Pregnancy Comments: Vote for Your Least Favorite!

So, which of these three is the most annoying?

• "You haven't had the baby yet?!" and/or "You haven't popped yet?" Um, no, I haven't. That much is obvious. Plus, I just hit the two weeks before ETA yesterday. To have had it before then would have been a statistical anomaly (95% of women birth between 38 and 42 weeks). But when I do, I imagine that the verb "popping" will not come all that much into play.
• "You're going to go late." Why would anyone say that? They don't know. Granted, I don't either. But to say it when there's no way of knowing is just mean.
• "You're so big/fat/huge!" Well, one day I will have the baby and won't be fat anymore. But you'll still be rude and insensitive.

I'm also not a fan of "How are you feeling?" but think that the question is most of the time very well-intentioned, unlike some of the above statements.

Favorite comment, even if it's a lie: some variation of "You look great!" or "You're doing great!"

Ash Wednesday

Kid: Why are we doing this? (this = getting the ash crosses on the head)
Grown-up: So we can remember that we will die and that Jesus loves us.
Kid: We should just watch a movie. People would remember it better.

random thoughts of pregnancy and such

i dreamt i was going to have the baby today (feb 20) a few weeks ago. that same night, i also dreamed that the baby was a water bottle. i couldn't tell if the baby/water bottle was hot or cold (water bottles' emotions are hard to read), but i decided it was hot, so i put it in a water fountain in paris to cool it off. all of that is a way of saying that i'm wary of the predictive properties of my dreams. good thing, as it's now 9 p.m., and no baby.

overall, i'm uncomfortable, though apparently not nearly as uncomfortable as many people are at this point, from the comments i'm getting.

i try hard not to stay attached to the due date, b/c it means basically nothing as a date in and of itself. i've figured out why it's hard not to become attached to it-- everyone asks you every 2.4 seconds when you're due when you're this pregnant. every time i say "march 11," i feel a little "march 11" groove being made in my brain, setting me up for disappointment if i'm late and making me feel like i somewhat panicy about the baby coming somewhat early.

i'm ready to be a giant contradiction on ash wednesday. i wonder if anyone will consider the irony of a very pregnant woman smearing ashes on his/her forehead. well, i'll get a kick out of it, if nothing else.

and that's that.

I woke up this morning with a start, realizing that if someone asked me to diaper a child then and there, I couldn't do it, at least not well. This is what I get for being the youngest of the youngest. I need to dig back out some books. I suppose I'll be getting a lot of practice soon enough. And I'm guessing very few children have ever died from improper diapering.

I'm in the midst of shower land. My dad's wife threw me a shower in their hometown last Saturday, and the church's is this Saturday. I'm not wild about sitting around opening present after present after present, but man, particularly after having to buy an engine for the car, we need help.

People keep joking about the baby being early. This is not yet funny, any child I would bear right now would go straight to NICU and not come out for weeks.

In other not funny news, a parishioner told me I was getting a double chin. I said, "I can't believe you'd say that to me." He's lucky I didn't call him a jerk... or worse.

I have a friend officiating at her father's funeral today. To make things extra less complicated, she's actually never officiating at a funeral before, and it's not in her tradition either.

I don't think I'm going to be doing the book thing this year. I reached my goal last year--hoorah! I am on good reads, and will probably be keeping that up for anyone who cares.

Bring a dish/appetizer/dessert to share.

In normal time, I don't really mind this request. However, I find it really annoying this time of year, simply because I just can't keep up. I've skipped a few things simply because I don't have the energy to come up with anything to bring, let alone make it. There are or will be seven events in 2.5 weeks that fall into this category. Two thoughts about the two that are left:

1. Ghiradelli (I can't spell) brownie mix
2. Various wonderings about if it's possible to somehow use the Annual Christmas Deluge of Parishioner Foodstuffs in this capacity without too many ramifications.

Pictured is the Mr's Sour Cream Pound Cake... Yum!
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Book #51: The First Christmas, Borg and Crossman. It's pretty good. I read it and realized how little I know about Roman history and mythology (or, rather, how much they know). Also helpful for Advent 4/Annuniciation sermons, First Sunday after Christmas sermons (chapter on archetype on light and darkness), and Second Sunday after Christmas sermons (massacre and/or magi).

I have a draft of The Christmas Eve sermon. It's a little wordy, but now I have something to revise, which is infinitely easier than pulling something out of my brain in the first place.

Book #52: The Audacity of Hope, Obama. He definitely wrote this; he writes just how he talks. I enjoyed reading it. It was sitting in my in-laws' living room over Thanksgiving, and I was pretty sure they weren't actually reading it but just had it out for show. I borrowed it, in partial passive aggressive retailiation for this incident. My suspicisons have been confirmed; they would be asking about it if they missed it.

Book #53: The Wonder Years. AAP's thoughts of different facets of childhood development.

I'm now reading Birthing from Within.
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I feel better, mainly due to readjusted expectations. I'm now wearing this wildly attractive item, whose usefulness outweighs its annoyingness, much to my dismay. Don't be jealous. The way this model is... modeling this reminds me of the guy in my high school ballet class who accidentally wore his dance belt (think ballet jock strap) over instead of under his tights.

I've started feeling faint, short of breath, and generally exhausted. I called the OB this morning, and apparently the blood work they did on me last week was all normal, which I suppose means there's nothing wrong with me other than the fact that I'm pregnant. Crap. I was really hoping they could just give me some iron pills or something.

I have lots to do today. I can't seem to remember what I have to do, except for my 10:30 and 12 noon appointments-- the only two I managed to write down.

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The Mr's Dad: "The Mr can't borrow that book (on the father's role in childhood development) yet, because I want to read it."
me: "Are you kidding?"
MD: "No."
me: "So you're going to read a book in the next month or two hat you've had for the past thirty years but still haven't read for a job you've already done."
MD: "Yeah."
me: "Right."

It was probably written at the earliest in the 70s anyhow and thus is ridiculously dated. But still.

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Book #50: Taking Care of Your Baby and Young Child, Ages 0-5, AAP. It's hard to judge things that I don't know much about yet. Guess I'm about to get a crash course in about 14 weeks or so, give or take a few.