Firstly, thank you all. Mike and I have been positively overwhelmed by the flood of support and well-wishing we’ve received via the blog, facebook, and email since we posted the news last week that we’re expecting a baby! We’re very touched. Your notes and emails have made us smile, share snippets with each other, and laugh.
This week is going to be a busy one for me. I’ve got a lot of work to do on two separate consultancy projects and am not quite sure where blogging will fit in during the first half of the week (not to mention pregnancy yoga and the article I’m also trying to write on expat living in Laos). So, as Mike and I are sitting here on Sunday afternoon answering some of the emails, I decided to keep track of some of the comments that have come in over the last couple of days that have made us laugh and share them with you. Because laughter is always more fun shared.
So here are just a couple of the lines that have made Mike and I giggle over the last couple of days.
“Congratulations – I am quite sure there is no “reset” button so would be best to just go with it now.”
“Lisa. That is fabulous news!!!!!!! Yea and combats to all!!!!!” [I’m assuming that this was meant to be congrats, but even if not, I think it could still be very apt]
“Congratulations – this is great news – enjoy the 6 quiet months left in your life!!!!!!”
“That’s a record. You’ve only had a puppy for 3 months surely? He must be even cuter than a chocolate Labrador to have worked this type of magic so quickly.” [To which I replied, “He’s pretty darn cute. Then again… he’s also got a mouthful of razor sharp teeth which he is still constantly using to bite our hands, and he has recently taken to leaping on me from behind and humping my leg when I try to walk away from him and he’s in the mood to play.]
“You’ve lived through natural disasters and man-made wars–you’ll not only survive this, you’ll have even more great stories!”
“Unlike many other followers of your blog, I have no idea what it’s like to be pregnant. And to be completely honest it doesn’t sound that appealing…” [To be completely honest, so far I have to say that it’s not that appealing]
“Lisa, my experience of being pregnant was: 1st trimester – the whole world smelled terrible and most of the time I forgot how happy I was to be getting a child because I was vomiting the whole time; 2nd trimester – before I would skip meals because I was busy doing every-day work, and now I would skip everything (even important meetings at work) to go grab something to eat; 3rd trimester – This is when I needed my husband most…to lift me out of chairs. I used to walk faster than everyone on the road and now even slow-walking, elderly, people were walking faster than me. And the toilet becomes your best friend…”
“You don’t want to be a marsupial. Keeping a pouch clean sounds like a hassle to me.” [To which I replied: “We live in Asia. We can hire people to keep a pouch clean. Problem solved.”]
[This comes from someone we know who has previously lived in Laos] “Boy, some people will do anything for some R&R! Seriously, much congratulations. We named one of our dogs “kop chai” (thank you) I hereby give you permission to name your child “kop chai lai lai” (thank you very much).”
“Hey Mike – congratulations! Keep in mind that ‘Vinay’ would make a great name for the baby. Even if it’s a boy.” [There’s no keeping this one anonymous. Vinay is a guy Mike met during a trip to Sudan last year.]
“Congrats! Are you guys worried about health care for the birth in Laos?” [To which Mike replied, “Why yes. So much, in fact that Lisa’s already booked her tickets to Australia. Even middle class Lao women try not to have their babies in Laos if they can help it (most of them go to Thailand rather than say, Australia). Yesterday we were talking to a shop keeper (talking in the sense that my Lao is very basic so I probably understood about half of what she was saying) and when I told her that we weren’t going to have the baby in Laos, she looked so relieved that you’d have thought I had given her an injection of valium. On the up side, she taught us the Lao word for “afraid.”]
“Congratulations! What wonderful news. Not all babies are like hand grenades. Alex was more of a claymore mine.” [I think this takes the prize as the single line that made me laugh the hardest, and the longest.]
“Tell Lisa, hand grenade does it no justice at all. Something like seeing the roads in Afghanistan after they’ve been visited by a B52 would be more accurate but you grow to love the new landscape even more than the old.”
“While we all wait patiently for photos of the miniature Wolfey-McKay, please do post more photos of the little monkey!!” [I’ll do my best. In fact, here’s one for you now of Abu doing what I do now when confronted with a glass of wine – look at it longingly.]
To close, here’s one final quote that I love. “You are right–you and Mike will make fabulous parents. And, you are right–there is no good time to have kids and they do change your lives forever. You will never regret it. Keep us posted so we can celebrate with you!”
We will. Thanks again.
Lisa (and Mike)
4 comments
Just remember, so long as you are pregnant, and for 6-8 weeks after (unless you are nursing and in that case as long as you are nursing and for at least a month after you wean) you must consider yourself technically stoned at all times. Such is the power of pregnancy hormones. They positively mess with a person. No wonder you’re back and forth and hither and yon with anxiety and happiness and sickness and hunger and the need for sleep. You’re tripping on some pretty serious substances, dude, and you’re not even in control of how much you’re on because your body is self manufacturing them.
When I was pregnant my poor husband would come to bed and find me sobbing about how I would be a horrible mother and how could we inflict me upon our poor offspring? and whaaaaaaaaaaaa! And then ten seconds later I would be either laughing like a loon or ordering him to get me food or blaming him for something obscure while he gently rubbed my back and watched me with puzzled, tender, concerned eyes. So, seriously. Give yourself a break and keep giving yourself a break.
Pregnancy.
It messes with you something fierce.
Blame everything on the hormones.
PS: Being a parent is the best thing ever. You are going to freaking love it!
Thanks Erica! Yeah, I have a whole post in mind to write about ambivalence I’ll get to sooner or later. Mike is somewhat mystified by this ambivalence. One thing I’m not ambivalent about thought – hunger! When I fall off a “I need food” cliff it’s not pretty! So glad you gave being a parent two thumbs up. That’s reassuring.
I particularly like the comment about pregnancy not being very appealing. #1 was awful, #2 was much better. Also interested to hear about giving birth, or not, in Laos. Where in Aus will the baby be born? Oh, and of course CONGRATULATIONS! Children are at once exhusting and delightful!
Thanks Louisa. Yes, I’ll give birth in Australia – all going well. And since I’m going back there just after 28 weeks things would have to go pretty terribly wrong NOT to give birth there. I go back around mid May. Baby should be born early to mid August. Here’s hoping.
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