Brain Dump

Growing a new human is still going well. I'm starting to have to work harder to roll over in bed, and some...um...gastronomic discomforts, but on the whole I really can't complain. Still feeling blessed to have an easy pregnancy.

At the doctor's on Wednesday morning, I was told to keep doing whatever I'm doing, because everything is great! I still have great blood pressure, my thyroid is still staying stable like a champ, my weight is good, and I even got confirmation that I was right about the orientation of Baby Girl: her butt is on the top right, her head is all the way at the bottom just above my pelvis, and she's facing slightly to my left and back.

But today I'm more in the mood for a brain dump of things that no one really wants to listen to me talk about:

Last night on WITF radio, the host introduced an NPR story by saying that the EPA had "implicated a connection" between fracking and contaminated drinking water. That is...not correct. You can't implicate a connection. He should have said either that the EPA had implicated fracking in connection with contaminated drinking water, or the EPA had found a connection between fracking and contaminated drinking water. I know it's a minor misuse, but it bugged me. I may have ranted aloud about it to myself as I drove to choir rehearsal.

Abrupt topic change:

If you work at a desk at a computer all day, let me tell you, it is the perfect place to paint your nails. The smell really isn't an issue because it dissipates quickly (especially since I have a big air vent right above my head), and as long as you plan a bit, it is a very low-risk environment for messing up your fresh paint. I make sure my water bottle is filled, my bladder is empty, and my cell phone is sitting on my desk and not in my pocket or purse, and then I go to town. I do one coat at a time while I'm working and waiting for a report to run or a page to load. Then I straight up work for a while while that coat dries. So far today I've done a base coat and one coat of color, which is now pretty much totally dry, but I'll wait to do color coat #2 and top coat until after lunch. Then by the time I'm ready to go home, everything will be dry and safe. I am telling you, it is great. Plus, with my actually strong, thick pregnancy nails, they'll keep looking great for up to 2 weeks, at which point I will take off all the polish before bed and then re-paint them the next day at work! I sit near 2 smokers who definitely spend more time on smoking breaks than I do on my nails, so I figure it's a parallel activity.

I started painting my nails again about a month ago, and I've decided I'll keep up with it through Baby Arrival Day, after which I will want to have clean, bare, short nails for a while. Probably a long while. So for now, I'm treating myself!

Speaking of treating myself, I think this is a symptom of another thing I love about being pregnant: I feel better and more comfortable with my body now than I probably ever have! I was hoping I'd get the "cute, round belly" type of pregnant body and not the "fat everywhere" type, and my wish came true! I love not having to worry about sucking in my belly, love handles, etc. and it makes me enjoy doing my hair and wearing eye makeup and painting my nails that much more.

Now my next hope is that breastfeeding and babywearing and baby playing are effective at getting my body into better shape than it was pre-pregnancy...a girl can dream!