You may remember the end of 2021 I was off the air for a few months, that's because I was on maternity leave.  My son is now 5-months old (seriously where is the time going?) and each day I feel like I learn something new.

Most of the things I learn have to do with my son, he's always doing something new and exciting, and I'm learning to keep up with him.  Last night I had to learn how to teach him to eat from a spoon for the first time.  It's just all these little and exciting things that no one really tells you about.

With the exciting things comes some not as exciting things that no one tells you about, like your shoes not fitting.  I had heard that your feet could grow during pregnancy, but I didn't realize it was a permanent state. Turns out, sometimes it is.  I now have a whole closet of shoes that don't fit anymore.

So why do your feet grow during pregnancy?

I took to Google, and Health.com had an answer as to why, it turns out it's all thanks to our hormone friend called relaxin. Health.com explains:

A pregnant body produces the hormone relaxin, which causes your pelvic ligaments and joints to loosen, and also relaxes the ligaments in your feet, allowing the bones to separate a bit. This, plus the fact that your increased weight puts more pressure on your foot arches, causing them to fall, makes your feet grow.

On average, youll go up half a shoe size.

Well, this all makes sense, but I still don't like it! I spent the biggest months of my pregnancy in the summertime (my son was born in September), which the heat also didn't help with swelling. Due to swelling alone, I had to buy shoes an entire size bigger to wear during pregnancy.  I found some cheap canvas slip ons from Target, and I lived in those this past summer.  After Riley was born though, my feet didn't go back.  I now have to buy shoes a half size bigger. I went from a size 7 pre-pregnancy to a 7.5 post-pregnancy.  And I did a whole lot of expanding during pregnancy, here's me 35 weeks pregnant (little did I know, I'd give birth just over a week later)!

Cue the treadmill debacle, and mourning my fancy shoes.

My husband and I have always been active, our favorite type of workout is powerlifting, and we've actually competed before. It's something we really love.  However with an infant, it's been hard to get back into lifting, so we bought a treadmill so we can at least be somewhat active at home. A little over a year ago I bought my first pair of expensive tennis shoes, I splurged and bought my first pair of Brooks! I was so proud of them, and they were hands down worth every penny, the most comfortable shoe I've ever owned.

I pulled them out of my closet the other night so I could hop on my treadmill and get to work, and wouldn't you know they don't fit anymore. I mean I can make it work for now, but it's a tight squeeze and not fun, but I splurged on these! These were my expensive shoes. So now it looks like I'll be treating myself in the near future to a new pair. Half a size bigger.  I'm not sure what's sorer, my pride or my feet.

It's all worth it though.

I'd take the bigger feet and all of the weird body changes that come post-pregnancy to look at this sweet face every day.  He's worth it, he makes everything better.