The concept of a "due date" when a baby is supposed to arrive is an interesting one. They tell you that statistically most babies are born within two weeks before or after the projected due date. So the chance of your baby coming a week or more AFTER the due date is about as statistically likely as a week or so before. Statistically.
However, to Devoted Wife, the passing of the due date on Thursday just meant that her misery level increased about tenfold. I have to state publicly that I am amazed at what she and the rest of womankind endure during the course of pregnancy -- from constant nausea during the first trimester to the many sleepless nights during the last months of pregnancy, Devoted Wife has endured things that I am forever grateful I didn't have to go through. And she has endured these challenges largely without complaint (something I am positive I wouldn't be able to do). But the passing of the due date must have deep psychological significance, because I can't imagine that the changes she experienced overnight were all physical. In answering the question that she gets about 20 times per day ("How are you feeling?") she went from "Ready for the baby to come!" to "Miserable!!!" overnight once we passed the due date. And she now gives Unborn Kate frequent lectures about "what you're doing to your Mommy" and asks me to "have a talk with [my] daughter" to instruct her not to be disrepectful and to move things along.
Passing the due date is a major milestone. And I think it must have to do with the fact that pregnancy is so long, that you are looking forward to the due date for so many months, weeks and days. For Devoted Wife, October 4th has long represented the day when everything in this long, sometimes hellish mess was to culminate in the most amazing experience of her life . . . and then nothing happened. Other than more gas, heartburn and insomnia, that is. Those things are a frustrating part of pregnancy, to be sure, but they're expected. In the post-due date days, however, they are a poor substitute for rocking your baby, feeding your baby and just being with your baby. I think that must be why the post-due date days are harder than those leading up to the due date.
For me, its like Christmas is just a few days away, but no one will give me a calendar to help me find out when I can open my presents. Each night is like going to bed wondering if Santa is coming that night! But for Devoted Wife, who has endured the physical as well as the emotional build up, its like each morning she wakes up (after relatively little sleep) to find that not only did Santa not come that night, but that his elves have stopped by instead to rough her up, steal her allowance and leave notes saying that Santa's stuck somewhere in Brazil. I sure hope that Christmas comes soon -- I don't know if Devoted Wife can take much more of this!!!
However, to Devoted Wife, the passing of the due date on Thursday just meant that her misery level increased about tenfold. I have to state publicly that I am amazed at what she and the rest of womankind endure during the course of pregnancy -- from constant nausea during the first trimester to the many sleepless nights during the last months of pregnancy, Devoted Wife has endured things that I am forever grateful I didn't have to go through. And she has endured these challenges largely without complaint (something I am positive I wouldn't be able to do). But the passing of the due date must have deep psychological significance, because I can't imagine that the changes she experienced overnight were all physical. In answering the question that she gets about 20 times per day ("How are you feeling?") she went from "Ready for the baby to come!" to "Miserable!!!" overnight once we passed the due date. And she now gives Unborn Kate frequent lectures about "what you're doing to your Mommy" and asks me to "have a talk with [my] daughter" to instruct her not to be disrepectful and to move things along.
Passing the due date is a major milestone. And I think it must have to do with the fact that pregnancy is so long, that you are looking forward to the due date for so many months, weeks and days. For Devoted Wife, October 4th has long represented the day when everything in this long, sometimes hellish mess was to culminate in the most amazing experience of her life . . . and then nothing happened. Other than more gas, heartburn and insomnia, that is. Those things are a frustrating part of pregnancy, to be sure, but they're expected. In the post-due date days, however, they are a poor substitute for rocking your baby, feeding your baby and just being with your baby. I think that must be why the post-due date days are harder than those leading up to the due date.
For me, its like Christmas is just a few days away, but no one will give me a calendar to help me find out when I can open my presents. Each night is like going to bed wondering if Santa is coming that night! But for Devoted Wife, who has endured the physical as well as the emotional build up, its like each morning she wakes up (after relatively little sleep) to find that not only did Santa not come that night, but that his elves have stopped by instead to rough her up, steal her allowance and leave notes saying that Santa's stuck somewhere in Brazil. I sure hope that Christmas comes soon -- I don't know if Devoted Wife can take much more of this!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment