Hello, week 39! As you can see from the photo above, I’m about to POP! Quite frankly, I’m so over being pregnant and am “ready” to have this baby (as ready as one can be, I suppose). He’s now the size of a watermelon, and trust me, I can tell. His movements have become so uncomfortable because there’s no more room in there! Sometimes my stomach looks all deformed because he’s moving to one side, or maybe sticking out an elbow, and it seems so alien-like. Nonetheless, despite having 1 more week to go, I STILL can’t believe I’m having a baby. I don’t think it will hit until they hand him to me and say, “all yours!” So surreal…
Since my pregnancy is (finally) approaching the end, I thought it would be fun to write about some of the things I learned/observed while being pregnant:
- People think it’s okay to touch your belly. Luckily, I didn’t experience this too much with strangers, but all of a sudden people think there’s free reign to feel up on your belly. You wouldn’t do that to a non-pregnant person; it’s weird.
- Pregnancy brain is real. And from what I’ve heard, it later transforms into mommy brain. I’ve forgotten simple words mid-sentence and just feel dumber.
- People treat you like a fragile flower that’s about to wilt away. Some women may relish and milk this, but to me, it got annoying. People equate pregnancy with being helpless. Yesterday I bought a tiny side table for the nursery from HomeGoods and had placed it in my cart. When I got to the cashier, she gave me the eye and said, “you didn’t lift this yourself, did you?!” It was light, and yes, I did. This was then followed by calling another employee to help “the pregnant lady” to her car. Trust me, people, I’m not out to hurt myself.
- People randomly smile at you. Maybe they’re thinking, “look at the cute pregnant lady waddling down the mall,” I don’t know. I once had a mom who was taking her kids out of the car do a double-look at me in the parking lot and then gave me a knowing smile that seemed to say, “you’re part of the club now.”
- People make offhanded remarks. They’re not ill-intentioned, but they definitely make the preggo lady pause. Some of my personal favorites:
- My Asian dry cleaner as I walk in: “OMG so big!!” What alarmed me was that she wasn’t even looking at my belly as she said this; she was looking at my face. Crap, did my face balloon up along with my belly?! I also couldn’t tell if she was disgusted, shocked, or perhaps both. In any event, it’s not like I woke up that morning feeling skinny. Trust me, my “bigness” is a fact of which I am well aware. But thank you for the reminder.
- Random stranger: “You look like you’re about to pop!” This was when I still had about 5 more weeks to go, which meant I was only going to get bigger. Not popping quite yet.
- Co-worker: “Look at you popping out!” I actually tried to hide this belly of mine today. Fail.
- My contractor: “Are you sure you’re not having twins?!” No comment. Just politely smile.
- Technician at the dentist’s office: “Whoa, you’re going to have a baby any minute!” No shit.
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