Anyone who is a mother will understand what it is I am about to say. The rest of you, listen very carefully.
                                          The reason being, if you plan to ever have children of your own,
                                                 you will go through the same or very similar scenarios
                                                                from what I am about to describe.

This will be the moment when you will realize that your period is late.
It will either bring great tears of joy or it will throw you into a panic attack...
the likes of which you have never seen before. I had to tell my live in boyfriend first.
Then, there was the probability that I was going to have to inform my parents,
who had only been given 30 days to get used to the fact that I was now living with
my African American boyfriend.

                                                                                                    THE TEST 

                                                                                   Given the availability of home pregnancy tests,
                                                                     we all will run immediately to the drug store to make our purchase.
                                                                    Why not buy two? Just in case we make a mistake! (it could happen!)
                                                             In my day, you had to have the first morning specimen.So you ran to the
                                                       drugstore  with a bladder so full, that you could bounce quarters off of it. When
                                                          you finally get home, You head straight for the toilet. You try to read the
                                                      instructions,  while your hand shakes SO violently, that  the words are bearly legible.
                                                              It is now the longest 3 - 5 minute wait of your life. Finally, the results.
                                                                                                       POSITIVE!!!!
                                                              You stand and stare at that test in disbelief for a moment while it sinks in...
                                                                                      you are going to be someone's mother!

      THE ANNOUNCEMENT 

This moment comes for some immediately following
"The Sink In Period". Others wait until after they are completely sure.
This only happens after your OB/GYN informs you with a smile on her face,
that yes, you are in fact expecting.
(There is a sigh of relief that you did follow the directions properly)

                                                                                 MORNING SICKNESS 
 
                                                                       This is the time you will beg family and friends to put you out of your misery.
                                                                        You will smell and taste things that you never thought existed.
                                                                       Every one of these things will send you either hurling for the bathroom
                                                                        or laid out flat on the couch. Mine didn't begin until after my first exam,
                                                                          when I was definite I was pregnant. It makes me wonder if maybe
                                                                                         morning sickness isn't a bit psychosomatic.
                                                                                       I did anything I could to get through this stage.
                                                                              Even if it meant potato chips and ginger ale for breakfast.
                                                                       I wore the little motion sickness bands and prayed they would work.
                                                                         Nothing truly helped. I just did my best to get to the fourth month...
                                                                              ... That magical month when it was supposed to subside.
 

     THE HEARTBEAT AND MOVEMENT 

Up until this moment you will constantly worry about whether everything is ok
with the little being inside of your body. Your slightly bulging belly will be gooped up
and your doctor will commence searching for that tiny, amazing sound.
The squishy squish of your baby's heart beating in it's bearly formed body.
You will exhale a tremendous sigh of relief at that very moment. Soon following
that experience, you will find yourself  calling every last woman you know,
to ask her if what you just felt, could possibly be your little one moving inside of you.     
By the end of the 8th month at 4 a.m., you will be begging  this little critter
to stop kicking you in the ribs and bladder and to let you go back to sleep.

HREF="/Heartland/Bluffs/1650.html">              geocities