One of the worst things about being pregnant

Pregnant women are faced with enduring a multitude of unpleasantries throughout their nine months of carrying they next generation. They are afflicted by morning sickness and a feeling of general crappiness for much of the time, they experience their bodies growing to {sometimes freakishly} whale-like proportions, and then they must withstand the pain of birthing their babies. On top of this? They have to deal with something else that is unspeakably tedious and frustrating...

...nosy and imposing other people.

Magically, when you become pregnant, everyone around you (including perfect strangers) will begin to throw advice, instructions, recommendations, suggestions, and even orders your way. They will also want to know every single detail about your baby's eventual life. It's as if every other Mom on the planet operates under this {obnoxious} plan: "I'm going to be nosy and ask about your feeding/diapering/sleeping plans in the hopes that they were/are the same as mine. If you respond with something else, I will defend to you my decision and tell you why yours is wrong."

Have you gotten a raised eyebrow or a smile-and-nod while answering someone's prying question yet? If not, it's probably only a matter of time... ;)

"Are you really naming your baby that?"

"Ohh...are you sure you're going to proceed with that decision?"

"Good luck, that didn't work out for anyone I know..."

Once your belly becomes larger and you're obviously pregnant, it gets even worse. "Decaf, right?" responds the barista at Starbucks when you order your Grande House Blend. And looks of horror will arise from those sitting near you when you remove your turkey sandwich from your lunch sack. "Noooooo! NOT LUNCHMEAT!" You'd think you had just bitten into a cyanide and Staphylococcus sub.

And whatever you do, better not touch up your awful scary roots that are in desperate need of attention. Because when people see those perfectly blonde tresses, the looks of disdain might be too difficult for you to bear. You know what they're saying to themselves? "Way to go, Momma, you just made certain that baby is going to come out with three heads...and a tail."

Let's not forget the comments: "are you SURE there aren't 3 in there?"

Last but not least, when you are about ready to pop, it's like the bat signal for those with delivery horror stories and tales of phantom exorcist babies that wouldn't eat or sleep for days at a time. I don't know what it is about hugely pregnant women that screams, "tell me your most terrifying pregnancy/baby story! I want to hear every gory detail before I go through it all myself!"

Now, I'm not actually "complaining" about all this...I am very slow to get offended and mostly laughed off all of the ridiculous comments and advice I received while pregnant with Carina. I truly think it's funny how much everyone else cares about your choices while pregnant and parenting decisions...


Lay them on me. What are the worst or most obnoxious things you have been told or asked about while pregnant?

Did my not-really-breastfeeding photo get reported?

I was going to give an update today on how cloth diapering is going since quite a few of you have asked, but then something strange happened. (side note: isn't it funny how the things in which our babies poop is such a hot topic?)

On Monday, I wrote about how I was feeling after one year of breastfeeding, and the possibility of weaning Carina. I posted a link to the blog post on my Facebook Fan Page (and if your blog posts contain a photo, Facebook automatically posts a little thumbnail of the photo). I was overwhelmed by your thoughts and advice in response to the post, so I went back to my Fan Page yesterday to comment on the link, thanking you all.

But, I couldn't find the link; it had disappeared. All of my other posts were still there. So, I tried to post it again, but Facebook wouldn't let me. It kept on saying "Something has gone wrong, sorry" when I clicked the "Post" button. I didn't think anything of it; I just assumed it was a glitch and gave up after a few tries. When I posted the link for yesterday's post about our money troubles [the next day], it worked just fine. So, I figured I'd try the breastfeeding link again. It STILL wouldn't work. Then I checked the "No thumbnail" box, and voila! It posted just fine, sans thumbnail.

What did Facebook have against my photo?


Carina isn't nursing; she's sleeping. And nothing at all is exposed. You can see more skin in any of my "Anything But Clothes" party pictures from Senior year in college. Oh yeah and please don't go looking for those...

Did someone report it? Because I can't imagine why else the link and thumbnail would disappear, and then Facebook wouldn't let me post it again. I know Facebook has been buggy lately, but it let me post links and thumbnails for other blog posts, and it even let me post the link to the breastfeeding post - but only when I didn't include the thumbnail.

Strangely, after I posted both on Facebook and Twitter about being upset that my not-really-breastfeeding breastfeeding picture was being censored, the link and thumbnail reappeared a few hours later. Along with it there were now 15+ copies of the same link and thumbnail...all of the times I had tried to post it, but had been denied days prior.

