Why Didn’t Anyone Warn Me About the Hormones???

This is what MUST go through my husband’s head sometimes...really and truly. He’s been great, he tells me all the time that I’m not that hormonal and other than a few times have been acting totally normal and not crazy-hormonal-pregnant all the time. I think that he’s forgetting about this incident. Or the weekend of my baby shower, which yes, I still need to post about. Or the time that I almost assaulted the old guy in Alvin Ord’s in San Marcos…oh wait, I haven’t shared that story yet. Well, that’s a story for ANOTHER day, I promise!

Yeah, and if you believe that I’ll remember to post that one later, you must be smoking crack too! I mean, did I mention that I still haven’t posted about my awesome shower that was two weekends ago? Yeah…keep holding your breath.

Anyway. Back to my post about hormones. No one tells you how bad it is or how irrational you’re being. Well, strangers might tell you, because they can always run away. But your friends and family and especially those that have to live in the same household with you don’t really like to talk about it. It’s like that dark, family secret that great-Aunt Bertha doesn’t talk about, you know? They lie to your face and tell you that you haven’t been that bad, when you know that they’re lying to your face because they have to live with you, and you probably prepare some or most of their meals so their scared that they might get spit in their food if they speak ill of you. It could happen. Especially when you’re 37 weeks pregnant.

And you love hearing the lie. Even knowing it’s a lie, it makes me feel better to hear it. They’re only lying out of love for me, right? Let’s hope so. And he must love me lots…because I’m 100% hormonal right now. I could cry at the drop of a hat and not know why. And that’s a for real not know why, not the whole I’m telling you that I don’t know why I’m crying when I really do know and I’m too pissed off at you because you don’t know why I’m crying to tell you why I’m crying. Did you follow that? It made sense to me!

If it’s not tears that are afflicting me, it’s the darn heat. No, not the heat OUTSIDE – I mean, I know that I live in Central Texas and July is usually spent with days reaching into the 100’s each and every day. No, I’m talking about the heat that is roasting my body from the inside out. I’m literally H-O-T all the time. All. The. Time. As in, my husband obviously thinks that we own a portion of the electric company (which it turns out that it’s a Co-op so we kinda do!) and he likes to keep the house at a chilly 70 degrees year round. And since installing the tile in the whole downstairs of our house that makes for a CHILLY downstairs. And I love it right now. On any normal-not-pregnant-day you would find me wrapped up in a throw or quilt trying to stay warm and sneaking up the stairs to turn the thermostat up “just a little bit” without him catching me. These days? You’re lucky to find me fully clothed during the middle of the day, let alone not laying on the tile floor just to transfer the coolness to my body.

And another weird hormonal thing that MUST be related, I cannot drink enough water to quench my thirst. I figure that it’s related to those hormones that are making my temperature gauge all freaky right now too, since I figure that the water is cooling me off from the inside out, while the A/C helps cool off my outsides. I seriously consume at least 10-12 glasses of water each day. And three of those are drunk between the hours of midnight and 4 am, which does lead to more peeing. But I’m up in the middle of the night peeing whether I drink the water or not, so I might as well try to make myself nice and hydrated. And it has to be water. Not vanilla cokes from Sonic – although they still taste divine, they do NOTHING to quench the thirst. Kool-Aid is a close second to water, or sweet tea, but there are times that I can’t even do those – it HAS to be water.

And this is all BEFORE I give birth. From what I remember, it gets WAY WORSE after the birth process is over and you’re back at home. I remember friends coming over to bring us dinner or to visit and finding me all curled up in a little ball crying my eyes out while my baby was snuggled up nice and tight in my arms. I remember it being MUCH worse afterwards. But shhhh…that’s my little secret. I haven’t told that to Brent or the kids yet. I figure it’s just better experienced without forewarning. Or maybe I can pull it off that I “didn’t know” that it was going to be that way afterwards? Probably not, I’m a horrible liar. But I can still try!

Anyway, I guess it’s true what they say about another person controlling your thoughts, body and actions when you’re pregnant and the period immediately following giving birth. There are times that you don’t know why you do what you do, why you eat what you’re eating and so on. There are moments that you’ll be so aggravating to be around, or maybe I should phrase that to say you’ll be so aggrevated to be around anyone else, that you just won’t know what to do. And then there are times that your limits of self-restraint and control will amaze even you. And it’s those times that I try to keep in the fore-front of my mind…and my husband’s. A little positive reinforcement never hurt, right? LOL!

**And just in case you’re wondering – none of the above counts as me complaining or whining. I’m still holding to my pledge to minimize the complaints, and the above post was written purely for educational purposes…not to vent or complain!