Just You Wait

Dear Blog, 
I'm sorry it has been a week since I've written. It's been rough lately, but I'm getting back in the saddle. I gave you a little makeover in hopes that would make up for my absence. Thanks for always listening.
Best,
Erin


I'm beginning to think that the trouble is not that no one understands how difficult it is to be completely exhausted at 7 months pregnant in the dead of summer with gestational diabetes and lower-back pain that feels like a leprechaun is following me around with little daggers in his hands, continuously tripping on his own hooked shoes and shouting, "Oops! Oh, sorry again, m'lady." No, I'm beginning to think that people enjoy watching a pregnant woman suffer. Why do I think that? Well, it's the only conclusion I can reach when everyone's favorite thing to say to me is, "Oh, you just wait..."
If I had a nickel...
Oh, Erin. You have no idea. You just wait!
Wait for what?
Is the next step having my baby, feeling little to no excitement for having had him, and feeling resentful of the fact that he keeps selfishly waking up to eat?! After all this support and love, does my husband decide to leave for a younger woman immediately? Do all the people that have volunteered to help us by cooking meals and doing our laundry for the first month after Abe's born suddenly back out because they totally forgot they have to "be somewhere"? Am I guaranteed that no matter how difficult and frustrating life feels right now in my never-ending search to feel normal, I will STILL have it worse AFTER my baby is BORN?!?!
JUST YOU WAIT!!
I don't think people are considering just how inappropriate this reaction seems to the already irrational pregnant woman. Imagine if we applied this logic to other difficult times in life. The last time you got a paper cut or were in a minor car accident, did your friend look at you and say, "Just you wait. It gets worse"? No. Because you would smack your friend in the mouth, or at least apply a devastating wet willy to their ear. Or if you were diagnosed with a mild case of shingles, would it be everyone's first reaction to say, "Just you wait. Those shingles are only the beginning of your suffering and strife." You'd rub your shingles all over them and run away laughing and maniacally shouting, "NOW YOU WAIT, SUCKAH!"
Bottom line is some women float through pregnancy and others trudge the way soldiers do in the thickest jungles of Afghanistan. (This is an exaggeration, for the soliders out there; thank you for serving us and keeping us safe.) I am not a floating pregnant woman. I'm a trudger. And at no time does someone insinuating that my future is much less bright than my present help me find the will to get to the grocery store today and ensure my husband has food in his belly when he gets home tonight.

So pregnant women, unite. The next time someone says, "Just you wait," I want you to look them dead in the eye and say, "I know. It's going to be absolute hell when I give birth to the person I grew inside of my stomach and get to hold him in my arms everyday, watch him learn, and experience all the ups of downs of parenting with my unbelievable partner who has chosen to go through it all with me. You're right. It's gonna SUCK!"