Email 1
EMAIL TO: [All in Address Book]
SUBJECT: Pregnancy Update #1
Hello Friends and Family,
Yes, I am pregnant. Thank you all for your congratulatory emails, which made me think that with all the emails I've gotten lately asking after my state of health, etc, that I would be proactive and send out an 'e-newsletter' of sorts to save you all inquiring individually, and to answer all the questions you might have (and many you won't) in one go. So here we go ...
Well, I am 10 weeks at the moment - two weeks to go of the first trimester which is the worst one. Anyone who has had to put up with throwing up, etc, with nothing to show for it will tell you that. A good one to skip if you could.
I am reading two 'How to be pregnant' type books which I'll refer to at the start of each email as they have a 'week by week' guide of what I should be doing. I shall refer to these ladies as Super Susan and Maureen the Maestro, as this is what they seem to be in the pregnancy world - if the size of their books are anything to go by!
Basically at this stage they're both telling me to go out and buy new brassieres, to accommodate expanding assets. With the little I have to start with, I doubt this will be much of a problem. They also kindly assure me that the morning sickness will begin to subside next week. I say it had better! It's worse than I remember with Claudia, my first child, and although pregnancy is a "joy", that doesn't mean you have to particularly enjoy certain aspects of it. The heat we're suddenly experiencing doesn't help either. TIP: don't get pregnant in winter!
They also tell me that my womb is the size of a small fruit. Hmm, that's a pretty big fruit. Perhaps I should have been more diligent with my ab exercises after Claudia was born! Never mind. The great thing about pregnancy is that you can blame EVERYTHING on it: mood swings, desire for junk food, tiredness, weight gain. Although these things happen all the time, I now have a scapegoat. Hooray!
I haven't had too many run ins with the Pregnancy Police thus far. (For those who don't know what I'm talking about, the Pregnancy Police are 'well meaning' friends who like to nag you on what you should and shouldn't be eating, wearing, etc and so on.) It seems many of them have gained their Bravery Certificates, which you need to tangle with me. I also have the added advantage of "I have done this before, I know what I'm doing, leave me alone" - a statement which I intend to print onto business size cards and have readily available to disperse at the first sign of hassling.
I have also come up with another great innovation (who said your brain frizzles when you're pregnant?) - someone should write a book called "The Men's Guide to Pregnancy", with chapters entitled: For Pete's Sake Don't Do This, and You'd Better Do That Before You Get Hurt. This would save a great deal of anxiety and frustration, not to mention lectures in supermarkets, bruised ribs and the like. Oh yes, there should also be a chapter headed Don't Argue with a Pregnant Woman or You WILL Get Hurt.
Claudia is very excited about the impending birth, even though it seems to her like an eternity before it will happen. She is, however, quite adamant that she will leave home if she DOESN'T get a baby sister. I am quite adamant that I will leave home if she DOES get a baby sister. There are only so many fairy costumes and dolls one can put up with.
Names: one subject that is closely guarded after a few initial trials with friends and family. Older people will say "That's a bit strange" or people our age generally come out with "I knew a girl called (baby name here) and she used to put glue in my hair". So no more! The only people I now converse with about this delicate subject are my beloved husband (not so much conversing, but rejecting everything he comes up with and vise versa), and my sister in law who is also pregnant and comes up with worse names than I do. So the general rule here will be, you won't know until the baby is born, and if you don't like it then it will be too late - deal with it in your own time.
So that's it for now. If you haven't heard from me by 14 weeks, it means my morning sickness hasn't subsided and I'm in prison for beating up Super Susan.
© Cynthia M. Piromalli 2002
©2002 StoriesByEmail.com
|
