Drew and I went on a lovely little get-away (although it ended abruptly with a trip to the ER---more later) last week to Berea, KY. We decided to celebrate our third anniversary at the newly restored, historic
Boone Tavern Hotel. We had been to the restaurant several times before, but had always wanted to stay in the hotel. For those of you that have not been, you should definitely add it to your wish list of places to visit.
As you know, I am now 33 weeks pregnant and the particularly intense heat of last week was reeking havoc on my body. My hands and feet decided that they needed to swell, and so I made the decision to remove my wedding and engagement rings to avoid a potentially terrible struggle to remove them later in the day.
For those of you that are familiar with Boone Tavern, you are no doubt aware of the conservative nature of the students who work there. This was particularly evident when we went to check into our hotel room. We approached the front desk and the attendant asked what name the reservation would be under. "Greene-Owens."
She looked at me with a lot of confusion. I said my name again. Maybe I was speaking softly---I was a complete puddle from the heat.
She looked at me---my naked left hand---my obvious baby bump. She was confused.
Do I need to give you my confirmation number?, I asked.
Ummmmm.
The hand---the bump---the weird name?
Well...
No. No. I have you here.
Another look at the bump.
Good. It's our anniversary.
Again, a look at the naked left hand. She looked skeptical.
She handed us our key and I tried to forget about how awkward our encounter had been. I'm sorry that I had removed my ring. I didn't want it to get stuck. I have known plenty of pregnant women that can't even wear their rings, so I felt lucky that I was even able to wear them this long.
The moral of the story is that I am now wearing a larger right hand ring on my left wedding finger. I had started to feel very naked without my wedding bands (as a preventative measure, they have not returned to my finger). I just hope that it pacifies the inquisitive---if not, I have plenty of beautiful wedding pictures to prove it.
KEGO
PS. We had a lovely time after we checked in. We were sad to leave! We were even more sad to leave and head to UK Hospital for potential pre-term labor. After a few vials of blood, a thorough exam and several hours of monitoring, mother and baby (still in utero) were both doing well enough to return home (together). I did suffer through another couple days of severe ligament pain (the apparent culprit of the stabbing abdominal and back pain), but am pleased that it has really eased up. Another exciting reason to countdown the days until Baby G-O arrives!
Motherhood has been the most rewarding and amazing experience. I plan to share some of the details very soon and the many ways I've been shaped by this new identity. We'll talk about my hyphenate, but I'm most concerned right now with my new name---"mommy." Stay tuned!
