Who Designed Pregnancy, Anyway?

I mean, the answer to that question is God, duh, but sometimes I wonder what He was thinking with this whole pregnancy thing...

Perhaps I could have come up with a better plan...but nobody asked me!

The most important formation of a baby's nervous system occurs during a time period when you don't even know you're pregnant!  Mamas could be smoking, drinking, not taking certain vitamins all while little bambino's brain is developing.  That's crazy!

Once you know you're pregnant and want/need to eat healthy for the baby, all food makes you want to throw up.  For me, it's either not eat and feel sick or eat carbs all the time and feel less sick.  Neither are the best nutrition plans for growing a human.

If you're lucky, and the morning sickness all day sickness is only temporary, you know you should be eating a healthy, wholesome diet, but look down at your huge belly and think "Why even bother?" as you grab the ice cream and a spoon at 9 pm.

Can't sleep during the time when you know you should be sleeping because sleepless nights with a crying and hungry baby are a' coming!

Exercise is important for mom and baby, but there are so many restrictions on what you can do, plus that big ol' belly doesn't make doing anything easy.

Drinking lots of water is also crucial for mom and baby's health but the pressure of baby on bladder means it's hard to get anything else done between the sipping and peeing.

You want to cherish the time with your current toddler before he gets ousted from his baby throne, but are told not to pick him up.  Because, you know, when the baby arrives, your arms will be freer then ;)

A common pregnancy phenomenon is getting the "dropsies" where you literally drop all the things all the time.  Every time you try to pick it up, it's like a remake of the "I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up" commercial.

After going through labor (and they definitely termed that correctly), all you want to do is recover and sleep, as a normal human would from any other major physical feat.  But nope, here's your hungry baby that wants to be fed at all hours of the day and night!

If breastfeeding babies is best, then why does it hurt so much for the first few weeks?  Couldn't we at least skip that pain?  Perhaps the men could have the mammary glands?

The best design of pregnancy, however, is the miracle of life that you get to hold after 9 long months of torture, and a sibling is the best gift you could give to your kids.  All of this suffering is for something that is so amazing, it never gets old...and is so worth it, we keep doing it again and again and again!  What can be greater than being a mother?

The Most Important Person

on earth is a mother. She

cannot claim the honor of

having built Notre Dame

Cathedral. She need not. She

has built something more

magnificent than any

cathedral—a dwelling for an

immortal soul, the tiny

perfection of her baby's

body...The angels have not

been blessed with such a

grace. They cannot share in

God's creative miracle to bring

new saints to Heaven. Only a

human mother can. Mothers

are closer to God the Creator

than any other creature; God

joins forces with mothers in

performing this act of

creation... What on God's

good earth is more glorious

than this: to be a mother?

—Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty

Maybe God knew what He was doing after all ;)