It's always sunny at the pregnancy parade...

"I have something to tell you." I was talking to my friend Georgia, around week 12. Though she used to work in mybuilding, she now came only a few times a year for training. I hadn't seen her 2 months. During one of her training breaks, I pulled her upstairs with me.
"You're pregnant," she said.
"Yeah...how did you..."
"I am too."
As it turns out, our due dates are 3 days apart. This is Georgia's 2nd child. She was already showing. I wasn't.
It struck me then and has many times since, how there was no sense of "raining on my parade" or "stealing my thunder." You can't rain on the pregnancy parade. You can just join in and make it merrier. I always knew the pregnancy club existed. For years I've known members without any personal desire to join. But now that I'm a part of it, I feel instant kinship with anyone in the group. Non-pregnant people are bound to get bored or weirded out by hearing about how your clothes are fitting, or food cravings, or the strange things going on with your nipples. But I've found pregnant, or recently pregnant, women can talk about pregnancy indefinitely, and without any sense of the competitiveness or "one-upmanship" that comes with other accomplishments.
Perhaps one of the biggest, and most pleasant surprises, is that pregnancy is FUN. I love the excuse to eat the extra helping of a good dinner. I like the motivation to do healthy things. I like the curiousity of the unpregnant, the unsolicited advice and the frequent questions.
Another amazing thing: think about how many pregnant women you've known. Think about how many you've seen, both in real-life and on TV. Pregnancy is hardly a mystery, and before I was pregnant, it almost felt familiar. It's not a strange or rare condition.
But it is special. And no matter how much you think you know about it, nothing diminishes the awe and excitement of going through the process. As my body grows and changes, as I expand without any sense of control, as I feel the strange stretching and tinglings in my body, I can't help but be completely taken by surprise by how it just happens. Even now, almost halfway through, it seems surreal to me. It's hard to see beyond the next steps. Right now, I'm focused on my upcoming ultrasound. People have started asking me where I'm registered, what I'm going to do about work, what is our nursery going to look like, what kind of car seat are we going to buy...and I can only shrug and say, "We haven't gotten there yet." Of course we've thought about it. I'm reading. I'm asking around. I'm doing my research, but my focus is on how to hide the unbuttoned top button of my jeans, and wondering if strangers can tell I'm pregnant or just think I've got a pooch.
I keep thinking that once I know whether it's a boy or girl, I can start visualizing and bonding with this child in a real way. We can give it a plausible name, rather than silly nicknames like Ninja or Mango or Squirt. I can slowly begin picking out clothes and toys and books. I don't want to rush through this pregnancy, but I want to wallow in it to feel all the textures and nuances. I want to cherish my husband's hand on my growing belly, the little flutters that make me wonder if I'm feeling movement or just gas, my students' stolen glances at my waistline, the fear and the wonder and the joy of what is happening. I want to enjoy these things, because I know how life goes. It goes fast. And before I know it, pregnancy will be over, and then I'll be on to the real next adventure.