Thursday, April 1, 2010

What to Expect When You Are Expecting.....

When I was pregnant with Giovanni, eight years ago, I had ALOT of questions for my doctor. He would patiently ask me at the end of every appointment what my questions for that month were. I would read my list and he would answer all of them. He finally told me at about month 5 or 6, "go home and throw away your prenatal book." What he didn't know was that I didn't actually have one, I just had a lot of questions. But I understood his point. Life doesn't go according to any book. I have fairly text book pregnancies, but I do not labor. Let me say that again, I DO NOT LABOR. Under no circumstance, or drug, will my body respond to the natural laws of child birth. Marc likes to tease me and say that there are no working exits in my womb. My children need to come equipped with a parachute or emergency slide.
Well, it has been long enough since my last pregnancy and I have limited access to my doctor here, so I decided to buy "What to Expect When You Are Expecting" and read a bit on the internet. I has been useful to let the boys know what is the general size of the baby and what she was doing that month, i.e. growing fingernails, or learning to hiccup. But other than that, pretty useless. This morning I checked what a 35 week fetus should be doing and it told me this, "Because it's so snug in your womb, she isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore." REALLY?!! This girl likes to hula dance. She still turns completely around and yes, her preferred position is hammock style. She lays across my belly, not up and down like a normal kid. I am hoping this means a smaller baby. But yet again, I have no reference for what to expect. Giovanni was a week late and only 6lb3oz. Sergio was a week early and 9lb3oz.
I have decided no on knows what to really expect when going through any major life change. Marc compares pregnancy to getting on an airplane, not knowing ahead of time where or when you get off and then getting hijacked by a kicking, heartburn inducing terrorist. Lovely. And yet we keep having babies.............