I absolutely LOVE being pregnant, I really do. I love everything about it: bonding with the growing life inside of me, feeling all of her movements as we go about our day, daydreaming about what she looks like, and most of all my big, round, robust belly. Yes, I love my belly as it grows from the little bump, to the round basketball, to the HUGE ripe watermelon that it is at 36 almost 37 weeks, I love every part of it, emerging stretch marks and all.

What I don’t like is the crazy comments that come from the mouths of strangers that I can’t bring myself to believe are actually well meaning. I mean do people really think about what it is they are saying before they open their mouths to say it?

I have been thinking about this my entire pregnancy and I have been meaning to write about it, but I never did, because I thought it was just me being cranky, hormonal, hungry, and pregnant, but I have heard some things in my late pregnant state that are just ridiculous and now I am convinced that I am not the crazy one (this time that is!).

So here are my top 5 comments that I hear almost every day and remember, maybe I AM sensitive, but goodness, I am chock-full of estrogen, give me a break:

Are you having twins? – Now, this might be understandable when you are in your 9th month, but I have been hearing this since I was 6 months! When I kindly say no with a very hard to create smile on my face, they then say “Are you sure?” or one time this man said “Triplets? Quadruplets?” On Thursday, this young lady actually chased me down to stop me and ask me was I having twins and when I said no and probably gave her the glance of death because it was like 95 degrees outside, she apologetically said “Oh, well, um, sorry, um, you look good though.” WHAT?!

You must be due any day now – OK, now this one is also more tolerable now that I am 37 weeks, but hearing this everyday from let’s say around 26 weeks is a little bit annoying. I can’t possibly be THAT big.

You look like you are about to BUST! (Usually followed by a “ha ha ha!”) – Now this one is probably highest on my “OMG, I can’t believe you just said that to me” list. How in the world do you say this to someone and expect her to take this kindly? I just don’t get it! Firstly, the visual is horrible, I just picture my happy little belly exploding and my sweet baby just flying into space…that’s definitely not the serene vision of birth that I have. Secondly, how BIG is someone/something that it is just about to bust? This one I hear every day without fail. Crazy!

I KNOW you’re hot! / You look HOT! - Why this one annoys me, I can’t really put my finger on it, but it does. Maybe because it is July, so yes I am hot, but isn’t everyone?

Finally, here is the craziest one I ever heard…

This lady POINTED to my belly and said “that looks like it HURTS!” I don’t even have words for this one…

So anyway, I just had to get that off of my chest. People, if you encounter a big, huge, watermelon-bellied, hot-looking, pregnant mom that looks like she is overdue with twins and her belly just hurts like heck for her to carry it, please just smile at her and tell her “you look great mama, keep up the good work!” or something like that and save her from running to her nearest chocolate stash to keep from going crazy…on you that is!

HOT mama who is about to bust although I am not having twins (at least not according to my doctor and the ultrasound tech),
T

OK, so yes, I have seemingly dropped off the earth for the last few months, but I am back and I am bigger and better than ever (and please let me emphasize the BIGGER part!). Let me explain…it goes something like this:

Mommy finds out she is expecting her 2nd baby in late July 2008

Mommy immediately goes into preparation mode for new baby while maintaining her crazy life as mommy, wife, entrepreneur, daughter, friend, everything-to-everybody-except-myself…meaning Mommy is cramming 36 hours into 24 hours while being X weeks pregnant and has no time for anything

Mommy is sentenced to bed-rest by her loving doctor (I guess I needed a vacation?) in order to prevent another premature birth

Type-A, anal-retentive, perfectionist, over-prepared, and over-zealous Mommy-in-panic-mode gets everything on her perpetual To Do list done (including packing 2 very large suitcases for her all-expenses paid trip to the luxurious hospital birthing suite, yes 2 suitcases and working on 3, I know I am crazy, you can say it) and now…

I am back and I am waiting patiently for Baby Girl to arrive!

Oh how I have missed writing and oh how many stories I have to share from this crazy journey that has landed me at 36 weeks, but hopefully I have yet a few more weeks to go and we can definitely play catch-up. I promise you, it will be a riot…

Oh yes, and please remind me to tell you about these suitcases. I absolutely need everything in there, I tell you! Yes, even the bags of dark chocolate Raisinets and Haribo Gummi Bears for energy in labor and the 2 iPods with duplicate playlists with 2 types of speakers AND headphones just so I can be sure that I have my birth music…are you calling me crazy again?

