21 Reasons Being Pregnant In August Is The Best

Bring on the stone-cold diary, my friends. It's not that you need an excuse to have ice cream (because you don't), but if you want to shut up any annoying relatives or nosey friends, being pregnant in one of the hottest months of the year is a solid reason to indulge in some ice cream or frozen yogurt.

You're too pregnant to travel, or you don't want to be outside for extended periods of time, or you're too tired, or your doctor says you can't stray too far from the hospital. I mean, take your pick. If you want to avoid the family this summer, being pregnant is a solid excuse.

Make no mistake, your "glow" is just a thin layer of sweat. But no one is going to say that. Oh no, while everyone else are just sweat sacks covered in skin, you're a glowing goddess of fertility. Your sweat is "pregnancy sweat," and somehow, for some reason, that's a magical kind of sweat that makes you look like a radiating queen.

You, and only you, need to sit directly in front of the A/C for as long as humanly possible. You, and only you, need all the fans pointed directly at your face. Pregnancy is a great excuse to bogart the air conditioning, other people's comfort be damned.

In my experience, the amount of mocktails avialble in the summer far surpasses the mocktails available in the winter months. You just have a larger swath of beverage choices in the summer, so if you're craving something cold and delicious that doesn't include alcohol, the month of August (and your local grocery store and/or drink server) will provide.

I mean, is there anything more comfortable? Short of going commando, the answer is no. A sundress is every pregnant person's dream, and in August there is no shortage of days in which to wear one. Hell, you can even wear a sundress to the office — no one is going to say otherwise.

In the winter, when I was pregnant, I was covered in layers and it was often difficult for people riding the train to notice that I was carrying a bun in the oven. So no one on the subway was offering up their seat, for example, because they simply couldn't tell.

That's not true in the summer, though. It was painfully obvious I was pregnant, especially in August, and people were very, very quick to help out any way they could. If they were miserable in the heat, they just knew I was incredibly miserable and could use all the available support.

Swollen feet? Well, in the summer that's not an issue at all. Just throw on a pair of flip-flops. No need to try to squeeze your aching trotters into a pair of heels or loafers. Nah, this is flip-flop season, my friends. Embrace it. Love it. Take advantage of it.

I mean, enough said, right?

What is summer, if not a seemingly endless buffet of barbecued treats. From all the charred meat imaginable, to delicious pasta salads, to grilled vegetables, to cold deserts, summertime meals are to die for. And since you're pregnant, chances are people aren't going to raise their self-righteous, judgmental eyebrows your way when you go for seconds.

When you're pregnant, no one is going to look twice when you're setting up this ginormous unicorn sprinkler to survive the heat. No one will care if you spend a good portion of your afternoon in this Aldi whale-shaped pool. And if you think someone is going to say a word when you hang out with this llama float, you've severely underestimated how much you can get away with when you're pregnant in August.

We've already established that pregnancy can be a great "get out of the family reunion" card, but this extends to any traveling whatsoever. You have a reason not to go on that work trip, or a solid excuse to forego that really, really long road trip. If you want to stay home until that baby comes out of your body, no one is going to say otherwise.

I don't know about you, dear reader, but my baby overheating was one of my main concerns as a new mom. And while that fear didn't go away entirely when I had a baby in November, I can tell you that when my first son was born Aug, 6, 2014, I was petrified that the heat was going to hurt him in any way.

There are signs of overheating you can look for, but if you're pregnant in August and not close to giving birth, this is a fear that will probably subside as you enter the fall and winter months.

If you are nearing your due date and about to have an August baby, chances are they'll be a Leo (July 23 - Aug 22). If you do give birth to a baby Leo (like I did), prepare to have a very creative, passionate, and cheerful baby, according to Astrology Zodiac Signs. I might be biased, because my firstborn is a Leo, but these babies are the best: so outgoing, so, so funny, and ridiculously entertaining.

According to Astrologer Amelia Quint, who writes for My Domaine, the dominate trait of a Leo is confidence. These fire signs are self-assured, strong, and organized — traits that, sure, might make a 2- or 3-year-old child difficult, but will benefit any child is the long-run. It's typical for any parent to worry about any child, but if you're in your third trimester in August and ready to give birth, know that you're going to be welcoming a very assertive, powerful, loving baby into the world.

If you give birth to a Leo baby, your baby will be popular, loving, and heart-centered, according to Astrostyle.com. This bodes well for their future leadership abilities, as people will naturally be drawn to them and their personality. Leos excel at delegating, but are also very, very hard workers, so your little one is likely to do well in school, on the playground, and everywhere in between.

I'm sorry, but I'll take the fear of dehydration over the fear of falling any day. In the summer months, I just had to be more aware of the amount of water I was drinking — something I could completely control. But in the winter? With the ice and the cold? The unruly sidewalks? The scary drives on snow-covered roads? Hard pass, my friends. I'll take the heat over the cold any day, if only because I feel much, much safer walking down a blistering sidewalk than I do an ice-covered one.

Try and name one combination more heartwarming than a baby and the holiday season. Go ahead, I dare you. You can't, can you? Of course you can't. It does not exist.

I had a baby in August, and a baby in November, and I can tell you that having a baby closer to the holiday season really, really made that time exponentially more special. He was still so little, so cuddly, and while I wasn't getting any sleep, I just loved having a 1-month-old newborn in my home on Christmas Day. It truly, truly made being super pregnant in August, worth it.

It truly cannot be discussed enough: there's nothing better than a scoop of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Therapy on a hot summer night. You're welcome.

If you do decide to visit the beach while pregnant, no one is going to bug you about doing this thing in the water or that thing in the sand or, well, anything at all. Nah, they're going to live you alone, because you making your way to the beach super pregnant deserves a parade all on its own.

You'll get to sit, relax, maybe wade in the water if that's your jam, and probably leave early without anyone saying anything about it, all because you're rocking that baby bump.

When I was pregnant, I didn't want to hear a single, solitary word about the increase in our electricity bill as the result of our always-on air conditioning. I was growing a human inside my body when it was 98 degrees outside. Reason enough, my friends.

Hey, if you still really hate the whole "being pregnant in the summer thing," at least you can look forward to it being over in no time at all. August marks the end of those blistering days and hot, sweltering nights. So hang in there, mama-to-be. It does get better.