2nd
"When I was pregnant..."
We found out a coworker is pregnant today. A few of us had privately been suspecting it for a couple weeks as we saw the outward signs—tiredness where she had previously been peppy, turning down drinks at happy hours, and a few extra pounds around the middle and chest. Finally the ballsiest of the girls went over and gently asked (using the alcohol, not the weight as the reason) and she confessed, admitting that she’d been wanting to tell but couldn’t find an appropriate time to bring it up.
Naturally we all got excited and that warm feeling spread about the office. She started talking about the past few months and her symptoms and morning sickness, and I kept getting the urge to say “Oh…I know!” Of course I couldn’t, because none of them know that I was pregnant for a few weeks, and it definitely wasn’t the right time to say “just before my abortion…”
It was a bit of an odd feeling though. It brought me back to the moments when I was pregnant and wished that I could talk about all the insane symptoms and hormones with my corworkers and friends. Because even though my situation is totally different, I DO know what it’s like and would love to be able to share my crazy and funny hormone and morning sickness stories. I’d love to be able to tell her about the time I had to discreetly puke into an Express shopping bag in the back of a taxi cab, or the way my boobs got so huge that I could barely zip my Christmas cocktail party dress up even though I bought it just two days earlier. I want to talk about the crankiness and the mood swings and the frantic bathroom runs I made 50 times a day. These are the kinds of stories that women bond over, and I’d really like to be able to share these with her.
