[ul]
[li]Two “Wow, your belly/stomach is getting big!”[/li][li]One “Wow, you’re really looking pregnant!”[/li][li]One “Wow, you’ve really popped out!”[/li][li]Four belly rubs[/li][li]Four “When are you due?”[/li][li]Two “What are you having?”[/li][li]One “Aw, you look so cute!”[/li][/ul]
Guess who was my favorite.
I’m not even seven months, BTW. Just a mere 6 3/4-ish (nearly 30 weeks, or 75% there). If this is what they’re saying now, a month from now will just be AWESOME.
You definitely have my sympathies. I’m right behind you (26 weeks tomorrow), and this past weekend I got a “Wow…you’re starting to waddle already!”
Gee, thanks.
I try to keep a sense of humor about it, though. What else you gonna do?
Me: " When are you due?"
Former Classmate: “I’m not.”
She was wearing a smock(drugstore uniform). it looked like there was something underneath. It was just the overhang of the smock from her breasts. Oops!
All I can recommend is practicing “touch me again and you die horribly” in the perkiest voice you can muster.
It helps if you wink, too.
One of my friends did this, but I honestly can’t remember which one: a woman rubbed her belly uninvited, so she returned the favor and groped the woman’s breast.
I somehow doubt that woman will ever start randomly touching people’s bellies without permission again. God. That behavior is so baffling. How could you think that’s okay?
I hope you replied, “Puppies!”
At least the pregnancy is temporary. I used to have a friend with incredibly gorgeous hair. One day I said “is it okay if I touch your hair - it looks so unbelievably thick, I want to see if it feels that thick too.”
Her response? “THANK YOU!!! for having the courtesy to ask. You don’t know how many people just come up to me and start touching my hair without asking.”
It’s a shame some women are insecure about their bodies when they’re pregnant. I think pregnant women are adorable. I loved it when my wife was carrying our kids, she was so cute. The belly, the waddle, the gingerly way she got up and down. She may have been miserable, but she couldn’t have been more compelling during those months.
Maybe so cmyk, but how would you like random strangers mentioning and fondling your beer gut (assuming you have one, btw, just as an example) on a daily basis? I’ve never understood why people think it’s OK to touch women’s pregnant bellies. Seriously! No one does it when women AREN’T pregnant, yet when they look like they’re in a Jane’s Addiction video it’s all hands on work from there!
I have been very lucky, and had no-one touch me uninvited (38 weeks this week, chances are I’ve escaped!). I would have liked to be offered more seats on public transport though - there’s an awful lot of people who suddenly get really into their book/newspaper/ipod when I get on the train.
However, the most bizarre thing I got was yesterday. I was sitting at at a tram stop, and this girl came up to me and asked if I would like to participate in a film she and some friends were filming - high quality 18mm video blah blah blah. They apparently want to shoot a birth scene - and I’m thinking, they just need a pregnant belly or a new baby to make it look real. Nope - they actually want to film a real birth, from my viewpoint as the baby comes out (it will all be very tasteful, etc…) Yeah, someone hasn’t thought that through - I think the last thing I really want is someone sticking a camera down there as I am trying to push!
Because… lurking beneath a beer gut are horrors one can only imagine. Okay, I get that getting beleaguered by people who wanna rub the belly! can get pretty annoying, but there’s a fundamental difference between a gut full of intestines, and one that’s got a little human inside. No?
I cannot even imagine the temerity of someone touching you uninvited. Rude beyond comprehension. The comments are rude as well, but touching crosses beyond anything reasonable.
Honestly (and surprisingly, even to me), the belly rubs don’t offend me nearly as much as the “You’re huge!” variations. The belly rubs haven’t come from complete strangers–THAT would be answered with me rubbing their belly in return–but three were from coworkers who are excited for me. I like them, and appreciate their joy, so I don’t mind. The fourth was from a student (I teach middle school), and boundaries of all sorts are just lacking from 12yros anyway.
That’s the thing–only a few of the comments came from students. I can forgive them; they’re still learning. But the coworkers who still comment before their brain is turned on make me facepalm. No, actually, they make me want to slap them into a facepalm. The guy who said “Wow, you’re looking pregnant!” at least didn’t go with “You’re looking big!” But, having had five kids of his own, he’s probably learned over the course of time.
The worst was around 16-20 weeks or so, when I popped out. Then I was getting near daily variations of “Wow, you’re big!” and “Wow, you’re going to be HUGE!” Awesome, thanks.
I love being pregnant (well, minus the heartburn, pelvic pain, hemorrhoids, swelling, etc.), and I love the warm comments. But the “Derrrrrrr!” comments are not my favorite.
FTR, hubby loves my extra curves, cmyk, so I do take comfort in seeing my body through his eyes, and not the others.
Heh, I just remembered–when I was like 35 weeks along with my first, I went to a local feed store. The manager said, “Wow, there’s a lady who smuggled a beach ball in the store!” I :rolleyes: and went on. Then, he kept saying it, trying to get me to react. Then, when I finally had to tell him I needed some feed from the back, it was, “So and so, the lady who smuggled the beach ball into the store needs help with bales of hay.” He was trying to be funny. Failing miserably, but trying, so I let him live.
I thought pregnant women wanted to look pregnant? Like, they look forward to it? Especially after they spend a few months just looking like they’re getting fat?
Somebody once asked me when I was due.
Fortunately for me, when there’s no body, it’s really hard to prosecute a murder case.
Once a noticably pregnant woman was standing in line at a Starbucks. A nosy old busybody in line behind her says, “…you know coffee is bad for the baby, don’t you?”
The pregnant woman comes back with, “Yeah, I know, but it’s the only way I can deal with this hangover.”
Ha Jettboy!
It is interesting to be pregnant; that’s about the mildest thing you can say. I generally didn’t mind people making comments, after all, they just wanted to interact, somehow, with the fact that a new human was being created virtually right before their eyes.
Even though it looks like you’re “just pregnant” to an observer, from this side it often feels like plain old enormous fat. Especially when you feel some spare tires that weren’t there previously around your middle, and somehow there’s more padding to your behind.
Ruffian, how are you feeling now? I saw your thread about having the flu – are you back on your feet?
Second trimester was my favorite both times – past the fatigue of the first trimester, not yet at full waddle mode, and that intoxicating swimming fish feeling of the little one inside!
A friend of mine went into the hospital for the birth of her first. TLC or Discovery Health was filming for one of their “Baby Delivery” shows. They asked her if she wanted to participate. She had never seen any of the shows and asked what they wanted to film, and they said they wanted “everything”. She said they could film whatever they wanted, but no hoo-hah shots, they moved on to another mother in labor. She really didn’t want her lady bits preserved for posterity on tape somewhere, even if it was for the miracle of birth. Can’t say that I blame her.
I wish I’d have been that quick.
I didn’t get touched. I didn’t get a lot of comments. I suspect that in an elevator I look like a bitch…