Ex Pat Mamma

Saturday, January 08, 2005

Enjoying Pregnancy

How does one, exactly, "enjoy" pregnancy? This is something I need to learn. Friends and family are most delighted with my scan news and are all suggesting "relax and enjoy my pregnancy" now. Well, relaxed I am. "Enjoying"... well, maybe later. Don't misunderstand me, I am delighted to be having a baby. Even when I was sick and tired of being sick and tired, I never for a second wished that I weren't pregnant. Since yesterday's scan I have just felt happier and happier and I feel like I have never been so in love with anyone as I am with this little alien that appeared on the hospital screen - especially when he performed "the thinker" pose; clearly taking after his daddy.

But I just don't find pregnancy "enjoyable." Being sick a lot and feeling sick even more, getting out of breath climbing the stairs, having two giant, but painful, breasts (trust me, you DON'T want the details!), being unable to sleep (not helped by appalling bladder control), no being allowed to eat lots of my favourite things, having a back-ache and a pain in my abdomen that might be a urine infection (sorry if too much info!) are not things I find "enjoyable." I am excited about having a baby - but I really do not think when this pregnancy is over I will look back on it as a "great" experience. It is something I have gone through because the result is going to be soooooo much more worth it than anything else I have ever done.

I am not saying this to complain; on balance, I think I am having a fairly good pregnancy so far. It is just that I don't understand how anyone could find the experience "enjoyable." And yet they do. A dear friend said to me some months ago that whilst she wasn't sure she would be ready for another baby, she would love to be pregnant again because it was "fantastic." Is this just the benefit of hindsight? I don't think so.

Well, time for me to go to the hospital - again. This time just to drop of a "sample" which might explain the abdomen and back pain - but on the whole, it would be better if it didn't.

Rachael
12+6

1 Comments:

  • At 9:50 PM, Blogger Joy Cassidy said…

    I'm a riddle in nine syllables,

    An elephant, a ponderous house,

    A melon strolling on two tendrils.

    O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!

    This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.

    Money's new-minted in this fat purse.

    I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.

    I've eaten a bag of green apples,

    Boarded the train there's no getting off.

    by Sylvia Plath - 20 March 1959

     

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