How I’ve missed you all…

Signing off with some Braxton-Hicks,
T

Time goes so fast when you have a baby. I am pretty sure that just last week I was sent home from the hospital with a new born, and now it’s like we have a little person around here. I mean, sure, she’s a little person who poops her pants and can’t get to sleep without help and whose audible communication skills are fussing, crying, and shrieking, with the occasional raspberry and “ba ba ba” thrown in, but still, she is noticeably moving from baby toward toddler. Read the rest of this entry »

Most of the time Brian can calm Adriana when she’s fussing, but sometimes she just cries and cries, and then when I take her she calms right down. Usually I think it’s because she knows that if I am holding her, she is going to get some milk. One night recently, Brian went to Adriana when she first woke up (an hour after I put her down–it’s the most predictable thing about her sleep), but after awhile I went in because she wasn’t calming down. As soon as she was in my arms, the crying stopped, and I sat down to nurse her. Sitting there in the darkened room, I suddenly remembered one evening when she was about a week old. We were eating dinner in shifts because the baby, in spite of a full tummy and a dry diaper, was a bit fussy, and after I finished my soup, I took Adriana from Brian and the crying stopped. She relaxed against me, and I paced the room with her in my arms until she fell asleep. Eventually I sat in the armchair and just held her while she slept. I think it may have been the first time I felt competent as a mother. Read the rest of this entry »

Benjamin has always been the type of baby/toddler that is very happy and content when Mommy is around, but never really wanted to stay and hang out with anyone else. OK, that is an understatement…Benjamin would kick and scream and tear the house down if I even thought about going anywhere without him for one second, so I always included him in everything that I did and that was fine for us. Lately, he has been fine with hanging out with Daddy and Mom-Mom (my mother-in-law) for short periods of time and I think it’s a result of him beginning to attend Montessori school for several mornings each week and also the natural maturity and independence that comes along with turning 2. Of course, I am OK with that, whew, I actually get to eat a meal with two hands and use the bathroom in peace every now and then, and oh goodness, I can take a leisurely shower…this is heaven! I always said that I wouldn’t mind leaving him with other people as long as he is happy and he is so, I am too.

OK, so yesterday evening I had a Junior League meeting and I decided, what the hey, let’s see if Mom-Mom is around, because at the last meeting that I took him to, he was running around the place yelling and screaming and chasing after this dog that was there (someone brought their puppy) and saying “pup-py, pup-py, PUP-py” about 45,668,797 times and frankly, I think I was the only one who thought this was cute (although if the puppy is welcome, I can’t see why the obnoxious toddler isn’t welcome, but I digress) so I wanted to spare everyone of the Benjamin experience. I, being the prepared mother that I am, took him over to Mom-Mom’s house with a thrown together bag with his pajamas and favorite Lightning McQueen bubble bath and some random cars and left him for a fun evening with Mom-Mom.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hi Divas,

Here at Divas N Babes, we are on a quest to find the perfect Mommy tool, you know, Mommy’s Best Friend, the one thing that you could NOT function without. For me, it’s my BlackBerry, I totally have to have all of my tasks and appointments in one place or I will forget them and I need to be able to communicate all of the time, because let’s face it, with a Benjamin (he’s in a toddler category all his own), I do not get much sit-down-at-the-computer email time.

We are planning a Mommy’s Best Friend giveaway for the Holidays so we want to hear from all of the mommies out there…what is the one (or two, or three!) thing that you cannot live without? What makes your lives easier?

Looking to hear from you…

For a while I thought I wasn’t going to handle Adriana growing older well at all. For most of September, she no longer seemed to be the pleasant baby she had once been. She was always cranky, even when we were both well-rested, and that wasn’t very often, as she was waking every hour or two all night long. I missed the easy baby she’d been a couple of months ago–the one who didn’t fuss all the time and wasn’t always getting into things. Read the rest of this entry »

Why didn’t anyone tell me that having a baby would wear me out? Even though Adriana still doesn’t move very quickly, chasing after her is somehow exhausting. We’re slowly childproofing things around here, so that I don’t have to spend the entire time chasing after the baby as she get into the cat’s food, plays with the stereo, pulls the phone off the hook, or heads for the cords under the desk. I spend what seems like a ridiculous amount of time repeating, “Gentle. Pat the kitty gently.” Read the rest of this entry »

I thought about not writing a seven month post. I looked back at the others and thought they were all sappy, sounding like motherhood was all sunshines and rainbows and unicorns, and I was idealizing and romanticizing the whole thing. And then I realized that I shouldn’t not write it, because I do like having some sort of record marking each month, even if it seems that the record is more about my experiences than about actual changes in the baby. I should just write honestly. So: Read the rest of this entry »

As the summer is coming to an end, be sure your final vacation includes a little bit of exercise.  On my last trip with the family, I contacted a local gym and requested a day pass for my entire family and I got it.  Read the rest of this entry »