So as noted, I've been pretty stressed lately, and have a lot of statistically good reasons for being as such ;) Marriage, pregnancy, and moving tend all make it near the top of the most stressful life events pages.

Interestingly, none of these seem to stress Patri very much at all (at least yet ;) and for myself I would actually rank them in the reverse of what it appears most people do.

While planning and preparing for the ceremony was stressful, especially when it came down to the last minute, overall getting married didn't seem all that stressful on the scale of things. I imagine this is for three reasons:

1. We had a pretty mellow wedding as weddings go. I've heard that there were stories going around afterward about how impressed people were with this, which I found amusing as I had not felt like I was being particularly mellow ;) One story which I caught second hand I think originated from tigresa. Apparently she asked me when the caterer was arriving, and I said something like "I'm not sure, but she's a professional and she'll be there in plenty of time." Apparently it is very unbride-like not to be concerned about such details.
2. I don't think either Patri or I felt that actually "getting married" was a big deal. It was simply a public declaration of what we'd long ago decided, so since the ceremony itself was only symbolic of the real commitment, it wasn't stressful at all from a commitment standpoint.
3. We had zero family related stress: my family wasn't there, and his twenty family members were all mellow and helpful, with the largest demand made on us a request to know what they should wear ;)

Pregnancy is definitely stressful, and is second down on those lists from marriage. I worry about all kinds of things all the time. Currently mostly things related to how what I do might effect the baby and/or birth. Making sure I take my vitamins twice a day, that they're the right vitamins, that I'm eating well enough, exercising, and much more. And of course, there are all the wacky body changes, books I need to read, switching care providers half way through, making sure I get a good midwife, and preparing to actually have a baby and take care of it!

I think moving is the most stressful right now. This is probably largely related to just how large an endeavor this move will be! The group house I'm living at is looking into moving to a larger location, and at least doubling, possibly even quadrupling or more our community size. So there's just a lot involved, socially, economically, time wise, money wise, so many possibilities! And I tend to worry about details, and there are just so many details that even I hardly know where to start ;) And we have only just started...

However, all of these are things I really want and think will be well worth the stress. As I explained to Patri, in my case, I think the stress is because I'm thinking about them all a lot, and for me, thinking about entails a fair bit of worrying ;) But these are statistically unusually stressful times for a normal person as well as myself, and I will mellow back out... at least to my usual level of stress ;)

As I explained to him, while I do worry more than I think ideal, this is a good time for me to be thinking about and considering concerns, because its a time where I can have an impact on what happens. If I can circumvent big problems now with some short term stress it will save a lot of stress and/or make things better over the long run.

I'm still working on trying to keep my stress level as low as I can, since high stress levels are not good for the growing baby or myself. But really, even considering all of this, I don't think my stress levels are super high for me on a lifetime scale. I'm pretty happy with where I am in life, and am optimistic about the future despite my too often expressed pessimism these days ;) And my husband really helps me mellow out a lot. While I often stress about things that I think might damage our relationship, that is because I love him and he makes me so happy :) He's also very good at helping me put problems into perspective, and his calmness in facing challenging (to me ;) life events helps me unwind.