The beautiful pregnancy myth

I am 26 weeks pregnant now, that means I am about a week away from beginning the 3rd trimester and I think I have finally reached the 'good' part of pregnancy that everybody talks so much about!  Up until now, I must admit that I was starting to hold a little grudge against women everywhere for labeling pregnancy as this 'beautiful, wonderful' thing and conveniently neglecting to mention the true 'beauties' behind pregnancy!

So here it is, the truth behind the beautiful pregnancy myth......

Pregnancy is not glamorous!  The end product of pregnancy is (will be) beautiful and wonderful and I can't wait (OK, I can wait approximately 14 more weeks)!  But the whole pregnancy thing in and of itself is not necessarily all fun and games like the world portrays it.  The first 20 weeks, I couldn't stand the sight of chocolate (can you imagine such an atrocity???) or meat, or food in general.  My body decided to emit odors that were unstoppable by deoderant that wasn't prescription strength.  My hair and face were greasier than a pepperoni pizza....I'm guessing that's the pregnancy 'glow' everyone speaks of...the shine of sunlight  glimmering off the grease harbored on my face!  For several weeks my lower back and hips hurt so badly that I actually thought I may have broken my tailbone.  Then there are the leg cramps that wake you up at night and of course the potty break at midnight, 0300 and 0500!  And I probably shouldn't neglect to mention the hormones that make you cry about things you normally would laugh at, like the fact that nothing fits good!  For approximately 2 months there is this interim period where you are too oddly shapen for your regular clothes but not oddly shapen enough for maternity clothes.  I am still in this phase.  My regular jeans still fit but my normal tops look akward and tight but maternity shirts hang off of me.  I feel like everybody is looking at me wondering if I have a beer belly or if I am pregnant.  I need a shirt that says, "I'm in that is she pregnant or is she fat phase!"

Of course then there is that slight fluttering you feel every couple of hours that reminds you that there is a real human being growing inside of you.  The sheer joy of watching your stomach bounce around while sitting on the couch watching tv as my little one practices her karate!  And the ultrasound appointments where you can get a sneak peek at that adorable little nose and those precious little toes.  And you can't forget about the monthly appointments when you get to hear the thumping heartbeat that makes your own heart beat with delight.  WAIT a minute....I think the 'good' part of pregnancy has already made me forget the multitude of umpleasantries.  Apparently, pregnancy also makes your memory fuzzy....don't say I didn't tell you so!

Designer Kitchen

Making cookies in my teenie-tiny, essentially counterless kitchen makes me daydream about the GIGANTIC kitchen my husband owes me someday.  After following him around all over the world and cooking out of essentially non-existent kitchens, we have an agreement that when we buy a home it will basically consist of a giant kitchen, with a relatively decent sized bathroom...the rest of the house I couldn't care less about!  I don't care if it even has a living room at all....throw a reclining chair and a tv in the kitchen and you basically have the perfect room!  Afterall, when you have a get together where do all the people end up?  In the kitchen!  So you may as well make it HUGE and comfortable! 

My current kitchen, basically no counterspace at all and limited cabinet space.  I joke with Andrew that when I have a big pregnant belly we won't both fit in there.

Kitchen before we were here, better than our current kitchen, but trust me that kitchen looks MUCH bigger in that picture than it actually was...Andrew and I could barely be in there at the same time!

I don't have any pictures of our first kitchen but it was also small.  Definitely the best of the 3 in terms of cabinet/pantry and counterspace ratio but it certainly was NOT great!  I find myself missing that tiny little Wind Ct. kitchen these days....which tells you just how bad off I really am!

Just a few reasons why American kitchens SIGNIFICANTLY out rank German ones.

#1 - Limited cabinet space.  We had to buy this little doodad and it is packed tight, full of items that didn't fit anywhere not to mention the lot of items that are in the laundry room/storage room downstairs!

#2 - No counterspace!  Really I have zero counterspace in this kitchen.

#3 - Tiny refridgerators!  See that middle compartment that is standing up?  That is a standard German fridge, in America we call that a beer fridge and we outgrow it when we leave college!  In the above picture you can see that the Government lent us an American sized fridge, fortunately.  Which leads me to point....

#4 - No pantry!  I use that tiny dorm fridge as our pantry now....how ridiculous is that???

#5 - Tiny Ovens!  None of my sheet pans fit and it makes me soooooo sad b/c I think my Williams-Sonoma sheet pans make the BEST cookies of all time and sadly they are in a box in the garage :(

 #6 - No closet to store the plethora of recycling bins you need to sort your trash.

#7 - The ridiculously small German sinks that are one sided.  I think it may be the dumbest thing ever!  It is so hard to handwash dishes with only one side available, so difficult and needless!