Conversations With a Pregnant Woman - Episode 3

This episode isn't so much about conversations, but interesting things that my lovely pregnant wife has told me. The first one comes from the horrible, horrible first trimester. It's clear that she had been reflecting on why the pregnancy would make her feel so terrible.

The human body, when it is under stress, or thinks it might be near death (by hunger, cold, disease, thirst, etc.), prioritizes each of your organs, allowing the least important to die first. The most important organ, the last one to be lost, is the brain. The brain is #1. This hierarchy is true throughout your entire life...except when you are pregnant. When you are pregnant, the fetus takes over the brain's #1 ranking. A pregnant woman's body will let her brain die in order that the fetus may survive.

Wow. I haven't verified how true that is, but I trust my wife's intelligence and biology education enough to believe it.

The next quote came from well into the third trimester. Last week, actually.

You know, I always thought that when I was pregnant, it would still feel like it was all my body. But there's absolutely no doubt that there is a completely separate entity living in my belly. I can tell right where I end and it begins. It's impossible to describe to someone who hasn't felt it.

Personally, I'm still astounded by the fact that every time I touch her belly now, I feel movement. Pretty freaky. I can't imagine what it would be like trying to fall asleep with something moving constantly inside you.