SO SWOLLEN
DATE: 07.16.10 TIME: 10:41 AM



Swollen feet are nothing new to me. I grew up watching my mom and my grandma struggle with their swollen feet. My feet even got swollen every once in a while during the summer towards the end of the day. But NOTHING prepared me for what my feet would look like pregnant, in the summer, in 90 degree weather. My feet are SERIOUSLY twice the size they usually are. I’m not exaggerating.

And they hurt!

You can no longer see bones in my feet (even in the morning). My best friend is telling me to wear flip flops. Haha!!! Um, yeah. That would be GREAT if flip flops actually fit my feet. They don’t. I have the other best friend swearing by Birkenstocks because that’s all that worked for her. I have to be thankful for Birkenstocks and the fact that I owned four pairs of them before I was pregnant from when I was trying to be a hippie 10 years ago. I never got rid of them because, as ugly as they are, they were always so comfortable. Now, they are a necessity.

So let me just explain my feet to you a bit so you can understand how bad this swelling really is. My Birks are the narrow ones. Birkenstocks sells regular and narrow. I have a narrow, skinny foot so I own four pairs of narrow, size 39, Birkenstocks. When I wore them before pregnancy, they were tightened to the very last hole. As a matter of fact, I even think I have a pair they punched a hole in to make them tighter! Over the past few months they have gone from the last hole to the very first hole. They are the BIGGEST they can go and when I take them off, you can still see indentations in my feet from them being too tight. It’s the craziest thing ever.

I don’t exactly let it bother me, because, really, what can I do about this? NOTHING. The only few things that bother me is the fact that 1) I will not wear short dresses; 2) it’s hard to walk; and 3) I can’t wear anything but Birkenstocks! I enjoy sending picture messages to my closest friends with captions like “just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse!” and “they might as well be deformed at this point!” Whether or not they think it’s funny I will never know because they usually don’t respond. I think they are in absolute shock that their friend who has always had really pretty feet (look, I can say that because I know it’s true! I have great looking feet when I’m not pregnant!) now has feet that no longer really look like feet!

My best friend who swore by Birkenstocks is now assuring me that my feet are going to be back to normal about 3-5 days after I have the baby. So I have about 30 days left of this! Not too bad, right?