Feet

During my entire pregnancy folks at work and friends all around me kept suggesting over and over again that I should get a pedicure, a massage or something for myself. I finally got around to doing just that the last week of being pregnant.

The week Declan was born I had a pedicure, got my hair cut and had a prenatal massage.

The pedicure: per a friend's recommendation I went to a salon I had never been to before. I scheduled the appointment and was desperately looking forward to it for over two weeks.

You see, since week 34 my ankles and feet had become one giant loaf of puffy pregnant flesh. It was gross. It was painful. It was incredibly uncomfortable. Walking hurt and even bending my toes in any direction hurt. I was forced to wear my flip flops because they were the only 'shoes' that fit. My skin was so tight that it actually had developed this bright pink/red tone to it on my shins and hurt to the touch. What made it worse was, with all the added weight I had gained, my left foot that had been broken last year KILLED me when walking. Overall, it was a miserable last 6 weeks in the lower leg department. Everything else was fine though.

Anyways... my midwives had recommended that Aaron do this special massage on my feet and shin/calf area to help with the swelling and move the fluid back UP. It was this real quick, barely touch motion that had to be quick with not too much pressure. Once Aaron got the hang of it, I was able to get some relief for a few hours at night. Going into the pedicure I thought, "Hmm... I hope they know how to massage swollen pregnant feet." How silly of me!

I started out in the typical situation, sitting upright in a massaging chair with my feet soaking in warm water. Now, normally I enjoy HOT water... but not right now with my feet all sore and achy. Therefore I didn't mind the fact this water was luke warm. Then each foot was hardly scrubbed and the cuticles were cut and nails were trimmed. The whole 'manicure' process barely lasted 10 minutes. Then she whipped out some scrub and began intensely rubbing on my lower legs. HOLY crap fire that hurt! I felt like someone had put liquid fire right on my legs and kept rubbing it in. I didn't flat out cry, but I teared up quite a bit. I didn't want to say anything because I figured she would notice how red and irritated they had become since putting the scrub on. Uh, no. Thankfully that didn't last too long and before I knew it the lotion was vigorously being rubbed in to soothe the inflamed skin.

Here's where people who have jobs involving feet - should know about feet.

The proceeded to give my lower legs and feet a normal foot massage. Ya know, one where they move the fingers around and around going top to bottom and bottom to top, not really doing anything but moving the skin/muscle around. This lasted for about 10 minutes and in the end, my feet ended up in worse shape than when I first arrived. They were even more swollen (if that was possible) and now irritated from having been scrubbed and rubbed the wrong way. You see, if a person is giving a pregnant woman a foot massage and she has obvious swelling - the muscles should barely be touched and the skin should be treated with that light, movement I mentioned before that the midwife showed me. The fluid needs to be moved back UP. And you should actually LOOK at the skin before you put some chemical on it. My point - treat a pregnant chick's feet with care because they are incredibly sensitive!

In the end, I gave a small tip and thanked them for my beautiful paint job. I got this cute little design on each big toe. Now - had I actually thought about the process before scheduling the appointment, I would have just sucked it up and gone to a better place. A couple years ago I went to a salon for a friends birthday and had some reflexology done along with an ion-cleanse treatment. It was amazing. I felt like I had a facial and done 2 days of yoga when I was done. Pricey - yes. But well worth it.

Lesson learned. If I want a fancy toe design painted on my toenails - I'll go to this place. If I want to have my feet pampered - I will go to a place that knows a thing or two about some feet.