Being the pregnant elephant in the room

We’re traveling this week and Maximus is at home with grandparents. I’m sure he’s living the life of a little king. Him and the dog both. It’s hard traveling for a long time. This trip is seven days long and feels like an eternity to be away. Being an annual event, I know that it’s a long week. Little sleep, little resting, lots of working, lots of walking, and lots of networking. It’s all great, but makes for a very long week. I’m assuming that the week will feel just as long for the pregnant woman as it will for the guy who drinks too much most nights. 🙂 I also think that I’m going to make a lot of friends this year. Everyone seems to be interested in how I’m doing.

I’ve been working since Saturday morning. I can’t count the number of conversations I’ve had about my pregnancy. I think the only people to not comment are exhibition workers. I entered a room and was called out to by a woman I’d never seen. She recognized me as the pregnant woman who had emailed her. I guess her odds were pretty good that I’d be Kyley. 🙂 I’ve been told to sit down, stop cleaning something, go get more water, and stay away from spray paint fumes. I’m not used to people making any comments about being pregnant. I’m used to talking about due dates and how the pregnancy is going. I’m not used to so many people being concerned with how I’m feeling, how my feet are doing, or my health in general.

While I’m thankful that so many people are concerned about my well-being, I’m a little discouraged. My job is to ensure that our booth is set up for a tradeshow this week. I’m an integral part of that setup and I’ve spent the majority of my two days sitting on a chair. Don’t get me wrong, my feet can’t take the concrete floor for very long so I’m thankful for the chairs. But, it sure feels like I’m a waste of space. While the majority of my work was done prior to this week, I’d still like to lend a hand and feel like I’m helping out this week.

Since the event hasn’t happened yet, I’ll hold my tongue and see how the next five days go. I’ll probably be glad that I was able to put my feet up a little bit this weekend. It turns out that being in Disneyland means you have to walk A LOT. In order to eat anything, we have to walk a mile. So, I’ll continue to take my opportunities during the day to sit or take my shoes off. And when given an hour before I need to be somewhere, I’ll walk the long trek up to our room to rest a little bit. I think that’s the only way I’ll make it through the week in one, pregnant piece.