I am having a very strong and somewhat unbalanced urge to wear a fake pregnant belly.
I have two good friends right now who are pregnant and due this summer. My cousin H. is due in July, and my friend D. is due in September. I feel a kinship with them that isn't 100% rational. If you know me, you know that my pregnancy was bad news from the get-go and I really didn't enjoy much of it. Lousy pregnancy coupled with The Worst Labor and Delivery Ever. Period. was enough to give us that last little leg up and we climbed over the fence and began to frolic with the international adoption community. We were wandering over that way anyway.
Anyway, I've been pregnant and I have the pictures to prove it. The girls got extra large and my belly got much bigger than I ever thought possible and there was the usual poking from the inside. E. was a good sized baby with an enormous head (still enormous, it's genetic, poor guy) and I labored and cried and had a c-section and then we met E. and all was forgiven. I am not at all sad that I will never be pregnant again. In fact I took matters into my own hands to ensure that it would be so.
But. My new baby will be arriving home around the same time as the new babies of my friends. (Of course she will be at least 9 months old and already sleeping through the night, but those are just details. Wonderful, miraculous details.) I want my friends to be my pseudo-pregnancy buddies and as such I feel it is only right and fitting that I too am unable to bend over or see my feet or sleep on my stomach, as a show of solidarity. So I am contemplating an empathy belly. Suitable for teens, men and women alike. I can probably handle the weight gain of 30 pounds all by myself, but why deprive myself of the shortness of breath, bladder pressure, low back aches, and irritability? (I'm a little foggy on how the belly simulates true gestational irritability but here's a cheer for trying!)
We are about 14 weeks into our pseudo pregnancy. It wouldn't be time for the belly quite yet, but in another month or so... Perhaps it's best to content myself with the "I'm going to China soon to adopt my daughter but all I've got now is this lousy t-shirt" or something along those lines.
Posted by grrlTravels at January 13, 2005 3:38 PMSleeping through the night...hahaha, you're kidding right? I can't even get my almost 2 year old to sleep through the night.
I am with you on the not really caring to be pregnant again. I have been there, done that, and am more than happy to add our next child via adoption.
Congratulations on the pseudopregnancy. I heard it gets better after the first trimester.
Posted by: Amber at January 13, 2005 11:07 PM