Well my idea to just completely wear myself out yesterday helped a bit with the sleeping.  I was able to sleep much better than the previous night.  Though I was still only able to sleep for a few hours at a time.  But it was far better than the night before.  

I did a lot of kitchen cleaning yesterday, and I really don't think my kitchen has even been cleaner (or at least not since I've lived here)  It was tiring, but I survived.  

The belly seems to be agreeing with a lot more today.  I think part of the problem I have is dependent on the tightness of the belly.  since the velcro strap are all in the back and I have to be a contortionist to get it on tight, it has varied each time I've put it on after my shower.  This is why I need someone (ok, a woman) to help me with this.

One of the things I think I've failed to mention so far is how I have to have my legs when I'm sitting up.  The belly seem to be at just the right level that if I'm sitting straight up, I have to have my legs apart to make room for the belly.  I don't know why, but I think that's pretty cool.

I'm probably going to end the experiment tonight as I do need to get a decent night's sleep before going back to work.  I know women can't take off their belly to sleep, but they also don't go from 0 months to 9 months in a minute.   

It's funny, earlier today I was just waiting for the chance to take it off, but right now, I'm rather comfortable with it on.  

I do have 2 sore muscles right now, but I'm surprised by which muscles.  They're the muscles that go straigh up and down on each buttock.  I have no idea what they're called, or that I even had them.  But I guess from carrying around the extra 35 pounds, they've gotten quite the workout and are sore.

So while I've had my moments where I was just hating the pregnancy, over all, it's been pretty good.  lack of sleep has been the big problem.  But that said, I will probably do another extended "pregnancy" in the future (July 4th weekend?)  and would still gladly go through the real thing if it were possible.  Heck even if the symptoms of a real pregnancy were a 1000 times worse, it would be worth it just to bring a child into the world.

And I'm not sure if I'm going to make it.  Last night was horrible when it came to sleeping.  I don't think I slept for more than 45 minutes at a time.  I just could not find a comfortable position.  seems like any position would cause my back to become sore.

I was particularly surprised by this since yesterday at 2pm, I ended up taking a 45 minute nap as I was tired from lack of sleep the night before.  I managed to get myself in a very comfortable position.  I tried my darndest to replicate that last night, but no luck.

If I don't get a decent night's sleep tonight, I will probably kill the experiment at 11pm tomorrow.  But that's still 78 hours, and I think that's pretty good.

Oddly enough, I've been having a huge urge while laying down to lay on my stomach.  I've never really laid on my stomach before, yet now when I obviously can't, I really want to.  

Around 5pm yesterday, the pregnancy thing seemed to suddenly become easier.  like after the 24 hour period my body had fully accepted what was happening.  Yet today is a completely differnt story.  It just wants it to be over with and is begging for relief.

I've been trying to keep myself somewhat busy today.  Not easy since I'm still tired from last night.  The reason for this is because I can't really find a comfortable position sitting or lying down, and I'm hoping that If I get myself tired enough, I can sleep through tonight no matter how uncomfortable I am.

It's been a while since I've done an entry here.  Mainly because there hasn't been much to talk about.  My back was injured for a while which made moving about normally difficult, and who knows what it would've been like with a 35 pound belly (I'm thinking painful.)  

For those of you who don't live in the States, this is Memorial Day Weekend.  A weekend where we're supose to honor those who died in combat, but instead has come to signal the start of summer.  It's a 3 day weekend for most (including myself) so that means I don't go back to work until Tuesday.  

So how did I decide to spend my holiday weekend?  By being pregnant.  At 5pm EDT yestersday, I put on the empathy belly and intend to keep it on until 6am on Tuesday (when it's time for me to go to work.)  That's 85 hours while wearing the belly.  Now, I will be taking it off once a day to take my showers.  I know, pregnant women can't remove their bellies to take showers, but they also can still clean all of their skin while pregnant, and don't have to worry about getting their bellies and breasts wet.  So 30-45 minutes a day with it off I think is fair.  It'll also give my skin under the empathy belly a chance to breathe.  

I am giving myself one escape clause.  If for some reason my sleep is severely disrupted with the pregnancy, I may end the pregnancy 7 hours early (11pm, Monday) so I can get some sleep before going back to work.

