It's been a big week for me. Literally. I've really popped out, much to the delighted commentary of everybody I work with. It's fun for Matt and me too, to at last have a tangible, visible symbol of what has occupied so much of our thoughts for the past three and a half months.
It's made me think about some of the women I take care of at work, women and their husbands, who are either terrified of birth or disgusted by it or plain inconvenienced by it, to the point that they want to schedule it in advance so that they can sufficiently numb themselves so as to avoid any connection with the process at all. I'm always surprised, when I ask dads if they want to see the baby's hair, or moms if they want to reach down and touch it, as evidence of progress during the pushing phase of labor, at how many of them look shocked and disgusted and hurriedly refuse. Really? Because this is your baby, whom you'll only give birth to this once--and the only other thing down there is your body, which you'd think one would already be reasonably acquainted with by this time.
It makes me really sad, that people can go through life wanting to cut themselves off from something so completely elemental, yet so completely miraculous and spiritual--not to mention universal--as birth.
For my part, I couldn't be more excited about being pregnant, or more anticipatory about the birth. I know that whatever happens, it will be an experience that draws Matt and me together and changes us as a family like nothing else in the world, and for that I look forward to it.
On a practical side, we have names picked out for a boy and a girl, as well as symbols picked out for each of them. Yes, symbols. Those who remember our wedding may recall that our invitations, programs, and wedding certificate (signed by those at our wedding and hanging now in our living room, with a copy of our vows printed on it) were all embellished with starfish of various sizes, a nod to having gotten married at the beach. We felt like it lent a fun unification to the whole event, and for the same reason I wanted something similar for the baby's birth announcement. The same way I felt vaguely troubled before we settled on names (at least for now), it niggled at me that I didn't know what we'd put on the baby's birth announcement.
I spent some time thinking about it, and now I have one picked out for a boy and a girl, just in case. And I feel much more settled now!
It's made me think about some of the women I take care of at work, women and their husbands, who are either terrified of birth or disgusted by it or plain inconvenienced by it, to the point that they want to schedule it in advance so that they can sufficiently numb themselves so as to avoid any connection with the process at all. I'm always surprised, when I ask dads if they want to see the baby's hair, or moms if they want to reach down and touch it, as evidence of progress during the pushing phase of labor, at how many of them look shocked and disgusted and hurriedly refuse. Really? Because this is your baby, whom you'll only give birth to this once--and the only other thing down there is your body, which you'd think one would already be reasonably acquainted with by this time.
It makes me really sad, that people can go through life wanting to cut themselves off from something so completely elemental, yet so completely miraculous and spiritual--not to mention universal--as birth.
For my part, I couldn't be more excited about being pregnant, or more anticipatory about the birth. I know that whatever happens, it will be an experience that draws Matt and me together and changes us as a family like nothing else in the world, and for that I look forward to it.
On a practical side, we have names picked out for a boy and a girl, as well as symbols picked out for each of them. Yes, symbols. Those who remember our wedding may recall that our invitations, programs, and wedding certificate (signed by those at our wedding and hanging now in our living room, with a copy of our vows printed on it) were all embellished with starfish of various sizes, a nod to having gotten married at the beach. We felt like it lent a fun unification to the whole event, and for the same reason I wanted something similar for the baby's birth announcement. The same way I felt vaguely troubled before we settled on names (at least for now), it niggled at me that I didn't know what we'd put on the baby's birth announcement.
I spent some time thinking about it, and now I have one picked out for a boy and a girl, just in case. And I feel much more settled now!
No comments:
Post a Comment