Blame It On CBS and KCCI (Orig Post Date 4/21/10)

This is my husband’s theory anyway. What are we blaming on the national and local television stations? The fact that our family will grow by one this November. What is the basis for this line of thought? Twelve years of successful birth control with the same method came to a screeching halt when I was offered a position as a Local Voice. At that time on KCCI, there were three ladies pregnant, on the CBS Early Show there were two, and there are two sitcoms on CBS that feature a pregnant character. Coincidence? Maybe. I have a feeling that due to the harsh winter we had all across the country; there will be a huge boom in the population this fall. So while my husband is blaming the national and local stations, I’m sure there are other husbands out there who are blaming Old Man Winter or Mother Nature.

Logically, I know it’s just proof that no birth control is ever 100% effective, but as so often happens, the logical side of your brain doesn’t always mesh with the emotional or superstitious side. Aside from getting the position with KCCI, I also gave away all of the baby items from when my daughter was little. Everything. The swing, the crib, the bouncer, it was all gone, and honestly, it was a relief. It felt good to give all that to someone who I knew needed it, would take care of it, and would put it to good use.


So where does that leave me? Expecting a second baby six years after my last one was born, and starting from scratch again. Is it acceptable to have a baby shower? I know that usually you only get one, but what’s the rule on a surprise arrival after you’ve given everything away? I’ve already had friends back East offer to have a shower for me, and friends here in Des Moines have offered as well. I count myself very lucky to have such wonderful friends.


Have you ever noticed how pregnancy is contagious? Not contagious in the traditional sense like the flu or the plague, but when one pregnancy is announced, or noticed, it’s not too much longer before another one comes to light, then another and another. Is it because there’s just a cycle or ebb and flow to life and the creation thereof, or is it something more primal? Is it that we as women are hardwired to want to create life? I know that there are some women who have no desire to have children of any kind ever, and there are women who seem obsessed with being pregnant and giving birth to child after child. Those are extremes of course, but there is a wide range between those extremes. Is there something in a woman’s brain that is triggered by seeing a pregnant belly, something that causes a woman to yearn for a baby when she sees that big beautiful belly on another woman? I know I felt that longing when I would see a pregnant woman or a brand new baby, especially after my miscarriage. Even after I had a little girl of my own I would still feel that pull, that tug of something deep down inside. Even after I was sure I didn’t want any more kids, after my husband and I decided that one was enough (sometimes more than enough), I still felt a twinge somewhere around the region of my heart whenever I was faced with the proof of someone else’s procreation. Was it just the remembrance of what I once had, or was it that wiring telling me “You shouldn’t be done yet”?


I guess no one ever really knows for sure. I know I was done. Sure, I still got the twinges and longings. I even felt it when Katie Ward made her announcement a few months ago, but I was sure I was done with babies. I was so sure I gave everything baby away.


Then I caught pregnant too.