The Pregnancy Stamp

There are plenty of commonly discussed pregnancy side effects - nausea, bloating, heartburn, insatiable hunger, sleepless nights, painful tailbones, round ligament pain, lightning crotch, cankles, snissing, blah blah blah. But there are also side effects that aren't as commonly talked about. My personal least favorite, which i was plagued with during my last pregnancy, is the growing of the feet. I don't mean swollen feet from fluid retention, i mean larger feet, in general.

I think it was at about this point last pregnancy that my shoes started to feel a bit tight. And i don't mean pointy dress shoes tight, these were my sneakers, my wonderful brown canvas Pumas that i loved so much. It wasn't too big of a deal, at the time - it was getting warmer out and flip flop weather was approaching, so i just switched to the rubber wonders and assumed I'd slip back into my Pumas after i got the baby out.

(The husband thought it would be a fabulous idea to start calling me Stampy and make elephant noises when i bitched about my feet - a very much unappreciated Simpsons reference. Seriously, not something to say to a pregnant woman.)

Imagine my surprise when i found myself on the verge of heading back to work after maternity leave and still unable to squeeze my feet into those shoes. I went to the shoe store and, much to my dismay, my feet had grown an entire size larger. Not so bad, right? Well maybe, except up to that point i had been able to buy my shoes from the kid department, which is how i was able to get those Pumas to begin with. Adult shoes just didn't come in those cool colors. I was a sad panda. To make myself feel better i bought an awesome pair of grey Vans, very similar to the ones i had in high school. I wore them home proudly, and then of course the husband had to point out that grey was the color of elephants. Gotta love him.

Anyway, the point is that my running shoes, which are already a half size larger than normal, are starting to feel pinchy and cramped. And it's not even summer! Do you know how painful it is to run in pinchy shoes? And do you know how freaking expensive running shoes are? So help me Flying Spaghetti Monster, if i outgrow my relatively new running shoes (and trail shoes!) I just may lose it. 18 more weeks of running, just let me get through that.