I keep thinking up things I’d like to say on the blog, usually in the middle of the night, and then forgetting them.

Here’s one of the idle things. My shoes don’t fit me any more. There’s a certain amount of swelling that happens while you’re pregnant, and that’s to be expected, but one of the after-effects of the relaxin hormone that allows your skeleton to loosen and accommodate the physical changes required during the pregnancy and delivery is that your skeletal structure doesn’t quite return to its original shape afterwards; it stays a bit looser. And one of the most commonly affected areas is the feet, which isn’t a surprise because you’re carrying however many pounds of yourself around on them. My first pregnancy affected my feet a bit, but the second has had a much more drastic effect. Or maybe it’s just cumulative.

I don’t wear shoes out unless I wear them for about fifteen years. This means I have about six pairs that I wear semi-regularly in rotation, and they’re all in great shape. My feet are hard to fit for shoes to begin with because they are long and narrow, so if I find a shoe that fits the length it’s usually too wide for me. When I get a shoe that I can actually wear I am thrilled and thankful, and even those usually need padding in certain places or some stretching to fit my foot shape. The problem now, though, is that these shoes don’t fit me any more because suddenly the front half of my foot is wider (but the heel area isn’t, which was already a problem before my pregnancies) and a wee bit longer. This fact breaks my heart because my two pairs of red shoes are among them, plus a couple of others I adore but don’t wear often.

So I am researching stretching techniques and trying to remember to find a pair of two-way stretchers in order to salvage my footwear, because I don’t have the money to buy new shoes, I hate shoe shopping to begin with because nothing fits me properly (especially the shoes that I fall in love with), and I have perfectly good shoes in the front hall closet.

I am also somewhat disappointed that my vision, which improved during my pregnancy to the point where wearing my glasses actually gave me a headache and made my vision worse, returned to normal-for-me after Owlet was born. Oh, well. I’ve been using the same prescription for four or five years now, too, so I’m due for a new check-up. If I ever get work again, maybe I will get new frames if my prescription has changed, too.