06 September 2006
"you look great" will be sufficient, thank you.
let me vent, here. the one and only thing to say to a pregnant woman due in a month is: you look great, honey! even if you are LYING through your teeth, you complement her cute belly. you can talk about her glow (even if her skin is obviously oily from all that extra progesterone coursing through her veins). you do not ever, ever, ever say "oh my god you look huge" or "you look like you are about to pop" or "are you sure that your due date isn't sooner?"... ever. never ever ever.
yes, i look big, but hello, i'm carrying around what is probably a 6 lb baby by now, amniotic fluid, fat reserves for breastfeeding, a usually non-existant organ (placenta), and am retaining water like no other. yes i waddle, but i don't look like i'm about to pop. i guess most preggos at this stage in their pregnancy don't leave the house. do i blame them? NO. we can't all be tiny and cute, sorry. and since you are dealing with whacko hormone lady (progesterone, estrogen, relaxin which is making my ligaments relax and my hips spread, not to mention a plethora of others), you especially don't want to say anything that vaguely can be construed as "you look like crap, dear".
especially when my feet look like oscar meier wieners, swollen and gross. i fit into ONE pair of shoes, folks, ONE.
this vent is triggered by the fact that i sent out a bunch of pictures to friends, and while most responses were positive, a lot of people seriously made the "huge" comment. "cute" or "darling" or "great belly" or "wow, there's a baby in there" are all much, much prefered. granted, these are things i wouldn't have known beforehand, and i'm sure i made the mistake of saying "wow, look at that belly, it is ginormous" in the past as well. but for the record: i'm never, ever doing that again. a plain and simple "you look great" will suffice. even if you have to lie through your teeth. good karma will come your way if you do.
dandlioneyes at 6:33 pm