Counting blessings, not the aches

Now that I am hauling around 18 extra pounds, people have freely been asking me: “How's the pregnancy going?”

I stop myself from talking about the pain from the swollen veins near my rear, the headaches from the increased blood flow to my brain, or the looseness in the hips because of hormonal changes or the split in my abdominal muscles, both of which make heaving around 18 extra pounds more difficult.

No, instead, I answer: “I shouldn't complain. Things are going well.”

And they really are. When you're making a new person from scratch, it's not a pretty process, nor is it comfortable. All pregnant women go through their own variations of headaches, pains and discomfort.

As one grandmother told me: “Even if you did complain, nobody would listen.”

When I start to get whiny about this pregnancy thing, I think about my friend Maria. She is the real inspiration for this attitude.

Maria was the mother of two preemies. Today, they are two rambunctious little boys, ages 5 and 2.

But their starts in life involved extensive time in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit and a lot of worry and fears about their viability.

Because of a medical condition she hadn't previously known about, Maria couldn't carry either boy to term. So, her first son was born two months early. And her second was born almost three months early, at 28 weeks. Babies born before 37 weeks of pregnancy are considered premature.

Before giving birth to her second son, Maria was ordered to emergency bed rest at the hospital, because her water bag burst at 22 weeks.Continued...

"I admire Maria's courage."