So how   has the first 3/4's of a day gone?  Not bad.  Haven't done anything to strenuous yet.  Fix myself some meals, watch tv.  I did finally get one of those body pillows.  It's a big U-shaped one.  That made a world of difference last night, especially compared to my previous attempts of sleeping pregnant without one..  I still only slept for a few hours at a time, but I was much more comfortable doing it.  If there are any pregnant women out there, I strongly suggest getting a body pillow.  

I find myself always having to sit straight up as any bit of a slouch strains my back muscles.  

Today, I will hopefully get a lot of housework done, though I wouldn't be surprised if I need to take a few naps through out the day.

Well, I ended up coming down with the flu (or a really, really, really, really bad cold) a couple weeks ago.  and it hung around for a few weeks.  It was causing a fair amount of breathing problems, that I couldn't do much with the empathy belly.  Last thing I need when I'm already gasping for air is something that makes my breathing that much more difficult.  

Could I have toughed it out?  perhaps.  But better to be safe than dead.  

But I got to get back in the swing of things the last couple days.  trying out some new maternity stuff.  The maternity shorts and yoga pants are comfortable, though still abit on the short side.  The maternity underwear, surprisingly comfortable.  If all of women's underwear is this comfortable, I can understand why some guys like wearing it.

Also finally got to put the body pillow to use.  It makes it so much more easier to sleep.  able to easily place support where you need it.  OF course, I still have the discomfort of the straps digging in.  

Hopefully I can get a more extended session this weekend. 

My how time flies.  Seems like just a few weeks I got the empathy belly.  Took a couple days off from wearing it earlier in the week as I had 12 hour days due to work training.  Unfortunately, I had to sit in the world's most uncomfortable chairs those 2 days.  Those chairs hurt my back far more than the empathy belly ever has.

 I put the belly back on for a short while on Thursday to give a friend I hadn't talked to for a while a show.  

Yesterday I put it on as soon as I got home.  I kept it on until about 4 this morning when I finally needed a break from it.  Sleeping with it is still the hardest part.  I did manage to get myself into a very comfortable position with it, by having one pillow under the belly, one between my legs, one undertneath my top arm, and of course the ones for my head.  But then had the snoring problem again.  I can not tell you how annoying it is to wake yourself up from snoring.  Eventually, I needed to roll over.  Despite trying to duplicate the pillow positions, I was never able to get as comfortable.  I did manage to fall asleep but woke up numerous times.

I understand pregnant women wake up frequently during the night, but I do wish my reasons were the same.  We both wake up because we may just be in uncomortable positions.  But pregnant women also tend to wake up because of their babies kicking up a storm, hunger, or need to pee.  I've only had the need to pee a little.  When I lie on my side the bladder weight doesn't press in as much, so that part kinda stops.  I of course don't have the kicking baby.  Apparently replicating a kicking baby is impossible.  Babies tend to kick most when the mother isn't moving.  The belly requires movement for the baby to kick.  Basically, my mai reasosn for waking up besides bing uncomfortable is because one of the straps is digging into me or my skin just starts getting too sweaty as it can't breathe under the belly.  

But it's still the closest I've ver come, so it'll have to suffice until Doctors actually find a way to make men pregnant.

Oh, I'm slightly ticked off that someone has stolen my ebay idea of advertising on the empathy belly.  But he's gotten far less than what I would've hoped for so far.

So I ended up being rather daring Monday night.  I came home on Monday, and knocked myself up (my new favorite phrase for saying I put on the Empathy Belly.)  

After updating the blog and doing some other miscellaneous stuff, I decided that I wanted to do a little bit more while pregnant.  So at 10pm, I decided to risk it.  I went driving while pregnant.

After making sure there were no cars coming down the street, I walked quickly to my car.  I was taking my normal non-pregnant steps, so I was waddling much more than usual  (longer steps = more waddling.  Who knew?)  I kinda wish my car wasn't so close to a street light.  Oh well.

