Pregnancy Schadenfreude

Pregnancy is a time of new discoveries. Your body is changing, your mind is changing, your priorities are changing, and you’re readying yourself for a new life you created just between you and your partner (the ultimate science experiment!). It’s all pretty amazing and I wouldn’t trade any of what I’ve experienced so far for anything.

But there’s a phenomenon that both Nick and I have noticed in the 4 1/2 months we’ve been pregnant: some people have funny reactions to our news. While most people are thrilled for us to enter into this new phase in our lives, many others have responded with remarks like “you know, you are never going to sleep in again” or “having a baby is the hardest thing you can put your relationship through”. My personal favourite (and by favourite, I mean the most incredulous) is “well I just can’t WAIT to see how you guys are going to handle THIS”. Did I mention this was said by someone who doesn’t even have kids?

Of course it’s going to be hard. Of course it’s going to be one of the biggest challenges of our lives. But we are up for the challenge, as we have been for all the challenges our atypical relationship has brought us. And as for the lack of sleep remarks, well I’m pretty sure everyone who’s ever heard anything about reproduction is probably already aware of that so no need to remind us. We want Henry more than we want to sleep in on weekends.

While these comments weren’t made with bad intentions, I’m sure they were actually meant to be helpful or informative, they always make me think – there might be a lot more indulgers of Schadenfreude out there than I had previously thought!