Notes on a Pregnancy Part II

It’s amazing how well you are treated when pregnant. Lower back pain, decreased energy levels, uncomfortable sleeping positions, and difficulty in putting on socks/shoes are tolerable when…

- No one lets you lift a thing (and the weight of the item seems to be inconsequential, even if the item is less than 10 lbs)

- Strangers open doors for you with a smile

- People are more wary of your quick, jerky movements than you are (I hear “Don’t run!” numerous times on a weekly basis)

- Doesn’t matter how late you are, when you enter a room, you’re always offered the best seat in the house

- Offers of future cooking and babysitting by church friends because, they say, once the baby comes, you won’t have time to do anything

- Any act of laziness or passivity on my part is easily dismissed by those around me—“Well, you’re pregnant.”

- Any excess or unhealthy calories consumed by me is easily excused by those around me—“Well, you’re pregnant.”

And the most popular questions posed in the past few months regarding the pregnancy:

1. Experiencing any cravings?

None at all. I’ve always craved junk. Pregnancy hasn’t changed anything.

2. Is it a boy or girl?

20-week ultrasound says it’s a boy (can’t turn back—we’ve already got the baby room painted).

3. How are you feeling?

I splurged on baby clothes the other week. I’ve laid the little sleepers and outfits in the baby room. I can’t help but sneak into the room every now and then and stare at the clothes, imagining a tiny body filling them (really, they’re that tiny?). Of course, then I think of labor, and I cringe—the husband seems to have the same reaction too, though his is tinged with pity. (My good friend's five-year-old said to me this past weekend, "When you have your baby—it's going to really hurt...")

Physically—fatigue (final exams aren’t too far away, agh!); Emotionally—excitement mixed with quiet fear of the unknown; Spiritually—perpetual awe of God’s creation and peace when the husband prays with me for our future family.

4. How's Lee feeling about becoming a father?

You’ll have to ask him yourself. But it warms my heart to see him try to interact with the baby (especially when he witnesses the surface of my tummy ripple, sometimes even shift from one side to the other.)

More reasons to marvel at life inside the womb—this is what’s written in my pregnancy book, Conception, Pregnancy & Birth: The Childbirth Bible for Canadian Parents:

“While she is still in your uterus, your baby feels, hears, sees, tastes, responds, and even learns and remembers. She is not, contrary to decades of medical opinion, an inert, unformed, blank personality. She has firm likes and dislikes. She enjoys soothing voices, simple music with a single melody line (lullabies, flue music), rhythmic movements, and feeling you stroke her through your abdomen… Your baby experiences…also your feelings, because our various emotions trigger the release of certain chemicals in our bloodstream: Anger releases adrenalin, fear releases cholamines, elation releases endorphins. These chemicals pass across the placenta to your baby within seconds of your experiencing the corresponding emotion… Babies dislike being exposed to prolonged levels of negative maternal emotions, such as anger, anxiety, or fear…” (192-193)


"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made..." Romans 1:20