Now, I drive a nice small little sports car.  So 6'5 guy and sports car, that's already a tight fit.  I opened the door and quickly slid in and closed the door.  I was really surprised how much room I still had left.  I half expected that my belly would be rubbing against the steering wheel.  I suspect that if I were shorter, that would've been the case.  But being a tall guy, I have the seat all the way back.  My posture in the car seat is much different than it normally would've been because of my belly.  I was sitting much more straight (I normally slouch a bit in the car.) and as a result my head was up higher where it was practically touching the roof of my car.  My boobs also made it more difficult to get a good hold of the steering wheel.

So off I went.  I would end up going on about a 20-mile drive.  I did choose my course carefully.  There were a total of 2 stoplights I had to worry about.  Of course, I had to stop at both of them.  But they were on 2 lane roads so no one could pull up next to me and see and cars coming from the other direction wouldn't be able to see in the dark.  

The path I took was pretty straightforward. Down Rt. 1, back up I-95.  Rt.1 has no streetlights in the area, so I was fine from being discovered.  The last part of I-95 though, is quite well lit.  My original plan was to come back up on I-95, but I wanted to try the highway.  I had a jacket on, which would've hidden my "condition" to anyone who did look over at me.  To the best of my knowledge, no one saw anything.  

So my experiences while driving.  Well, there was an awful lot more weight on my bladder and every single pothole or small bump in the road just made things worse.  There were two times where I felt like I was about to pee myself.  Also, the baby was kicking up a storm during the whole time as the vibrations caused the suspended weight to bounce around like a super ball.  The accelerations were really weird.  As mentioned I have a sports car, and I am a guy, so I accelerate fast.  Every time I accelerated, I would feel the belly press into me.  Really wild.  

Upon getting home, I was a little bit worried about getting out of my low sports car.  Took me 2 tries to actually turn myself to get out.  But getting up was no problem.  But I suspect a lot of that had to do with the adrenaline of not wanting to get caught getting out of my car in front of my house.  

All in all, it was a fun little experience.  Kinda makes me wish that I could do more very day stuff while pregnant (grocery shopping, riding the metrorail, etc.)  But I'm still enjoying being pregnant and slowly getting bolder about it.  

Now if I can just get someone to join in the fun….

Yeah, it's been a while since I posted an update.  I ended up taking a week off from the belly.  Those of you that have gotten to know me know that I have a physically demanding side gig that comes up about once every month.  Well it was coming up and my back was getting sore from constantly being pregnant.  (funny thing.  My back doesn't hurt when I have the belly on, only once I take it off.)  so I took some time off to heal up.  

Started wearing it again mid last week.  Was just a matter of finding something to write about

My body quickly re-adjusted to the extra weight.  In fact it almost seemed to have welcomed it.  It's gotten to the point where I almost feel more comfortable wearing it than not.  The exception of course is when it comes to sleeping.  

I did decide to check out one thing.  I knew my walk changes when I'm wearing the belly, so I decided to see how much.  When I'm not pregnant, my stride is 20" (measured straight ahead from toe of trail foot to heel of front foot.  No side to side measuring.)  however when I put on the belly and walk around, my stride drops down to a mere 4".  I'm sure my feet are also further apart with the belly.  I was stunned by the length difference.  I tried to take my "normal" steps with the belly on but it felt way off.  My body rocked left and right a lot more than it normally does and it kinda felt like I was walking out of control.

I've take a couple pictures, still looking to take some more (c'mon, get those ideas in) before I post the next set.  

Well I broke through one of the major hurdles last night.  But before I talk about that, I guess I should start at the beginning.

My maternity shirts from Old Navy arrived around 6pm yesterday.  I anxiously opened the package and pulled them out.  I then went upstairs and put on the belly and put one of the maternity shirts on.  These shirts are really comfortable.   Nice and soft.  Form fitting without being tight.  I may have to buy some more of these.

Did some of the normal stuff.  Fix dinner, clean up a bit.  I did put together 2 nightstands that I picked up from Ikea earlier.  So, 9 months pregnant and I'm assembling furniture.  My back got a little sore from the bending forward, but outside of that, it was quite easy.  

