Baby-centric Behavior

I haven't even felt the baby move yet, and I fear I'm becoming one of those women who are overly focused on their children. You know the kind I'm talking about: the type whose license plate reads "TJSMOM" and who not-so-gently leads the conversation back to her kids whenever someone wants to discuss such triviality as, say, the war in Iraq.

(Now, if my sister is reading I want to ASSURE her that this does not apply to her. Her kids happen to be exceptionally intriguing human beings. Plus our family is way too cheap to pay extra for a personalized license plate.)

It's difficult to focus on much besides the huge changes awaiting my body and my life in general. I like to be prepared for things, so although you veteran moms out there may laugh, I've been reading as much as I can about labor and birth, breastfeeding, cloth diapering, and anything else baby-related. I've lined up a doctor, a hospital, a doula, a chiropractor, and a prenatal massage therapist.

And sometime in the next five months I'll have to teach my husband how to do laundry.

So instead of drooling over the J.Crew catalog, I'm surfing the web for cool maternity tees. Rather than hoping my weight goes down, I'm watching the scale to make sure it's going up. And although our current president's arrogance and idiocy is never far from my thoughts, I'm more likely to discuss the pitfalls of pitocin and episiotomies.

Stay tuned for the thrilling adventures of New Mama as she shares more than you ever wanted to hear about swollen ankles, afterbirth, leaking breasts and baby poop. In return, I promise to try to read a newspaper occasionally.