"Showing"

So, I'm pregnant! Horray! 14 weeks today! I have finally gotten over the first trimester slump and feel less zombie-like. For two months, I did not enter the kitchen. I smelled things that I have never smelled before. I reverted to toddler-hood: I ate like a toddler, I napped like a toddler, I whined like a toddler.

I shall resist turning this into a pregnancy blog. At least, I will try. However, there are certain issues that have come up that I am thinking about now that I cannot seem to get away from writing about. So, here we go.

Due to the fact that I started to nap and eat like a fiend, I started to (ahem), "show," pretty early on. I'm not sure what I think about that word, "show." But I will tell you this--nothing could have prepared me for the utterly public spectable, or show case that I have become since I became pregnant.

The last time my body was so publicly scrutinized, I was a twelve year old girl struggling to conceal her training bra. Older women would eye me knowingly and tell me that I was "filling out nicely" or that I was "becoming a beautiful young woman." Then they would pointedly look at my body until I squirmed away. Somehow, though, they conveyed to me that I was the one who was not being polite for graciously undergoing this conversation.

Now, everyone eyes me. I came back to my workplace pregnant after the summer off, and gave a presentation. By the time I sat down, several people had apparently used the time to examine me and draw their own conclusions. Imagine my horror, after I tried to demurely break the news, when I learned that a room full of people were secretly scrutinizing my body!

So, I have decided to take every comment that people make about my body in the best possible light. For example,

"My, but you're starting to show already!"
I read: You look beautiful!

"When are you due? April 15? Wow!"
I read: I'm so sorry that your baby is due on tax day.

Sigh. Gone are my visions of slowly emerging as a pregnant women. All eyes are fixed on my growing body, like the fascinated watching of a Chia pet.