What I am going to miss (and not) most about being pregnant

No, he has not arrived yet. So this is what I am doing with my time:

What I am going to miss most about being pregnant:

1. The amazing feeling of creating life. What could be more exciting or more important?!?!
2. Being part of something so natural; feeling connected to the countless women before and after me who have experienced what I am priveledged to be going through now.
3. Feeling and seeing baby move inside of me.
4. Wondering and dreaming about what he will be like and what kind of life I can provide for him.
5. Eating (almost) anything I want and not feeling too guilty.
6. Prenatal exercise and yoga classes!
7. My massive library of pregnancy and childcare books (not to mention the pregnancy magazines to which I often treat myself). Current count: 24 books! Also, numerous weekly emails customized for where I am in pregnancy with information about babies development and all sorts of other info.
8. Everyone’s amazing generosity, including the two biggest parties ever thrown in my honor.
9. Maitri (my OBGYN group).
10. Having a good excuse not to work!
11. Taking the time to really be good to myself; to eat right, drink lots of water, exercise, sleep, nap, read, write, etc . . . (Hopefully I can keep some of these good habits going even after I have the baby!)

What I am not going to miss about being pregnant:

1. Constant worry.
2. Missing having my mom around.
3. Gaining massive amounts of weight—so far 50 lbs, making Brad and I just about even. My original goal was 40, but now it has been revised to just not breaking 200!
4. My sausage fingers, ankles, and double chin.
5. Not having any clothes that fit and therefore completely giving up on fashion.
6. Zits, zits, and more zits (especially “backne”).
7. Spending the majority of my time in the bathroom.
8. The amazing effort it takes to do everything (turn over, stand up, put on socks, etc. . .)
9. Sleeping only on my side. Oh, to lie in the sun on my back!
10. Wondering when we are going to get this show on the road . . .

Why "still the flowers grow?"

Perhaps you wondered about my strange blog title. It is the first line of one of the first poems I remember writing. Actually, I didn’t exactly write the poem, instead I dictated it to my father as I had not yet learned to write. I think that this was around the time I was in kindergarten or first grade.

The poem (slightly morbid) is as follows:

Still the flowers grow,
but soon they will die,
under the dark evening sky.

I have no idea what happened to the original piece of writing, but both father and I have remebered the poem all these years.