Well, last week I complained about gaining 20 lbs, so you shouldn't be surprised about this topic. Today at work I encountered a coworker
who was also pregnant! Wahoo, right? There’s nothing better than experiencing
that “we’re in this together!” feeling…most of the time. An example of a time
when there is something better than experiencing this feeling is when you
compare due dates (me: Dec. 5th; coworker: Dec. 8th) and
realize that WHOA BABY, YOUR BABY BUMP IS HUGE! I mean this tiny little woman
standing next to me was not even showing. I’m not exaggerating. You couldn’t
tell she was pregnant. I’ve been wearing maternity clothes since I was 10 weeks
along! (I’m lying…more like 8 weeks. I like maternity clothes! I have a lot of
them that are really cute and elastic waistbands are just comfortable when you
are busy trying not to vomit/growing a human being with your own body). Anyway,
there I stood, in a high traffic area of the office (top of the stairway),
feeling LIKE A HUGE PREGNANT COW. She was just so tiny! It’s such a frustrating
feeling and I think most pregnant mamas experience this. One day someone tells
you “You’re barely showing! You are just so very tiny!” and the next day
someone asks “How many babies are in there?!” while you are getting a pedicure.
And in your pregnant mama head you are thinking, “REALLY?! I MEAN REALLY?! GO
AWAY. AND THEN COME BACK WITH A CHURRO IN YOUR HAND!” I’m sure I’ve
(accidentally) made pregnant women feel this way myself. Pregnancy is such an
amazing miracle and most people can barely wrap their head around the fact that
there is a little baby growing inside of you. With a heart and lungs and arms
and legs and fingers and toes. Demanding to be fed (so he/she can grow!),
kicking at random times, disrupting your sleep with backaches and leg cramps,
and melting your heart as you imagine what he/she will look like, and be like,
and act like. Because most people can’t wrap their head around this crazy,
amazing miracle, they say ridiculous things, right?
Anyway, back to my exciting afternoon experience with my
coworker. While I stood there, feeling huge, we transitioned into my second
favorite pregnancy topic. Discussing my baby #1, Jack. Don’t get me wrong, I
loveeee talking about Jack. What I don’t enjoy talking about is how “CRAZY!”
people think it is that we already have baby #2 on the way since baby #1 is so
young. Enter coworker’s monologue about how she can’t even imagine having two
kids so close together, and isn’t her daughter a lot older than my son (but
we’re both equally pregnant so that can’t possibly be the case, she surmises),
and what will my son even do when the new baby arrives?! Blah blah blah. I normally just try to end this type of
conversation quickly by saying (with a big, fat, genuine smile on my face) that
we are VERY EXCITED that we’ve been blessed with two babies. Because we are. Jack
is a bigger blessing than I ever could have imagined. And so is this next little
one!
On that note, I was really grateful that she didn’t
transition to my next least favorite topic…what this next little one (baby #2)
will be like. Since Jack was a perfect angel baby, who rarely cried, nursed
like a champ (evidenced by rolls upon rolls on his sweet chubby baby body!),
slept through the night from 8 weeks on, and was/is pretty much content 95% of
the time…most people we encounter like to share with us that they think we are in for a big surprise
with this next baby. (Because they know?!) And no way would we be blessed with another perfect angel
baby. And no way are we just hardworking/loving/attentive parents who will
figure it out no matter what happens. Nope…we got lucky with Jack, but that only happens
once (according to them) so we better be prepared for an
earthquake/tornado/hurricane of a child with this next arrival. I never really know
what to say except, “Yeah. I guess we’ll see!” Because who knows what this little
baby will be like? Easy or colicky, crabby or sweet-natured, bald or full head
of hair, chubby or skinny – we will love this baby so much that it hurts, just
like we did and do with Jack. And we’ll get through the tough times and the
great times and we’ll probably look back on the months when we had two kids
under two years old and say “Whewww weee! That was wild!” and then hopefully we’ll
smile and laugh and maybe drink a big fat glass of wine while we
reminisce about the day that our family went from 3 to 4. :)
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| Baby #2 - currently the size of spaghetti squash. I mean where on your body can you hide a spaghetti squash if you don't have a big, fat baby bump? |
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