Pregnancy Brings Pleasantness

An interesting thing happened the other day. I was out shopping and while looking at a jewelry counter, I heard a voice say, "You really didn't gain weight anywhere else." Startled, I looked up from the necklace I was eyeing to find an elderly woman smiling at me. I said, "Excuse me?" She replied, "You really didn't gain any weight. I can see your tiny baby bump, but you're still skinny everywhere else." Up until this point, I thought I'd done a really good job of hiding my baby bump - you know, wearing loose flowy tops. Don't get me wrong - of course I want to show off my pregnant belly, but I still feel as if I'm in that weird in-between stage where you can't really tell I'm pregnant and it just looks like I had a big lunch. Anyway, I said to the woman, "You can actually tell I'm pregnant?" And she said, "Of course! You have this pleasantness about you." I thought, "Oh, how sweet!" I guess that pregnancy glow really does exist. I was wondering when it was going to finally show up!

This woman was the very first person who asked if I were pregnant. And it seemed to create a domino effect because the next day, my students (very reluctantly) asked if I was pregnant as well. At this point, I thought I could either a) tell them the truth or b) keep lying and eventually have to tell them anyway a couple weeks down the road when I got too big to keep it a secret anymore. So I announced to all my students that I was in fact pregnant, and I was surprised to see that they were so happy for me. It was quite sweet. And pretty funny actually, because all my students said, "I KNEW it!" Apparently, they had all suspected it for weeks, but of course were too afraid to ask. You NEVER want to ask a woman if she is pregnant because if you're wrong, then you've just implied that she's getting heavy. My students reassured that I was not heavy at all - they simply started to notice things when only my stomach was getting a little bigger but I was still skinny everywhere else. And then they proceeded to tell me that they noticed I was dressing differently (one girl even said, "Yeah, you started wearing those elastic waist band skirts.") I really thought I had done a good job of wearing long shirts to hide it! But I guess there were times when I've written something on the board and my shirt may have lifted up a bit to reveal that I was in fact wearing maternity skirts :) I really underestimate my students sometimes - they are a lot more intuitive and observant than I thought.