Day 78: Dealing with depression

For the baby, these are key times -- within the next three days, the baby's external sex structures will become clearly visible.

For mom, these are stressing times.

I'm not sure how normal pre-natal depression is, but it's definately not something to laugh about. Still, it has given us some absurdely comical situations. Earlier today I heard Elisa say the following all within a three-minute span of time:

I worry about work.

I worry that I'm not gaining any weight.

I worry about my bloodwork. I still haven't gotten back the results.

I worry about getting enough protein.

[and then, the punchline...]

I worry that I don't worry about the baby.

How can I be of any help in situations like these? I might as well be a cord of wood for all the good I am. Heck, an entire batallion of shrinks couldn't overcome such daunting odds. How can I tell Elisa not to worry, when it's not something she can control?

It's times like these when Elisa, frustrated at my lack of empathy, says things like, "I don't think you even care. I never see you talk about the baby!"

There's only the small matter about this blog...

But how can an informed expectant mother not be paranoid? As a mother, everything is bad for the baby. Everything!

Eat fish? Mercury poisoning! Eat tofu? Not enough Omega-3 fatty acids. Where can you get Omega-3 fatty acids? Fish!

Another example? Pregnant women should sleep. A lot. But they should not sleep on their backs. Bad for the baby. But they should also not sleep on their stomachs, for obvious reasons. They should sleep on their left sides. But not the right! It's got to be the left.

So when Elisa wakes up on her back, she's freaked out. As though for millenia, the human race barely survived the procreation process because of poor sleeping positions!

Elisa doesn't drink. She doesn't smoke. She doesn't do drugs. The kid should be okay. If it's not, it wasn't meant to be. But she's taking great care of herself, and despite what the pre-natal literature might say (the government should ban the book What to expect when you're expecting as a Clear and Present Danger to the mental health of expectant mothers), our baby has received better prenatal care than in 99.9999 percent of pregnancies.

So excuse me if I don't freak out about our baby's health. The odds are in our favor.

Now our kid's college fund is a whole different story.

by Kos | May 06, 2003 09:49 PM