Round, and Round, and Round We Grow

I think that last week the little man had a growth spurt. I will keep telling myself that, anyway! As predicted the waist disappeared and this week I have a decidedly more, ... what's the word... apple-shaped? citrus-shaped? figure. One of my 7th grade girls came up to me at the end of class yesterday, stuck out her hand and patted my belly while saying. "Ms. Watters, now we see your belly!" Uum, great? I think that I smiled and agreed, but I was a little surprised.

I'm all about giving my kids a hug when they need it or dumping a lesson on reading strategies if there's something happening in the school that needs to be talked about, but I was not ready for the patting of the belly. Surprise! It's apparently that time of year.

So, while we wait to see the little giant next week via ultrasound, this week I think about how and why generations and generations of women--from time immemorial--have decided it would be a good idea to have a kids... with no way of realizing or planning for the changes before you're the one actually doing the baby baking or having. [So, this is the part where everyone who has kids is rolling on the floor laughing since this part is NOTHING compared to what comes later, but...] I knew that I couldn't understand how it would be, but I just went ahead and dove on in. Why would generally sane people do this?

Sure, this might be liberating, creative or generative for some women, but it's a total takeover of the body and mind (so say I today--this could be all wrong according to me tomorrow). Especially now, it's not like I'm having babies to carry on a royal family name or to work a farm that needs labor, we're not living in a place that needs to be more populated, ... it's not something that has to happen, but so women choose this anyway. Choose it even though mind and body are taken over by hormones and the chemistry and physics that turn those into a baby. Even though it completely changes life as you've known it. Maybe we are all really insane?