Monday, January 14, 2008

Hurry up and wait.

It turns out that the last couple of weeks (one hopes) of pregnancy are much more stressful than the preceding months (in a healthy, normal pregnancy, of course), especially--and this is important--if you started nesting at, say, 36 weeks and you are now 38 weeks along. The reason for this? YOU ARE JUST WAITING AT THIS POINT. After two weeks of busy, busy getting things in order at work and at home, there just isn't that much left to do that really needs to get done. This means that you start to *worry*. Not so much about giving birth, in my case at least--I am steadfastly in denial about the whole actually having to go through labor thing, and I therefore have not gotten stressed out about it yet--but about LATER. Mater-Eater Lad is doing the same thing. You start to ask yourself unanswerable questions. What if you screw up your kid? What if you can't figure out how to care for your kid? What if it turns out that your kid is a horrible, evil brat? What if your kid *doesn't like you* (excluding the teenage years, of course, when no kid likes his or her parents)? This has been worse for Matter-Eater Lad, I think, because I am still working (not working would just stress me out more), but his semester hasn't started yet, which means that he has work to do (he always has insane amounts of work to do), but in a more amorphous fashion than normal.


I am just grateful that I am more or less still comfortable, since that would certainly add to the pressure of the wait. As it is, my aches and pains are minor enough that the idea of the experience of and recovery from labor doesn't seem like a good trade-off to get rid of them.

5 comments:

Grendel said...

So. . . now is not a good time to refer you to the the classic Bill Cosby take on labor? Although, I suspect most women would say the less well known Robin Williams analogy is more appropriate. Hint: it doesn't involve one's lower lip, but a rather more sensitive portion uniquely male anatomy.

You're child will love you. It's contractual. :)

College Glassblower said...

hey, i liked mom and dad while i was and am a teen... just cuz you didn't... and i have a very large doubt that you will have an evil brat since you hold several of mom's views on that subject... especially whining, omg...

Kate said...

I liked Mom and Dad as a teenager, but I think that when you are the parent things your teenager says seem much worse than the teenager usually intends them to be.

College Glassblower said...

this could be true... hmmm...

Grendel said...

Since the official blog entry may be a bit in coming, but the conclusion seems public, I'll say congratulations. :)