Expect to Stress about Stress

Getting pregnant is stressful. Being pregnant is stressful. Having children is (I'm assuming) stressful. But do you know what's even more stressful? Being stressed about having so much stress.

I tend to be one of those Type A, dominant personalities. I come from a long line of stubborn, prideful perfectionists. I also have a wee bit of anxiety. As such, I get stressed easily and load way too much on my plate.

This past year has been stress central for me. I started a new job, moved into a new house, struggled through 13 months of trying to get pregnant, got pregnant, and dealt with the first trimester while adjusting to the new job. It was a nice break from stressing about Grad School, but it was still stress nonetheless.

The stress started to subside a bit after the first trimester nausea ceased and I got into the swing of things at the ol' job. But I'm Priscilla, stress master extraordinaire! I have to have something to stress about!

So why not stress about stress?

BRILLIANT!

It all started when I read an article that said that if you stress a lot while pregnant it increases your odds of going into preterm labor or delivering a low-birthweight baby. Also, chronic stress puts your baby at risk for having depression and increased irritability later in life.

ALSO having a low-birthweight baby can cause other complications such as chronic lung disease, developmental delays, learning disorders, and infant mortality.

Oye.

And now that I know this little nugget of information, I start stressing about being stressed and this compounds my stress.

Are you getting stressed trying to follow my stress cycle?

...I wonder how many times I can use the word "stress" in this post...

Anywho,

I've been brainstorming ways to decrease my stress. Yoga's out since I'm not really the breathe-deeply-while-bending-in-unnatural-ways type of person. And the deep breathing itself is a no-go. I've been having some pregnancy rhinitis and sound like a pig while breathing normally. Let's not even entertain the thought of what I'd sound like if I took deeper breaths. Yikes. I also don't like baths or massages. I'm pretty much the weirdest girl ever.

Right now I'm sticking to primetime comedies with slurpees and chocolate doughnuts.

The stress cure of champions!