Pros and Cons of Pregnancy Part 2: Bodily Fluids

If you read the title of this post, consider yourself warned. This post will be TMI.

CON: Leaky Boobs. As I mentioned, I subscribe to a number of weekly pregnancy newsletters. For weeks now, at least one will mention something to the effect of, "Do not be surprised if you see small droplets of liquid on your nipples during this week." Meaning that your breasts COULD leak before you even give birth! Put this in the category of something that you never learn BEFORE becoming pregnant. I haven't had any issues with leaky boobs yet, but I was curious if this was in fact something that did happen to people so I emailed my mom. "Hey, did your boobs leak before you gave birth?" Her response, "Before, During, After, and even YEARS after." AHHHHHHHHHHHH! Is this genetic? Then I brought it up after a work meeting with some of my co-workers (all women). All three have had children and all three started laughing and sharing stories of leaky boobs. Holy canoli. I immediately opened our baby registry and added those breast pads on there. But then I was torn, do I get the washable kind (eco-friendly) or the disposable? Back to my mom and her leaky boobs. She suggested trying both becuase "you never know what will work for you". (I put this in quotes because this is the most oft cited caveat to any advice I have ever gotten from previous baby mamas. I'm not doubting the truth in it, I just think it is funny how everyone says it!)

To be fair, some of my friends that have had children have said that they have never suffered a leak, so I could get as lucky as them. You can be sure that a free sample of breast pads is now in my purse just in case I spring a leak someday. My co-workers also mentioned that when I come back to work after baby, it's always a good idea to have some in your desk as well as a scarf or cardigan in the event the leak decides to spring during that ever-important meeting! Oh the things to look forward to...

PRO: Becuase I think it is important to battle every con with a pro and end on a positive note, today's PRO comes courtesy of BK and is in line with this post's title. NO MORE PERIOD! Yes it's true - no period while you are pregnant and possibly no period while you are breastfeeding. Maybe I WILL be one of those moms who breastfeeds her child until they are ten. (ha ha ha, JUST KIDDING). That is a pretty big pro in my book! In conjunction with this, you don't have to worry about birth control because, duh! you're already knocked up. No remembering to take your pill at 4 PM, no more sweating because your period is a day late, no more shout spraying your underwear, no more buying tampons, no more trying to remember if you still have a tampon in or when the last time you changed it was, no more...you get the drift.

I also want to share something related to this whole pro/con business. At our prenatal yoga class last night, our instructor had us start off the class, as usual, with introductions. As part of our introduction, we were suppossed to share any advice or anything people have said to us about being pregnant. Everyone's thing that they shared was slightly negative - for example, "Oh you're going to be pregnant during the summer. Eek - that's going to be uncomfortable". It was funny to hear all the stuff people have been told, and intersting that a lot of the class had heard many of the same things. So during the relaxation segment at the end of class, our instructor read a series of pregnancy-related affirmations to us as we relaxed. Now that's turning a negative into a positive!

I realize that I probably sound really negative about pregnancy most of the time so I'm trying to also focus on the positive aspects. I don't mean to be a huge pregnancy downer, but I also believe in being realistic and I'm not one of those women that truly loves everything about being pregnant and wishes I could be pregnant for the rest of my life. So these Pro/Con posts allow me to vent about cons but also bring more of the pros into focus for myself. As always, thanks for listening!