Being pregnant in the heat

I'm not gonna lie -- I spent most of the early part of my pregnancy dreading how I would feel at the end. I've lived in Arizona for six years, and this is my seventh summer here. I'm used to the heat. I can even say I don't mind it much. But I'd never been 8-9 months pregnant before, and I imagined being that pregnant in that kind of heat would be anything but fun.

I've gotten a lot of "Oh, you must be SO uncomfortable in this heat!" and even more "What were you thinking being this pregnant over the summer?!" Oh, and then there are the looks of pure pity I get from co-workers as I walk across campus.

Well, ok. We didn't set out with the intent for me to be this pregnant during the hottest months. That's just how it worked out. We knew I had to be at my job for at least a year before I gave birth or I wouldn't quality for FMLA. My one-year anniversary at EVIT was July 27. So having a spring baby wasn't an option for us. And since that anniversary required us waiting a bit longer than we wanted to before we could start trying, I really didn't want to wait any longer just to avoid being pregnant during the summer. That seems like a silly reason to put our plans on hold even more.

And you know what? It hasn't been that bad. Yeah, it's hot out. Yeah, I wish it were about 20-30 degrees cooler. Sure. Of course. But I spend about 95 percent of my day in my home, in a store, in my office or in a car. Modern living is a wonderful thing, and all of those areas are air conditioned. I can't go for long walks around the neighborhood as I would like to do at night. But that just forces me to use my stepper at home, which is a better aerobic workout anyway.

There are times when the baby overheats me, and the air conditioning in the condo just isn't enough to cool me off. I get whiny, and Mike turns on a fan and points it at me, and all is right with the world again.

Also... (and I hate to say this for fear of jinxing myself) ... this summer just has not been that bad (I totally just sentenced Phoenix to a month of 115-degree days). We've had a couple of weekends where the weather has miraculously broken and dipped back into the 90s for a couple of days. That's practically unheard of. We went to San Diego, where the weather was nothing short of perfect. I was cold when we were watching fireworks in Prescott. I've lived here during summers where we've broken records for the number of consecutive days over 110, and this summer just hasn't been that bad. It's all about perspective.

I'm uncomfortable, yes. But that's because I'm almost 36 weeks pregnant and am carrying a 30-pound bowling ball around my mid-section. Heat or no heat, that's hard work. The heat just hasn't been an extra burden on me, as I worried it would be. As my father-in-law would say: it is what it is.

So, no pity needed here. I'm a-ok.