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November 21, 2008
Pardon my crankiness
Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that I love babies. There is nothing I love better than having a tiny infant in the house to hold, nurse, snuggle with and just generally have around. Almost equal to my love of infants is my irritation with being pregnant. I never feel well, I have a whole host of ailments the entire time such as low iron, nausea, aches and pains, MAJOR shortness of breath (which this time around is actually a re-occurrence of my childhood asthma requiring an inhaler, something I haven't had to use since I was probably 15 years old...yippee!), and just a general feeling of yuckiness. No, I truly do not like being pregnant nor do I understand when some women say they "love" being pregnant. Granted, it is punctuated by cool moments such as watching your belly move, hearing the heartbeat at appointments, and seeing that little human in an ultrasound. But still, for me, it is merely a means to an end....something to tolerate so that I can get my hands on that perfect, snuggly little baby. Here is a picture of each of my babies on the day they were born...can you blame me for going through the pregnancy to get to this???
But the one thing that bothers me the most is everyone's need to comment. And I don't mean friends and acquaintances...I mean perfect strangers. It seems that my low tolerance of these comments grows exponentially with each pregnancy so that this time around I literally have to walk away to keep from lunging at people sometimes. I just have to wonder, what the heck are people thinking when they say some of the things they say??? So far, in my 22 weeks of being pregnant, I have already experienced quite a range of comments from simple curiosity (When are you due? What are you having? Is this your first?) to what I consider to be genuinely rude comments such as "Oh, another boy? Did you want a girl?" Now how am I supposed to answer that, really? Not that I really care about the sex of the baby, but seriously, do you think I'm going to say to a complete stranger "Yeah, we're really disappointed. I can't believe we're having another boy....they suck."
Or how about this nice one..."So, WHEN are you due? Really? Are you sure you aren't having twins?" Has this really become a socially acceptable way of saying that my belly is simply too big for polite society? Do people truly think a) that I don't know how many babies are in there and b) that I have some sort of control over how big my belly gets? So, in my defensive state, I have to explain to everyone (although I must admit I am doing this with less and less patience these days) that always carry straight out. It's just the way my body carries a pregnancy and yes, I am sure I'm not having twins. I think one day recently I had this particular conversation three times in one day.
And then there's my personal favorite..."Wow, you are really carrying low!" My goodness, yes, please let's discuss once again this pregnant belly. Yes, I carry low. I did with my first pregnancy and certainly, with each subsequent pregnancy my stomach muscles are a little less able to hold on so things are slightly lower. But let's definitely have a conversation about it, especially after we've had the conversation about how big I am and whether I'm carrying twins without knowing it.
We have added a new one to the mix this time around. Since I pretty much take Jonah and Joshua with me everywhere our presence is often accompanied by sympathetic looks and comments like, "Well, you sure do have your hands full, don't you?" and "Bless your heart, you poor thing". Indeed. Apparently, I'm not very bright and have been duped into having three children. I don't suppose it occurs to many people that I might actually be okay (and dare I say it...HAPPY) with having three children.
So, as I stated in my title, pardon my crankiness. I try not to complain too much, but I just felt the need to get this irritation off my chest. And I do feel better now, so thanks for listening!
And here are some pictures (one from each previous pregnancy) of my too big, too low belly. And, no, I wasn't pregnant with twins either time!
Posted by Jon at November 21, 2008 08:22 PM