My Poor Wife

If you know, you know. If you don't know, you really, really, really have no idea whatsoever.

My beautiful wife has a severe case of pregnancy. A pregnancy is measured over 40 weeks, yet a woman's patience, endurance, and sanity can only last about 34 to 36 weeks. The last few weeks of suffering is just to make labor and delivery seem merciful somehow.

Each pregnancy is different and each pregnant woman is different but we've been at this point five times now and I'm earnestly wishing that baby girl would just arrive already. Mom can't breathe, she can't sleep, she can't walk or sit or stand.

People ask me how she's doing. The ones that know don't actually want to know. They sense the agony of it all from a mile away and they're actually just expressing sympathy. The ones that don't know are naively curious. They imagine pregnancy to be as beautiful in practice as it is in theory.

If they only knew…