Everyone hears about all the “usual” pregnancy side-effects - morning sickness, tiredness, backache, etc. But there are some pretty strange ones too.

I was lucky enough to not have morning sickness - thank goodness - but I have been afflicted with some other, rather strange things that I never expected. Suffice it to say, that your entire body changes when you’re pregnant. It’s not just a matter of your belly getting bigger.

Here are some of the stranger things I’ve noticed:

Skin sensitivity - My skin seems much more sensitive to little annoyances. Things that didn’t bother me before are now very uncomfortable. For example, I used to use an epilator instead of shaving - you know, one of those things that pulls the hair out from the roots instead of shaving it off? But, since about the third month of pregnancy, I can’t seem to tolerate it. My skin is way too sensitive. Fortunately, in the third trimester I’ve noticed a…

Change in hair growth - the hair on my head has been growing like mad since the beginning, but the hair on my legs has stopped dead. Now, if only it would stay that way…..

Strength - I’ve never been a wimpy person, but I’m having trouble opening jars. Plus, I have to have O pull the car out of the garage now because I have trouble opening the garage door - of course that may be mainly because it’s hard to bend down to reach the handle. In order to do that I have to put myself in a strange position which doesn’t lead to easy door opening.

Stuffy nose - since about month 2 I have had a continual stuffy nose. Fortunately, I’ve avoided any colds or flu, but the nose is constantly stuffed. Which may in turn lead to…

Snoring - since about month 5 I’ve been snoring or making very strange noises in my sleep. My research shows that this happens to a lot of women and it’s a combination of the stuffy nose along with the level of progesterone. All I know is that I put another pillow under my head and it seems to help. Of course, if my head falls off the pillow we’re in trouble. As I said, it’s not just snoring, but strange noises as well. One night I made this strange growling noise deep in my throat. It was so loud it woke me up and I opened my eyes to see O looking at me in alarm, at which point we both burst out laughing.

Carpal tunnel syndrome - or, at least, I think that’s what it is. My wrists alternately hurt and the skin even itches. I can deal with the itching, but it’s the pain inside that drives me crazy. No matter how I move it, it hurts. So, I put some ice on it and try not to type for a while since that makes it worse. Who would have thought it would be a side-effect of pregnancy? Strange….

I’ve found that the best way to deal with these things is to find a way to laugh at them (it’s easy with the snoring). Of course O helps a lot of that. Especially when he tells me that when I’m getting up off the couch I look like a turtle that’s stuck on its back and trying to turn over.

But, none of this takes away from the joy of expecting a child. And, of course, these things just make me more aware of how incredible nature is.

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Last week I had this crazy idea to get a wireless router and set it up so that I could roam with my laptop and eventually add more computers to my network. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

First, let me say that it’s not the first time I’ve done this, so it should not have been so difficult. But, then again, I had no idea what I was up against.

The problem was, that when I went to the store to purchase a router, I picked up a router that was hopelessly out of date. Of course, I didn’t know this until later. I was looking for the brands I knew (Linksys, etc.) but didn’t find them so instead I picked up a D-Link Router - never bothering to look at the date of manufacture. At first, I couldn’t even get it to make a connection with my computer, but finally after several tries I did. Of course, I was in contact with the Italian help desk for this via email, but the only wisdom they provided was to tell me to use the reset button. (I figured that out myself.)

Then, I could go no further without receiving an error, but by this time, the router installation program had already modified the IP address, Gateway, and DNS1 & 2 used to connect to the internet. And yes, someone (we won’t mention any names) didn’t think to back up that information or even to simply write it down.

So, I had to contact my ISP, but considering that it was Friday night, I knew I wouldn’t hear back until Monday. Fortunately, my contact there is very helpful (and understands my half-English half-Italian descriptions of the problem) and Monday morning he gave me the information I needed so that I could go back to using my DSL and stop using my backup telephone line (talk about slow). This time, I wrote everything down though.

So, it was back to step 1 and I tried again to set it up with no luck. I could tell my router was connecting to the internet because packets were going back and forth and I could communicate with the router from the PC, but I couldn’t get to the internet through the Router. My ISP contact assured me it was some local setting since he was able to see my PC on the network.

I tried upgrading firmware and got nowhere. Then I noticed, that the system time was wrong on the router. When I tried to change it, I had a dropdown menu of choices for year and it didn’t go past 2007. Could this be the problem? I don’t know, but after an entire day of messing with it and getting nowhere and since it was obviously pretty outdated, I decided to return it to the store. Now, this can be a fun process here in Italy. Stores here rarely take things back - regardless of whether you have a receipt or not. Plus, I had bought it 10 days before, so I was ready for an argument. But, fortunately for me, after I pointed out the problem, they did take it back and I was able to swap it out for another brand (which, I checked to make sure was of recent manufacture.)

Within 15 minutes last night I had my wireless network set up, after a week’s worth of frustration with the previous model. Thank Goodness. You can be sure that in the future I’ll be checking any computer equipment I buy here to make sure it’s a recent model. It was no fun having to go back to dialup for 3 days.

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I can’t explain why, but so far I have not bought one single thing for the baby. Of course, I have a list of stuff that I need, and I carry it around in my purse, but I’m hesitant to buy anything.

Friday evening I had my latest appointment and I’m happy to say that everything’s fine with the little guy. Afterwards, we had some time to kill before meeting friends for dinner, so we headed to the shops. You would think that I would have been in the right mood at that time, but despite my list, I couldn’t bring myself to actually make a purchase. So, as of this moment, the only baby items I have are an outfit that a friend bought for me and a crib (without a mattress), that is a hand-me-down from O’s brother.

It’s not as if I don’t look at the baby things - I’ve been doing that since I found out I was pregnant. I just have this strange reluctance to actually buy anything. Strange…..

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Many may remember how ecstatic I was when my parents gave me a dryer back in October. Well, it definitely came in handy yesterday.

Why?

Well, Sunday and Monday, as many may know, was voting day here in Italy.
It was a big event here in town as the voting is held at the school. So, the rose garden out in front was cleaned up, flags were placed on the terrace and everything was prepared for the event over the course of the day Friday and Saturday.

What did this mean for me? Well, besides being my first chance to vote here in Italy, it also meant a lot of activity around my house as my windows overlook the school and everyone has to go past my house to reach the school. (In fact, some days the kids ring my doorbell and run, just for the fun of it.)

Now, when I say that my windows overlook the school, I mean, I’m pretty close. There’s a small street between my house and the school and when I open the window to hang my clothes outside, I can easily converse with the workers over at the school if they’re outside or have the windows open. That’s pretty close.

Hanging the clothes outside is the point though. As it is, I have two clotheslines, one in front of the other, so I make sure to hang the “intimate” items behind the larger items. I just don’t want adolescent kids staring at my underwear.

But yesterday, it was more than adolescent kids. The police were there along with the town officials and lots of people going in and out. Of course, I hadn’t thought about this fact, I just knew it was a sunny day, so I was going to hang my clothes outside to dry. That is, until I started doing so and realized just how much traffic was going in and out of the school. I hung one shirt out, thought better of it, and pulled it back inside. Thank goodness for my dryer!

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Yesterday, one of the (2) town guards delivered my voting card.

I’ve been dutifully following the race, reading the newspapers and watching the different news programs and interviews, so I can make an informed decision.
It’s been quite a race, interesting to say the least. I’ve written a couple of times about it, but I’m sure the next few days will be full of even more newsworthy items regarding the race.
And now, with voting card in hand, I’m all ready for the election on Sunday.

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