Wednesday, August 25, 2010

08 February: Four extra pounds of blood! (Jen)

(I'm sipping on some Reed's "Original Ginger Brew" as I type this, trying to stave off more nausea. It's pretty tasty, and it seems to be working!) So I'm supposed to gain about 30 pounds -- at least, a "typical" gain is about 30 pounds per pregnancy. Only 7.5 of that is baby. Each of my breasts should gain 1 to 2 pounds -- ouch! My poor back... already hurts where my more-efficient kidneys are working over-time to make me pee more often and filter the 4 extra pounds of fluid I should be developing in my tissues. I should also be creating up to seven additional pounds of "fat stores" to be delivered to the babe through my milk (here's hoping my body will figure out that it already has plenty of "fat stores" and doesn't need to be creating any more). Interestingly,  the muscle called my uterus should gain 2 pounds -- only 2 pounds!! And by the time I give birth, my uterus should be the biggest and strongest muscle in my body. Crazy. I should also gain 2 pounds of amniotic fluid (into which my kid should be able to pee in a few weeks) and 1.5 pounds of placenta. Oh, and 4 extra pounds of blood!!! 

My body, which already faints so often that I was requested to not donate blood anymore, is now going to have to find some way of creating, circulating, and storing 4 more pounds of blood. Outrageous. It makes me think about Mary and Jesus and how His blood -- which atoned for all of Mans' sin -- probably pumped through her veins first. It makes those scenes in "The Passion" seem even grosser somehow. It's gotta be so hard to be a mom. Oh, and I was exactly 9 pounds when I was born, and Ben was exactly 10, so I'm not exactly looking forward to the whole last few weeks of pregnancy, nor the actual delivery... at least, not at this point. Maybe by then my body will have suffered so many other odd things, that I won't flinch at the thought... we'll see.

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