I honestly have no idea what happened. Did someone report the post, and then later realize their mistake? Was it all a Facebook glitch? I'm hoping it is the latter, for obvious reasons. I can't imagine that any of you guys would report such a benign photo...

Thoughts? Does anyone know what actually happens when you report something on Facebook? Do they remove it until someone can take a look to see if it is actually offensive?

First class - that's how Carina rolls

I have never missed a flight. Until today, that is. I am usually that person who leaves for a flight three hours early just in case there is traffic and/or I get temporarily abducted by aliens on the way to the airport. Somehow, we forgot to set alarms last night in our half-asleep stupor after scrambling to pack and prepare the house for our departure had car trouble.

M woke up around 5:30, and sleepily asked, “isn’t our flight at 6:45?” Chaos ensued. We threw the last of our things in our suitcases, grabbed the baby and ran out the door. M drove like a bat out of hell, but we were still too late by just two minutes and our seats were canceled. So there we stood at the counter; me, without any makeup on and hair a mess, and Carina still in last night’s diaper (full of poop, of course). I started bawling.

The agent was an asshole not very friendly. He stood there silently tap tap tapping away at his keyboard for almost 10 minutes. M wanted to “scissor-kick him in the head”, direct quote. Finally, he told us he could rebook us and instead of arriving in Philly at noon, we’d be in at 7. Not the end of the world, but it meant we would be spending 14 hours in airports and in flight today. Feeling dejected, we went to sit down and collect our thoughts.

A few minutes later I got an e-mail confirming out new flight details. Our flight leaving home was scheduled for noon, and our connecting flight was scheduled for 10 AM. WTF? Apparently we were supposed to be departing from the next airport before we even arrived there. Beautiful.

I went back to the ticket counter and fortunately, was helped by someone who actually had a soul. I explained to her the problem and she quickly rebooked us for a flight leaving at 9:30 that would have us arriving in Philly at 4:30. Much better than 7! Win. As we boarded the plane we realized that we were given a 1st Class upgrade. Win². Since it was only 9:30, I did not take advantage of the alcoholic benefits of 1st Class, but I certainly enjoyed having some extra space to splay out (and so did Carina).

I still cannot believe how good and calm she was all day. What a nice change from our projectile vomit travel nightmare back in April.  So we are in Philly now, and all is good.  M is in his college roommate's wedding this weekend, and spending as much time with his family as we can while we are here.

Sleeping on Dad at the airport

Please tell me that some of you out there have missed flights before. I am still so embarrassed.

One of the worst things to say to brand new parents...

..."I don't see a vaginal opening."

Well, I guess if you just had a baby boy, this is probably a good thing to hear.  However, if you just pushed a little girl out of your hoo-ha, you're probably hoping that she has a tiny va-jay-jay of her own.

This is what was said to us so casually and nonchalantly by the nurse who gave Carina her first bath.  "Here's how you wipe her eyes clean...make sure to get in between her toes...I don't see a vaginal opening...be careful around the umbilical cord area."

Umm...what?  Rewind.  No vaginal opening?  Please tell me this is a joke?  "Oh, just ask your doctor when he comes in tomorrow."  Tomorrow?  You mean we have to spend almost 24 hours wondering if our perfect baby girl has a vagina or not?

So until the doctor's visit the next morning we decided not to think about it.  Easier said than done, right?  All I could think about was how our sweet little princess might not be able to experience the joy of holding a newborn baby in her arms someday.  This definitely took away from my being able to enjoy the moment myself.  How would she have sex (30 years from now)?  Would she need some sort of cosmetic procedure done?  Would she be teased mercilessly if anyone ever found out?  Cue the waterworks.  Hours after birth + super hormonal + this potentially devastating news = one mess of a new mother.

The next morning, the doctor told us he had noticed this shortly after delivery, but didn't tell us because he didn't want to worry us (side note: that nurse seriously sucks at life).  He said that it happens every now and then and it's usually swelling due to hormones and goes away pretty quickly.  It wasn't gone by our 1 week appointment, though, so he gave us a referral to a pediatric gynecologist.  I didn't even know such a sub specialty existed.

We saw the pediatric gynecologist about two weeks later.  The doctor did a quick exam and told us that she is fine.  The opening had been obscured by a cyst, but it had subsided and all was well.  No missing lady parts here, thank God.

I didn't mention this previously because we wanted to make sure that it was nothing before we shared it.  Otherwise I don't know if she ever would have forgiven me for making it public.  It took me this long to write because I just don't even want to think about it.  And now that this post is written, I am never going to think about it again.

My blood boils thinking about how badly I want to throat punch that nurse.