Things people say

As a pregnant woman, one gets to hear a variety of interesting, funny, ironic or downright offensive things that people think is appropriate to say. Now, also as a pregnant woman, you get to feel fairly "whale-like" at some point. This may or may not be actually true but when you are the one, it will always feel big no matter how far along you are. In fact, there are many times throughout pregnancy that you say "how can it possibly get any bigger?!?". And somehow it usually does.

So as I go along in my life of a pregnant woman, growing a human being inside of me (I mean come on, it's a hard task!), I get to encounter people that say the most mouth dropping things. I was chatting with a friend just last week about how in my first pregnancy people would ask me if I "was sure there is only one in there". I mean, really, can you think of anything more offensive to a girl who already feels massive (as is SURE there is only one in there)?

Well, I came across one such person today and it reminded me that I wanted to mention the amazing things people think are ok to say to a pregnant woman. This morning, as I was leaving my doctor appointment, I was standing at the counter waiting to make another appointment. There was a woman kiddy-corner from me at the counter checking in to her appointment. She saw my belly and said "oh girl, when is your due date?" and before I had a chance to answer, she said "last week?". I smiled nicely and said "no, actually it's at the end of October". The look on her face was priceless and instead of trying to recover with a nice comment like "well, you look amazing", out of her mouth was "oh man, are you having twins?" "No, ma'am, I'm sure there is only one in there". I couldn't even continue a conversation with her! I mean, really she should have run for the hills, flushed her face red and profusely apologized for being so rude (as a man would if he assumed a woman was pregnant but really wasn't). Nope, she was perfectly ok with her path of destruction and abuse towards me, enough to continue the chat with "is it a boy or girl?" "don't know, we don't find out". "Oh, when I had MY son 28 years ago, we didn't even get to hear the heartbeat let alone know what the gender is". I took this to mean - why don't you find out if you have the opportunity? Anyway, I was kinda done "chatting" with her at this point and made my appointment and left. Might I note that I ripped my pants getting in the car as I was leaving, not adding to the "I feel amazing/glowing/beautiful pregnant" attitude.

Once I got to work and stapled my pants back together, I chatted with my friend (who I previously talked to about people and their offensive comments) about this woman and we luckily got a good laugh out of it (instead of a cry). I decided I needed a blog post about what people say to pregnant women that shouldn't be said.

• You are HUGE! (this is a no-brainer, no woman wants to hear it, no matter if she is pregnant or not)
  
• When is the due date? Oh really, you should have it a week later so it can have the same birthday as me! (um, I just met you, why would I care if my baby shares a birthday with you)
• What names do you have picked out? You should consider *insert person talking's name*. (I do you respond with - your name is stupid/don't like it/everyone has it/no thanks?)
• When are you due? October! WOW that is a LONG time from now. (yes, I'm aware, thank you) or 10 MORE weeks! Yikes!
  
• It seems like you've been pregnant for-EVER! (again, thank you, it feels like it too)
• Are you sure there is only one?

That's all I can think of for now, but please leave a comment if you've received anything good during your pregnancy, I'd love to hear it!