Pregnancy Marathon

(Picture from our ultrasound.  Baby is leaning her head onto the left side of the picture with a hand in front of her face - camera shy just like her dad!)

I will be the first to admit, I am not a “WOO” girl – a person who publicly exclaims excitement and joy when something wonderful happens to them.  And that applies to my pregnancy too – I smiled when I heard the heartbeat, cried tears of joy when I saw the baby during the ultrasound, and was excited to share our baby news.  But I had to spread the news out over several days/weeks because my face got tired of holding a smile as I said the same thing over and over, got the same response over and over, and answered the same questions over and over.  I think an experience like being pregnant is much more personal than public – I prefer to save up my excitement for my husband, kissing and giggling while cuddling in bed.

So don’t get me wrong, I am VERY happy and thankful that I can be and currently am pregnant.  But I am also very annoyed at the silly people that brag about how wonderful being pregnant is.  Usually, these people are ladies who are mere acquaintances to me and who’s eggs are much past their expiration date.  Sure, feeling the baby move is a cool experience but really, being poked from the INSIDE I wouldn’t classify as “wonderful”.  If you want to get poked, I will show you a good poke!  I thought it was me, maybe I am just not motherly.  Really though, it is hard to be motherly to a “stomach” -- give me a real baby and I will mother the hell out of that thing :-)  

So I have decided its not my problem – it is everyone else’s problem!!  And I have likened it to the following analogy =  pregnancy is like running a marathon.

Like a marathon, not everyone has the ability to do it, you are thankful that you have the health to be able to do it, some people choose never to do it, but really any idiot can do it. And like a marathon, you have a lot of anticipation and excitement leading up to it, overwhelming joy and pride at the end of it, but a lot of hell in-between which makes you think twice about ever doing it again.  Imagine a person who competed a marathon (YEARS prior) was riding in a golf cart next to you as you were running your own marathon and they were telling you how WONDERFUL it is.  Not a "You can do it" or "You are doing great" type of comment, but more like "Isn't that an awesome burn you are feeling???"  If you are like me, you may consider (if you had the energy) smacking them, throwing something at them, or some other equally deserved assault.  More likely, however, you would just try to smile, ignore them, and continue huffing and puffing along your way.  At the end, you really would be able to see and enjoy the entire process that got you there.  But mind you, it is not yet the end of the marathon, and I am still in the middle of mine.  So to those women who are not pregnant and like to revel in how wonderful it WAS, that’s nice for you.  As you ride past me in your golf cart and tell me how wonderful this pregnancy marathon is, I will do my best to just smile and continue to huff and puff along, but be warned that if you catch me while I am on a  bad “stretch” of my pregnancy marathon, I may just have to throw a cup of Gatorade in your face :-)

Disclaimer:  Please note that this post was written with fun and love by a hormonal woman in her 22 week of pregnancy.  And I GUARANTEE that anyone who is reading this post is not any of the annoying individuals I am referring to.