In a Heartbeat...

Hell yeah...I'd do it again. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to have another baby...but I'd love to be pregnant again. (Btw...no idea where this post is going, just a couple of thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head while making soups and risotto cakes while alone on a Saturday night. Hang on, kids, it might be a bumpy ride.)

I'm pretty sure that no one who blogstalks me knew me when I was pregnant. I came to Princeton with the kids as a package deal. Admittedly, they were babies when I started there, but I was finished having kids when I started at good ol' PHS. I don't want to raise another kid, but I really dug it when I was pregnant. In fact, I get a little irritated with women who wish their pregnancies away so they can drink again or so their ankles will unswell - not the pre-eclamsia kind though, that's serious stuff.

See...I loved it. It's an amazing thing to have an actual living being inside of you. I was awe-struck both times I felt the kids move for the first time. The oldest used to scare me every once and a while and wouldn't move noticably for the day, so I'd have to lay down on the couch and count his kicks to make sure there were 10 in an hour and everything was okay. (Sometimes I'd pretend I needed to do the kick counts so I could lay on the couch and make my husband bring me ice cream, in retrospect, I'm glad I did that because there wasn't any time for stuff like that when I was pregnant with the little one)


I remember being about three to four weeks away from delivering the little one and going to lunch with my parents. My dad had chosen a booth for the three of us and it was a bit of a tight squeeze for me to get in there. Kinda comical, actually...and my dad commented that I must be excited to have the baby and be done with pregancy. I told him I was kind of 50/50 about the whole deal. I had already decided at the time that the little one was going to be the last one, so I was kind of enjoying the pregancy. I really wasn't looking forward to delivery because I knew I'd never pregnant again...and it made me sad.

I think this has been on my mind lately because I get to teach the unit on reproduction and pregnancy and I get all nostalgic about my pregnancies and my deliveries...heck, I've even considered surrogacy if I didn't think my BOE would possibly object to it...

I think another reason it bothers me is because being pregnant is typically associated with being young...and even though if I got pregnant right now I'd hardly be the oldest pregnant woman in the history of the world (my mom would have me beat by 3 years), it would still turn heads and get a laugh during little league games this summer.

So...I guess I'll close with this little piece of whatever for the girls that check out my sage wisdom (and for the boys who will one day have wives lamenting their pregnant fate and wishing it away)remember, if you're dealing with a healthy pregnancy, enjoy it. You're experiencing a miracle, or as close to one as we'll ever experience on earth. Nine months isn't that long of a time to devote your body to the life of your kid, it will be over before you know it. Take care of yourself and enjoy the long, strong nails and shiny thick hair courtesy of those prenatal vitamins. Prenatal vitamins you can't get without a prescription, even if you teach kids of a pharmacist for 4 years in a row. Man...I remember one time I got my finger stuck in a grocery cart and had to wrench it out of there and my nail didn't even freaking chip. Those nails could have been used as screw drivers...

Enjoy the movements of the baby...deal with the indigestion, deal with the swollen ankles and the pregnant nose...a real live baby is growing inside of you. Also remember, there are LOTS of women who can't conceive or who don't want their babies or won't be able to give their baby as great a life as the people who frequent this blog will.

Okay...I'm finished. Just be glad you're not the little one. I'll be all over her when she's on her way to motherhood - let's just hope we're at least 15 years away from that happening...

jeesh...