like they were training to be MMA fighters).

*Seeing my baby kick on the outside (a little freaky but overall pretty amazing; also, see caveat above).

*Preferential treatment (being offered chairs everywhere, first in line for food, a pass on lifting things and emptying the litter box).

*Deciding on a fun way to announce the pregnancy to my husband, family, and friends.

*Seeing the baby for the first time (such an amazing moment!).

*Showing off my baby and hearing how adorable he/she is.

*The downy baby hair (LB still has soft hair but I know my days are limited).

*Seeing the baby smile/laugh/clap/roll over for the first time (just about all of the milestones).

*The toothless grin.

*Baby babble (they sound so cute when they're making no sense and aren't yet professional whiners).

*The tiny clothes.
*Watching my baby sleep in my arms.
*Witnessing my body growing an actual person and then being its sole/main source of nourishment.

Things I Will NOT Miss About Being Pregnant and Having a Baby

*First trimester nausea (I only vomited once in two pregnancies and I imagine that is much worse but feeling like I had to vomit all day was still pretty bad).

*The last five weeks of pregnancy (unable to get comfortable to sleep, heartburn, millions of bathroom breaks, sciatica; generally it's the last month but my special boy thought I needed an extra week since I missed out on the full experience with BB).

*The inappropriate comments and intrusive questions ("You know how that happens, right?" "Was it planned?").

*Dietary restrictions.

*Hearing horror birth stories.

*Not being able to make plans in the four(ish) weeks surrounding the due date.

*The glucose test.
*The uncertainty of when the baby would arrive and how my body would handle labor and delivery (um, yeah, still don't know what labor's like).

*C-section recovery.

*Not sleeping through the night for the first two, four, six, eight, twelve months...

*The breast pump (no additional information needed).

*The first 40 days of breastfeeding (ouchie!).

*The amount of time spent breastfeeding each day (thankfully this decreases over time).

*Teaching babies how to fall asleep on their own.
*Having to plan my day/activities around feedings (there's still nap times to plan for but they are a bit more flexible and there are fewer of them).
*My house crammed with large contraptions for the baby's stimulation (now we will just have lots of tiny toys to injure feet).

*Changing diapers (oh wait, I still have another year or two...)


Did I miss any of the joys and not-so-fun parts of pregnancy and babies?