ExpectingWords.com - Helping expecting couples find the right words at the right times

Last Friday night my husband and I were out on a date night.  We went for drinks at a nearby bar after dinner.  It was a nice evening, until we encountered a child – a little girl, in the lounge at the bar, with her dad.  Given, it was only 8pm, but still, a toddler at a classy bar that does not serve food on a Friday night?

And this was no saintly child.  She was running around blowing out all the candles (quite a metaphor for killing the romance), collecting seat cushions, climbing bar stools, pouring water into the candle holders, and then drinking from them.  One of the bartenders ran to clean up her new mess every few minutes. “A terror,” I heard the bartender mumble to the other bartender.

The terror’s dad watched.  The few times he tried to stop her she would kick and scream.

After observing this nonsense for 15 minutes I went over to ask the dad how old she was because she seemed so unmanageable (I said this in as nice a tone as possible).  She’ll be three in April, he said.  Then he admitted with a guilty look, yes, she is unmanageable and this isn’t even her at her worst.  She’s bossy and demanding all the time.

Then this father said one of the strangest things I’ve ever heard:  (more…)

In yesterday’s Sunday Styles section of the New York Times, Tara Parker-Pope wrote an article called “She Works.  They’re Happy.” about a new study from the Pew Research Center showing that divorce rates are lower and couples are happier when… get this… the wife is the primary breadwinner and the husband does a fair share of the child care and housework.  While it’s been traditionally thought that female economic independence is a leading cause of divorce, this research turns that idea on its head.

“Wives are now the primary breadwinner in 22 percent of couples, up from 7 percent in 1970.”

“Over all, the evidence shows that the shifts within marriages — men taking on more housework and women earning more outside the home — have had a positive effect, contributing to lower divorce rates and happier unions.”

And this increased happiness occurs even when the husband does less than 50% of the housework and childcare.  As long as it’s more than older generations of men did, she’s somewhat pleased.       (more…)

At first she thought her husband was the sweetest thing ever. Once they saw the pink line revealing her pregnancy he began offering to carry anything and everything in her hands (grocery bags, shopping bags and even her heavy purse!). He’d clean the dishes so she could rest at the table; repair the computer so she wouldn’t have to bend down to the floor to reach the hard drive.

What a wonderful husband, she thought. And then he started on her love of tuna fish sandwiches. “If the doctor says you shouldn’t eat tuna more than twice a week, there must be something wrong with it. I don’t want you to eat ANY tuna while pregnant.” They argued, he won. What if something happened to the baby? She couldn’t live with the guilt of the tuna.

Then he was drinking beer. She wanted a sip, just a sip. “Are you crazy????” No sip. She began to lie about her lunches to hide the fact that she ate bologna (a prepared lunch meat – also on his do-not-eat list). This pregnancy had turned her husband into a paranoid barrel of overprotective obnoxiousness.     (more…)

According to a Time Magazine article from 1945, the longest pregnancy was 12 months, 10 days.  If you have a hard time believing that, perhaps some of these other random pregnancy facts might interest you.

4.25 million babies are born in the United States each year.

In 1970, the average age for a first-time mother was about 21.

In 2005, the average age for a first-time mother was about 25.2.

In 2006, it dropped to 25.

There were 5.1 million stay-at-home moms in 2009, down from 5.3 million in 2008.

There were 158,000 stay-at-home dads in 2009, up from (more…)

Panda inseminated, seriously

Pandas go into heat only once a year and it only lasts 48 hours!  Not wanting to miss the window to increase the panda population, Mei Xian was artificially inseminated by Tian Tian’s sperm.

New treatment for Melasma, a condition during pregnancy

Melasma is hormonal disorder causing dark patches in the skin and most often, it’s seen in pregnant women.  Affecting 45 million people nationwide, the condition is most noticeable in women with darker skin.  Now there is a treatment.

Game plan is essential for working pregnant women     (more…)