Okay, the number one question I hear these days is:
When are you due again?
One month from tomorrow! That is to say, January 17. That one was too easy, so let's move on to the second-most common question:
How are you feeling?
Strangely, that's the same as the very first question I answered in this series, back in August! It seems that people were curious about my physical condition at the very beginning, when they first found out I was pregnant, and now at the very end, when I apparently look like I might go into labor at any moment. (In the middle they asked questions about the baby-to-be, but didn't bother so much about the mother-to-be.)
Anyway, another way people ask the same question is:
Are you tired of being pregnant yet?
My answer to both of those questions is this: I've certainly felt better than I do right now, but I wouldn't say I'm tired of being pregnant -- since my only other option is actually having the baby! I'd still rather be pregnant than in labor, for example, and I'd still rather be pregnant than typing this with one hand while I nurse a floppy newborn. (Or not typing it at all while I try to soothe an inconsolable newborn!)
Yes, there are a lot of physical discomforts about being eight (or is it nine?) months pregnant, but many of them don't go away after the baby is born. Some of them even get worse, moving from inconveniences to indignities. For example, right now my weight gain is tolerable (except for the brand-new cellulite on my upper arms) and my belly is simply gorgeous. Postpartum, however, I will still be too heavy, plus my skin will be weirdly loose, and I will just look sloppy and deflated. And sure, right now there's a baby sitting on my bladder so I have to pee every two hours, but if you think my pelvic organs will be any better-behaved after the abuse of giving birth, you're crazy.
I'm tired now, but I'll be frighteningly sleep-deprived after the baby is born. I'm hungry now, but nothing like the starvation I'll feel when I'm nursing an infant on demand. I'm anxious now, but wait for the compulsive worry I'll suffer when there's an actual baby who needs me. My back and hips sometimes ache now, but after giving birth I'll spend at least a week feeling like I've fallen down a flight of stairs.
So, no -- I'm not tired of being pregnant yet!
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When I was pregnant with Isaac, I never got the chance to wish he would hurry up and be born already. Everyone said first babies were late, maybe even two weeks late, and I suppose in that case I would have gotten tired of being pregnant! But instead he was five days early, so I never reached that point.
Plus with Isaac I was so incredibly scared of giving birth that I think I would have opted to stay pregnant for the rest of my life. Even though I should know better this time, I'm sort of feeling that way again.
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Actually, I'm physically very healthy and I'm feeling pretty good, which is why I don't mind being pregnant a good while longer. But I am looking forward to experiencing these postpartum improvements: being able to pick stuff up off the floor, not getting out of breath from walking down the hall, and being able to sleep in any position I choose. Assuming the child actually allows me to sleep, that is.
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