Was a little risqué last night.  I took out the garbage, which only meant going into my backyard (but can still be seen by the neighbors)  and then I realized I had left something in the car, so I walked out to my car.  It was 10pm so the road wasn't super    busy, but enough for me to constantly check for cars.  I waddled the 50 feet from my house out to my car on the street, got in the car, got the item, and then waddled back to the house.  Luckily no one came by during that time.  I was very afraid that maybe some of the teenagers in the area would be walking around, but I didn't see any of them.  It was nice to actually leave the house, if even for a very short bit.  It felt very liberating.  I'm very tempted to hop in my car one night and just drive around while pregnant.  But won't that be embarrassing to explain should I get pulled over by the cops.

I decided to actually go the whole night pregnant.  It was a little difficult.  Not sure if I ever slept more than 90 minutes at a time, but then, I was having that problem without being pregnant.  Had to wake up twice to go to the bathroom. My body was slowly getting adjusted to the belly while sleeping. The first couple sleep attempts weren't very deep.  But with each subsequent wake up and fall back asleep I went deeper and deeper.  I think I need to get me a nice body pillow.  Preferably one of the U shaped ones so I don't need to rearrange the support for my belly every time I roll over.

I find my boobs are constantly getting in the way.  As I type this, my biceps are pressing into them.  They were especially annoying last night while sleeping.  While I love the size and shape of them, I do wish they behaved a little more like real breasts.  They're basically stuffed pillows so they don't bounce, move or anything.  I can take the stuffing out easily (designed to do that for washing) so I'm thinking about putting something else in it's place that will make it behave a little more lifelike.  Granted that may mean I have to get a bra (which I suspect is why they went with the firm ones)  but I'd be willing to do that.  Anything for realism.

Anway, I've had the belly on for 17 hours straight right now.  I'm going to take it off in a few to take a shower.  I would love to try taking a shower with it on (my shower is so small, it would be a tight fit)  but I probably shouldn't be exposing the belly to that type of abuse.

OK, my body is definitely used to the Belly.  Wore it again yesterday for about another 6 hours, and it seemed like second nature.  The extra weight doesn't bother me, nor does the change in size.  It really does feel very natural on me.  I just couldn't believe how comfortable I was able to get with it.  Aside from the occasional minor annoyance from the "limbs, my biggest problems with the belly have been the occasional strap starting to dig in (something I suspect wouldn't happen if I had someone to strap me in properly) and my skin needing to breathe.  Granted I haven't done this 24/7 or tried sleeping in it, but so far, I've really been finding this whole thing natural and pleasurable.  So much so, that I don't know why some women complain about pregnancy.  I know, they're pregnant for 9 months, and I've only been pregnant for hours at a time.  But they also have their bodies slowly adjust to the 9th month were as I'm going from 0-9 in a matter of minutes.  Maybe my body just is designed to be pregnant or something.

As I continue my quest to find things to do while pregnant, I decided to clean out the refrigerator (and am I ever glad I did.  Couldn't believe some of the stuff I found in the back.)  This of course required lots of squatting.  After a few minutes of squatting my leg muscles were starting to burn with pain.  I thought about kneeling, but that's a lot of weight on my knees on a tile floor.

Speaking of weight, I do feat for some of my furniture.  I weigh 260 lbs. normally (I know that sounds like a lot, but on a 6'5 body, that actually only makes me slightly overweight.)  With the belly on, that puts me at 295 lbs.  My dining room chairs are some old wooden chairs from the early 70's.  maybe even 60's.  I don't think they were designed to even hold that much weight.  The chairs do wobble a bit when I sit in them with the belly.

Remember how I said a couple days ago I feared what a sneeze would be like?  Well I found out.  VERY PAINFUL!  I sharply inhaled about 5 times in an attempt to get enough air in my lungs to sneeze, which of course I couldn't because of the rib belt.  So my body went ahead with the sneeze anyway.  And it seemed like because it knew it didn't have as much air, it forced the sneeze out with much more power.  So my muscles got sore from the sneeze alone, and then add on top the weight of the belly falling into my stomach a bit, plus my body trying to bend forward as sneezing…  well, I just hope I don't make a habit of sneezing while pregnant.

