I'm hosed

Another joy of pregnancy I have now discovered: compression hose. To keep those little sausage-like feet from popping.

I hadn't been having much trouble with swelling (face and hands are normal, feet got a tad puffy at the end of the day but nothing crazy), but suddenly my feet have expanded to 2-3 times their normal size. It's really odd looking too, because my ankles aren't swelling that much. It just looks like I have really bad sprains in both of my feet. I half expect them to be black and blue, the way they look when I twist my ankle because I made the grave error of trying to be a grown-up and wear high-heeled shoes.

My doctor looked at my feet last week, had some fun poking my legs and leaving fingerprint indentions all over my shins ("Yep, you're swelling...look, isn't this fun?"), and told me that I need to start wearing compression stockings in order to make sure I don't hurt my feet and legs. So I made my third trip to the maternity store in 3 days to pick up some compression stockings. The only style they had is the full pantyhose style, so I got a couple of those. I shimmied my way into a pair and discovered that they actually do help! My legs and feet don't hurt so much anymore, and I'm not afraid to stand up at the end of the day for fear of splitting my feet open.

I also discovered that low-waisted maternity pants and full length compression hose don't mix well. It's bad enough that my belly pushes the pants down -- add a nice slick surface, and it's bye-bye pants. I had to walk around with my fingers hooked in my waistband to keep my pants up, and that didn't even work very well. I got several amused smiles from passers-by as I did my new materni-dance: waddle three steps, stop to hitch pants up, repeat.

At least it's not summertime -- I can't imagine having to wear these when it's hot out! Not to mention how goofy they'd look with my flip-flops.