On Being Pregnant

Being pregnant is really an awesome experience.  There's no real way to explain how cool it is when you feel a little baby kicking in your belly and then get to see pictures of her like this:

Awesome is really the best word to describe it.

Little Sis seems to be growing well so far.  She's breech for now, just like her big sister Lass was, but I'm hoping she'll get herself facing the right way more quickly and easily than Lass did.  We've entered the third trimester and all is going well.  I'm fairly enormous, but that's okay.

I'm used to being enormous.  That's just how I carry a pregnancy I guess.  All way out in front.  It's not uncommon for me to look more pregnant at 6 months than many other people do when they deliver.  It's no biggie.  It's just the way I work.  It is funny though, as wonderful as pregnancy is, it also is an odd experience in terms of how it changes the way people treat you.  Of course there are always the ubiquitous "How have you been feeling?" "How far along are you?" and "Everything is going well, I hope?" questions and comments from friends and strangers alike.  People tend to be concerned with and interested in pregnant women, and this interest is very well-meaning, kind, and harmless.

However, there are times when I swear I must be wearing a sign on my forehead that says, "Hi, I'm Amy.  I'm pregnant.  Feel free to ask me very personal questions about my personal choices and bodily functions, tell me your worst labor and delivery horror stories, comment on how huge or small you think my belly is according to your idea of what size I should be, and/or give me unsolicited advice.  And sure, go ahead and rub my belly while you're at it."  Seriously.  Anyone with me here?  Here is just a small sample of some of the things that have been said to me or to others I know:

"Geez!  Did you mean to have them that close together???" - Said to me in a somewhat snide tone by a nurse practitioner after she asked me about my children's ages during an office visit.

"Oh my gosh!  You gained 10 pounds in a month?!?!  Wow, that's a lot." - Said to me by a medical assistant after taking my weight during a routine doctor's appointment when I was pregnant with Miss (I then heard her whispering to my doctor outside the door about how terrible my weight gain was.  To her credit, my doc never said a word to me about it).

"Wow, my daughter-in-law is at the hospital today delivering twins, and you're as big as she is!!!" - Said to a friend of mine when she was about 6-7 months pregnant.

"You still have three months to go??  Wow, you look like you're ready to pop now!" - Said to me this past weekend.

"Are you sure you don't have gestational diabetes?  I had that, and you look like you do." - Said to a friend of mine.

"You'd better be planning to breastfeed that baby." - Said to me by a total stranger in the grocery store when I was pregnant with Miss.

And my personal favorite:
"One on board and another in the oven???  Um, you do know how that happens, right?" - Said to me by a total stranger when I was pregnant with Lass and carrying Miss in a sling above my belly.  I have to say though, this wasn't as bad as my friend who heard, "You do know how that happens, right?" from an OB/GYN resident doctor while she was in labor with her third child.

And then there's the belly rubbing.  I hardly ever get belly rubs from people I am close to, but those belly rubs don't bother me anyway.  It's the people who are strangers or acquaintances who don't just rub or pat the belly but kind of, well stroke it, for lack of a better description.  I mean, that's weird, right?  Fortunately this has only happened to me twice.  Once by a friend of a friend, who started rubbing my belly right after she was introduced to me.  And then another time by an acquaintance who noticed I was pregnant very early on with Sis and started rubbing my relatively small belly as she commented about how exciting it was that I'm pregnant again.  This is not only weird, but risky too, don't you think?  We hadn't really announced that we were expecting, and I wasn't that big yet.  What if I was just gaining weight?  Very risky.  And weird.

Now, I know that for the most part the people who make odd and sometimes inappropriate comments to pregnant women are probably not trying to be offensive.  And usually I'm not even really offended by the comments (except the weight one, that one had me in tears).  I just think they're kind of funny and like a little puzzling social phenomenon - The "say anything" and "touch freely" policies that often seem to surround a pregnant woman.  I'm not the only person who has experienced this, and I've had many laughs with friends about the crazy things people will say to a pregnant woman.  I think people mostly are just interested in pregnancy and want to or feel like they should say something to a pregnant lady to show their interest.  Maybe.  It truly doesn't matter much anyway, as it's such a tiny part of the nine-month wonder of pregnancy.  But it does make me chuckle a little.  I love being pregnant.