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What To Expect When You Are Expecting A Pandemic

“When I think about all that has to transpire to get from pregnancy to the birth, I am overwhelmed by time and the unknown. It’s not useful to contemplate. There is only today, and it is good.”

I documented my move from ambivalence about parenting, to IVF, to motherhood, as well as all of Year One. I did it longhand because that’s what I did back then. So now, finally, I’m typing all those pages up, in part because of the great What If that living amid a pandemic creates. And I came across this yesterday and it is so true for the current moment, for this, the fifth week of Sheltering in Place.

Ways this time is like pregnancy:

It can make you fat. It will definitely make you crave near-constant meals and snacks.

You will swing from feeling good to anxiety-laden, angry, irritable and back again several times a day.

You will want to know how this will all unfold, how hard it will get, exactly how you and your life will be changed. You can’t know any of that.

There will be totally surreal moments intertwined with much sweetness from those around you.

It will be completely exhausting, scary, and require massive levels of patience with everything and everyone (and maybe mostly yourself).

It is by its very nature only temporary. A long temporary, but still only temporary.

It will split life into Before and After.
Me at 9 months pregnant and a whole lot nervous

Comments

  1. Nice. This is quite a pregnant pause in our lives, isn't it!

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  2. Indeed! that's a good way to put it. There are moments I just want it over and moments that quite frankly I'm not sure I'm ready for them to lift Shelter in Place...I'm figuring out how to make it work and not sure what life will look like after so I'd rather hang out in the known rather than the unknown.

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