Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Word Is Out

I went this morning for my ultra-sound and System Scan, and thank G-d, the doctor says that everything is developing as it should, with the size of the baby dated at 22 weeks + 2 days. In contrast to the Week 16 System Scan, the baby did not cooperate for the camera, preferring to snuggle along side the placenta.


To be truly accurate, the baby at one point picked her nose, and when I made the simple request that we get one good picture for the album, she seemed to laugh, as if to say, "Mom, you had better learn now that most times I will not do something just because you want me to."

The woman before me was a friend whom I met at Hadassah, we both got pregnant at the same time. The woman immediately after me was a woman from the "hood," that myopic Orthodox mindset, who was absolutely shocked to find out that we were due to give birth around the same time. I, in turn, was absolutely gobsmacked to find out that while she is having this child, her marriage failed after less than six months, and she is due to make the divorce official this coming Sunday.

(The difference between myself and this woman is that I went into this pregnancy knowing there would be no guarantee of a spouse, whereas she started out with a different concept and will now forever have a child torn between two biological parents.)

At the front desk, I met another woman from the area with her husband (and two of her current five children); she was having a week 33 ultra-sound and looked miserable, between the heat of the day and the weight of her body. Her husband, the son of an ultra-Orthodox Rabbi, feels that birth control is a sin, and this woman will probably continue to pump out the kids until her body quite simply collapses. In fact, the positive commandment of "Be Fruitful and Multiply" was given to Adam, and by extension, men in general; which means that halachically, women in specific have every right to use birth control and tell their husbands that they draw the line for their body.

So even though I am not really showing, my secret is out, and I expect that I will become the source of rumors and innuendo. Let them talk, if they have nothing better to do with their time.

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