Maternity glam, straight from Hawaii

Marina of Red Heart Photo submitted an amazing photo to the Offbeat Mama flickr pool, and when I saw it I realized HEY WAIT A MINUTE! I posted photos from this mama’s wedding a few years back. Turns out this mama is Sarah La Glam, and she’s 37 weeks pregnant. I begged Marina for some more photos, and got Sarah’s story to share between Marina’s amazing shots. Cuz when you’re feeling waddly and overburdened in your third trimester, there’s nothing like some inspiring maternity glam to brighten your mood… -AMS

Aloha, my name is Sarah and I’m an Offbeat Mama-to-be. Today marked the start of my 37th week of pregnancy and my little bean is officially full term. How rad is that?! Within the next few weeks, my baby girl will be hanging out next to me and no longer inside of me. I can’t think of anything more amazing than that. As I approach the end of my pregnancy and the end of my childless existence, I’ve started to look back at the past 9 months. These 9 months, filled with incredible lows and even more incredible highs and some unexpected twists. Here are some of the unforgettable moments of my pregnancy…

I’ll never forget the day I found out I was pregnant. July 21, 2009. When my period was a few days late and I never got any of my premenstrual symptoms, I had a hunch about what was going on inside of me. Sure enough, the test told me everything I was hoping to hear, our baby was on the way! I took the test around lunch time and had a hell of a time keeping myself occupied until my husband got home from work. I’m the type of person that cant wait to scream to the world any type of good news. When my husband first saw me, he said he could already tell what I was going to say because I had the biggest grin on my face. We immediately couldn’t wait to share with our close family and friends.

First trimester — try worst trimester! Pretty much immediately after finding out I was pregnant, morning sickness and exhaustion slapped me in face so hard I didn’t recuperate until well into my second trimester. Don’t let that term “morning sickness” fool you. She made me her bitch morning, noon, and especially at night. No food was appetizing to me at this point, even the thought of food made me want to hurl. The only thing I could stomach was rice and mashed potatoes. Later, I was able to add watermelon to my menu. Ohhhh, how exciting right?! The insane nausea coupled with exhaustion was no joke. I would be even more exhausted in the morning when I woke up then I was when I went to bed. I couldn’t get myself to do much of anything the first couple of months, all I wanted was to nap away each day. I read somewhere that a pregnant woman expels more energy lying on the couch than a body builder does in the gym. This little tidbit made me feel a little less of a loser.

No matter how miserable I was feeling during the early months, seeing my baby through the ultrasound exceedingly made up for it. Even though little bean looked like an alien at first, it was the most beautiful sight. Having had a miscarriage the summer prior and never getting to see the baby before the loss — that made it all the more special. And then when we first got to hear the heartbeat, forget about it … I was in love.

Toward the end of the worst trimester, I had the opportunity to go on tour with my husband’s band, Pimpbot [Editor’s note: BEST BAND NAME EVAR!] to various military installations around the Pacific. Even though I felt like doo doo, could I turn down a free trip? No way! We made our way to Guam and Japan, and things were smooth. As we landed in South Korea, man oh man did I get a kick in the ass! The smell there is something one has to get accustomed to. To me, it was a mixture of kimchee and sewer. The intense aromas were too much for me to handle and I ended up having a mental breakdown on our last night in the country. Being sick for 3 months consecutively is enough to bring the strongest person to their knees, I suppose. It was on to Okinawa, where I faired much better. As we wrapped up the tour, so did my first trimester.

I. Do. Not. Miss. Those. Days.

Arriving home started the count-down until we had our second trimester ultrasound and more importantly, finding out the sex of the baby. For the week leading up to the visit, I had a hell of a time trying to sleep. My anxiety was overwhelming. I have never in my life anticipated something so much. From the start I just knew little bean was going to be a girl. I’m not saying I preferred a girl over a boy, but I just knew we were going to have a little girl. Immediately during the ultrasound I got a peek between baby’s legs and before the tech could confirm anything I screamed to my husband “I don’t see anything hanging between baby’s legs!” Sure enough, my intuition was right again. God, I love it when I’m right!

With morning sickness a thing of the past, my new nemesis was back pain. One morning I awoke and it was so debilitating that it forced me into my second pregnancy break-down. Back pain is nothing foreign to me — I mean try being 5’3″ and lugging around DDs all day. All the back pain I had previously experienced was about to be trumped, big time. During my second trimester, my nights sleep was broken into 3 parts.