I decided to order some maternity shirts to wear over my belly, mainly so I don't stretch out my regular shirts.  Might not show off every curve of my body, but will probably be more comfortable.  And hopefully a little bit easier to get in and out of.  Because of the wide should straps the belly uses, it's hard for me to lift my arms all the way up to put on and take off t-shirts.  I thought about getting some of the button up maternity shirts, but decided to go with maternity t-shirts because that's more my style.  

In response to Funny Bunny's question about how my back feels after taking off the belly, well it's obviously feels glad that it's shed that 35 pounds.  But I really can't say that the 35 pounds has been causing me problems.  My back has been a little bit sore today, so it's possible that I over did it a bit yesterday.  But I haven't really experiences any back soreness while wearing it unless I'm sitting for a very long time.  But I dfeel it's easier to move around a bit as soon as I take the belly off.  That leads me toa question I've always had about women after they get birth.  Once the soreness for pushing out the baby has passed, why aren't they just jumping around?  They just lost about 10 pounds.  I would think suddenly losing that much would give you a lot more energy.

I got one of those pregnant yoga DVD's from netflix so I'm going to give that a shot this weekend.  I think that's probably going to be one of my biggest challenges yet.

I'm beginning to think that my mind and body are getting used to the belly.  Yesterday afternoon, when I got home from work, I went ahead and put the belly on and decided to do some house cleaning.  I do think I cheated a little bit.  There would be a couple times where I needed to get a paper towel off the floor, and instead of squatting down to do it like most pregnant women would, I actually used my foot to grab it and just pass it up to my hand.  So, yes that meant standing on one foot.  I can actually do that quite well.  Balance has not been a problem for me at all since wearing this.

I've now got pillows arranged on my couch now so that I can sit there comfortable.  It's basically a reclining position.  While watching a bit of tv yesterday while reclining on the couch, I actually felt fat.  The extra girth in the front is now actually beginning to effect my self-image.  I felt large and bulky.  Not that I was wearing something that made me large and bulky, but I really did start to associate it with myself.

I had chicken for dinner last night.  Why is that important, well, it meant actually using a knife and fork to eat instead of finger food like the french bread pizza.  So as a result, I couldn't use my breasts as a tray for the plate.  Was weird having to cut the chicken with it being so far away from me.  

For whatever reason, I ended up going up and down my stairs a lot more often than normal last night.  It got to the point where my legs were just getting worn out.  

Due to the weather here, I was constantly getting calls from work.  It was odd talking to my boss over the phone while pregnant.  

I decided to try sleeping with the belly on last night.  While I'm still having regular sleep problems, I felt that I was so tired last night that if there was ever a night I could sleep with it on, it was last night.  Plus, I have to admit I was actually comfortable with it on.  After shifting pilows and blankets around, I finally came across a comfortable position.  Again, I had the initial problem of falling asleep as every time I started to, I would snore loud enough to wake myself up.  I know many pregnant women snore, but loud enough to wake themselves up?  After sleeping about an hour, my body tried to role over.  Not easy with a 35 pound belly.  So I of course woke up.  I rolled over, rearranged some pillows and blankets and went back to sleep.  Some time later, I ended up rolling onto my back.  I think I woke up when I did that.  Not entirely sure.  Not pregnant women can't lie flat on their backs because the weight of the uterus presses against an artery and stops blood flow, so I apologize for being able to do something pregnant women can't.  I was surprised to find out that I could sleep with 35 pounds pressing against my belly.  And of course, during that whole time, I had dreams that I was wearing an empathy belly.  I don't think you need to be Freud to determine the meaning behind that one.  Around 3 am I woke back up decided that it was time to take the belly off and try to get as much sleep as possible before work.  Getting up to take the belly off proved to be quite the challenge. I was lying on my back and very tired and groggy.  It took numerous tries to get myself up.  I think it took me a total of 3 minutes to sit up.  Once I did, I took off the belly and went back to sleep for 2 hours before work called with the latest snow info.  

Please leave comments here.  It's one of the driving reasons why I even keep the blog.  Comment on my experiences (I thought for sure I'd get tons of comments about the ebay idea in the last entry), give me suggestions for things to while pregnant, etc.