Appropriate for Halloween...pretty horrifying...

               So, when Baby P turned three months old, I started noticing that I was shedding more hair than normal, definately more than while I was pregnant. During my pregnancy, I barely lost any and it was more thick and shiny than before. For the past eight weeks, I have been losing hair by the handful. I am not going to gross you out by photographing the full toupee of hair that fell out of my head after I washed and brushed it yesterday, but I assure you it was horrifying. I had two friends tell me that this would happen, but I definately underestimated it. There is hair in our laundry, on the floor, in the baby's hands, in the shower, in the sink, on the baby's clothes, in the couch, on the kitchen counter (I know, I know!)...you name a place and I have found hair there. It is awful. I can't believe I'm not bald. Oh, wait...I am! The front of my hair is really thin and now there are little, short, spiky hairs showing where it's growing back in- for which I am very, very grateful but not very aesthetically pleased. To quote Aaron the Allergic Shepherd (our children's Christmas musical this year):

"My, oh, my! Why? Oh, why is life one great big myst'ry? (Doo doo doo doo!)

If I could, then I would just make my problems hist'ry!

If I were perfect, how nice life would be!

Just perfect! I'd live happily forever.

The sheep would be perfectly in line each time and never, ever stray!"

(for perfect, read: 'full head of hair,' for sheep, read: 'hairs on my head')

               BabyCenter.com says that for the average "un-pregnant" woman, "85-95 % of the hair on your head is growing and the other 5-15% is in the resting stage." After the resting stage, the hair falls out and is replaced by new growth. "The average woman sheds about 100 hairs a day." During pregnancy, high hormone levels keep your hair in a growing stage instead of progressing to the resting stage- so you get thicker, fuller hair. Snaps for that!
              Here is the grim post-pregnancy truth, hormone levels drop dramatically so suddenly all that growing hair rests and then falls out, now you're losing not 100 hairs a day but...are you ready?...500...FIVE HUNDRED...F-I-V-E  H-U-N-D-R-E-D!!!!! I'm telling you, it looks like way, way more. The great thing (according to Baby Center) is that it should be totally back to normal within a year of the baby's birth. I'm sorry, Baby Center. I know you're trying to be all upbeat about this, but in what world is it great to have bad hair for an entire year? You try being the hairdresser that says, "Oh, don't worry! That horrible color will be all grown out in a year!"...or the doctor that says, "That itchy, red rash on your FACE will be gone in no time, give it A YEAR!"

      
Now, dear friends, I don't want to scare you off from pregnancy,
there are some great things too!

1) ????

2) ???????

3) Just kidding, you get a baby out of the deal-that's the best thing!

4) You have fantastic skin when you're pregnant.

5) You are treated very courteously by everyone! Random peeps in stores, family, friends

        husband (i.e. lots of opening doors, offering the comfortable bed, carrying heavy things, foot rubs)

6) A whole new world of shopping opens before your very eyes: baby stuff! It is so fun. Like when you were 6 (or 14) and pored over the American Girl catalogue drooling over teeny beds with teeny bedding and miniature button boots and 'wittle yewow waincoats.'

7) Maternity clothes: For real, they are great! Stylish, stretchy waist so you never feel like you've gained any weight (although you'd have to be blind not to notice your own belly), cuts or styles that you could never get away with when you're not pregnant (for me that's a flower print maxi-dress), and they hide everything. Really there are days when I miss maternity clothes!

8) You can feel a baby move around in your belly and actually see where it bumps its little elbows and kicks its little feet! That's very cool.

9) You get to pick out baby names! There are so many great names out there and you have an excuse to make list after list and force your husband and friends to discuss them in detail.
 -"Is that a pretty name, sweetie?"
-"Yes, we have to talk about it now! We're having a baby in 8 months!"
-"Do you think that boy's name sounds like a girl's name?"
-"No, I don't like that one, I used to know a Syracuse and she was mean. What about you?"

10) Last one, not everyone loses their hair after pregnancy. I've known several people who didn't notice it at all. So don't let it keep you from having a scrummy, cuddly, chunky-thighed baby if you want one someday, they are pretty wonderful. (Scrummy is a Roald Dahl word so I don't want any comments about it.)

Notice, I'm wearing a hat in this pic!