• Part One: “Oh, I’m so exhausted I could sleep for……zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.”
• Part Two: “Crap, I gotta pee. Ugh, this sleep position sucks. Zzzzzzz. Crap, I gotta pee. Ugh, this sleep position sucks. Zzzzzzzzz. Crap, I gotta pee. Ugh, this sleep position sucks. Zzzzzzzz.”
• Part Three: “Oh dear God! Please make it stop! Why is my child crushing my spine?! Alright, fine. You win. I’m up.”

Alas, we come to this one particular morning. My routine was elevated to whole new level, Part FOUR! No matter what I tried I could not get comfortable on our bed. Sleeping on my left side, FAIL. Sleeping on my right side, FAIL. Sleeping on my back (**gasp**), FAIL. Putting a pillow between my legs, FAIL. Putting a pillow under my legs, FAIL. Putting a pillow under the arch of my back, big fat stinking FAIL. My next thought was to lay on the floor. Again, everything, FAIL. My final attempted at salvation was to stack up 3 pillows and lean forward on them while kneeling on my knees. This was the closest thing I could get to sleeping on my stomach, my go to pre-pregnancy back saver. Again, FAIL.

With comfort eluding me, my frustration turned into full blown hysteria. I can not recall the last time I fought so hard to hold back tears. After merely a few minutes of trying to maintain my composure as a normal person; the hormone crazed, unreasonable pregnant chick came out and over took my existence. Simple tears quickly turned into a full blown manic episode. My poor husband was awaken by my shrieks, only I’m not next to him in bed. Once he finds me, knelt over on the floor, completely loosing it, his mind (the mind that was jolted out of sleep only seconds before) immediately goes to worst case scenario…..His 6 month pregnant wife fell out of bed and hurt herself, or even worse, the baby.

Once he takes a minute to try and access the situation, he asks me what the matter was, to which I replied, “My baaaaaaaa huuuursss sooo maaaaaaaaaa!!!“ The combination of pain and tears left my speech pretty undecipherable. Either I finally got it together long enough for him to understand me or he learned to speak crazy person, because eventually his initial panic subsided. His massage to my lower back coupled with a heating pad made my world a little more bearable and the hormone crazed, unreasonable pregnant chick crawled back under the rock from whence she came. Finally upon seeking the help of a chiropractor, I found out that while my hips were spreading (like they should during pregnancy) the left side slightly dislocated, which caused a massive strain on my back muscles. I knew what I was experiencing could not be normal. With weekly adjustments, I’ve seen a major improvement and crazy pregnant chick hasn’t been heard from since.

The most incredible part of the second trimester is definitely feeling baby’s squirms and kicks. It’s indescribable. And when those early flutters turn into full blown karate kicks, talk about a fun time! It’s pretty amusing to feel like baby’s personal bouncy house. My little girl seems to be more on the active side when it comes to fetuses, there’s been nights she’s kept me awake because of all of her movements. I wonder if that’s a sign of how she’ll be as a baby. Only time will tell. For the past few months she’s had the hiccups daily, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. She’s been head down for a while so I always feel her hiccups in my crotchular region. “Strange” doesn’t really begin to describe how that feels, but its really reassuring to know she’s already in position to make her escape.

The third trimester has been pretty uneventful, I must say. Well, until today. I had my now weekly visit with my OB, or as my husband calls her, “the vagina baby doctor” and had 2 consecutive high blood pressure readings, so I am now being observed for pre-eclampsia or at the very least gestational hypertension. Boo. I have to check my blood pressure at home 3 times a day until my next Dr visit. Here’s to hoping everything turns out peachy. Other than that, its been pregnancy as usual.

As I’ve been getting bigger, its gotten harder to breath and harder to reach/see anything below my belly. The other night, I was having such a hard time, my husband ended up having to tie my shoes for me, something I never thought would happen.

With all of this nearly behind me, I can’t help but be anxious about what‘s next. Delivery, motherhood, a whole new life. I am soooooo beyond ready for baby girl to be born. All this built up anticipation is killing me. I want to meet this person who has taken over my world. I want to meet this person who is responsible for causing me so much discomfort the past 9 months. But most importantly, I want to meet this person that has completely stolen my heart.

If you want to see even more photos from this amazing shot (AND TRUST ME YOU DO) come with me and let’s go drool over at redheartphoto.com. I’m drowning in gorgeous. -AMS