I always feared having a summer due date. Especially the end of summer. When we talked about getting pregnant, I thought I’d want to avoid having my 3rd trimester in height of the summer, no matter what.

As we know, we make plans and God laughs. So, here I am. July. 32 weeks pregnant with twins. My “due date” (such that it is) is August 31st. Riiight.

It’s not that I dislike summer. I mean really, who could hate summer? It’s sunny, warm, cheery, relaxed, and filled with grilled meat and popsicles. These are all good things. But in all honesty, I just don’t deal well with the heat. Never have. For one thing, I sweat. Can’t help it. Deodorant can only go so far. And a characteristic inherited from my mom’s whole family is the sweaty upper lip. As soon as it gets warm, we’re all a little damp under the nose. What can you do? In short, as nice as the warmth is, I get pretty uncomfortable in heat over the mid-80s. My dad loves the 110-degree days in Palm Springs, but not me. So, naturally, I thought the prospect of having all of this extra weight and discomfort during the hottest time of year sounded like a death sentence.

And frankly, the three 90+ degree days we’ve had here in Massachusetts have been particularly rough. I leave the air-conditioned splendor of my office, and within 45 minutes of arriving home, I have completely wilted. Any remaining drop of energy has been sucked right out of me. I climb up to our room (where our a/c unit resides, thankfully) and call it an early bedtime. We’ve got two more of those days coming tomorrow and Monday, and I’m not looking forward to it.

That said, I have discovered that there are, indeed, several positive things about being super-pregnant in the middle of the summer. As I’m trying to look on the bright side, here they are:

1. Work schedule – This has worked out more perfectly than I could have predicted. Since I work in higher education, you’d think it would be ideal to have a due date around graduation and just be gone the whole summer (which is what would have happened if my last pregnancy had worked out). There are a few problems with that logic, though. For one, since I’m not really planning on going back to work, this would have put my coworkers in the very difficult position of suddenly scrambling to hire someone at the busiest time of year. The fact that I’m guaranteed to be out for the majority of the fall semester just makes planning that much easier. PLUS, since work is extremely quiet in the summer, it’s a good time of year to have limited productivity. As I’m finding myself easily distracted and frequently tired, it’s good that I don’t have too many important things going on (like, say, graduation).
2. Maternity Clothes – This ties into my job, to an extent, since I work in a very casual environment. But it’s pretty nice to be able to spend most days in shorts or a skirt and some variety of t-shirt. I can also get away with frequent wearings, since summer is inherently more casual. I don’t need a bunch of dress pants, button down shirts, or sweaters. Not to mention an actual warm jacket. No, by the time I started to outgrow my fleece jacket, the temperatures were cooperating as well. I love that the maternity clothes I need are light, easy, and pretty darn inexpensive. Oh, and I wear flip-flops every day. Which is good, since they’re the only shoes that fit.
3. Food – Normally, I love too cook almost every night. As you might imagine, however, that has fallen off dramatically as the pregnancy progresses. I just don’t have the energy, after I get home, to do all of that chopping and prepping and maintenance. And while that’s really too bad in some ways, it’s at least easier to get away with in the summer. We do get takeout a bit too frequently, but because it’s nice out, we manage to just throw things on the grill more nights than not. This is good on all fronts. Certainly, food prep is pretty easy. Maybe make some hamburger patties or a quick marinade, but mostly you take the piece of meat and put it over the fire. This also helps by creating minimal cleanup after the fact, which is always a plus, as well as keeps the kitchen relatively cool since we aren’t turning on the oven as often. Yep, most nights at our house involve hamburgers, chicken thighs, or bratwurst. And maybe some nice, fresh corn. Not too shabby. Also nice that there are plenty of tasty fruits in season.
4. Ice cream – Yes, it gets it’s own listing, separate from just plain food. I’m a big ice cream fan, all year round. But when summer nears, I bust out my Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker at least once a week. Why? One word: strawberries. There is nothing quite so divine as homemade fresh strawberry ice cream. Strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, milk, and cream. That’s it. YUM. I’ve also branched out and made peach, chocolate (which was tricky, but I’ve got it down), and my new favorite: chocolate banana. Fresh ice cream is the best. Easy to make, ridiculously tasty… and calcium! I swear, I’m supposed to have more calcium!

So yes, the heat drains what little energy I have remaining, and helps my feet reach new and terrifying dimensions. But I’m learning it’s not all bad. There are definite perks to being pregnant in the summer.