The first words out of Ritchie’s mouth as he walked in the door yesterday were “Wow, your ankles are swollen.” From my perspective:
they did look swollen but not more than they usually do after a rare day when I’m on my feet alot. Later on when we took pictures he insisted that we use a prop to illustrate the size and I realized that his perspective does lend a slightly different view and it also explains his declaration that my “ankles have rolls!”:
For the last few months, regardless of how much water I drink, some days my ankles and feet balloon to a rather unattractive size. It’s rarely uncomfortable and most of the time we just laugh about it because I always put them up and they’re back to normal in the morning. Of all the discomforts people experience during pregnancy, I’ll happily take this one.
On Sunday I was talking to my sister Lisa and I happened to mention that I was sitting with my feet up. She said she’d never had an ankle problem, which is the same thing that my sister Kristin had said last weekend. As I got off the phone I related the details of our conversation to Ritchie. When I got to the part about her and Kristin not having swollen ankles he said “Well, they don’t have your calves either.” Which is true…I do have my Grandpa’s very muscular (read: large) calves. When he said that I laughed, at which point he attempted to clarify by saying “I mean, you just have kind of big legs.” We both laughed because I knew what he was saying and he meant it in a purely explanatory way because he has been very supportive of any less-than-lovely changes my body has undergone lately. This is one reason I’m glad it’s taken us so long to experience pregnancy: 5 years ago I probably would’ve lost it if he’d said something like that but today I just laugh and thank heaven for a husband who’s as excited and understanding about swollen ankles as I am.