What to Expect

I was going through my baby books the other night to pass along any that I no longer need now that my daughter is now a toddler. As I was flipping through What to Expect the First Year, I noticed the one I had was published in 1989 so it would have been the edition that I may have read had I parented my son and it is very likely the edition that M referenced her first year with him. When I came upon the chapter about adoptive parents, I read every word looking, as usual, for clues to my son’s babyhood. (Any time I see articles about adoption, especially the ones aimed at adoptive parents, I read every word to find out what they have to say and how the content might be a reflection on his upbringing.)

I was also hit with the memories of reading What to Expect When Expecting late in 1990 when I couldn’t figure out why my gums were so sore and discovered that it was associated with pregnancy. I remembered sitting in the airport, wondering when my gums were going to stop being sore, waiting to fly home for Christmas and hoping my parents wouldn’t notice somehow that I was pregnant even though I was only at the tail end of my first trimester. After all, on every date I ever went on my mother would send me out the door with a firm, “Don’t come home pregnant!” They didn’t figure out I was pregnant, but it was a memorable Christmas for me nonetheless.