Letters to Zoe

Dearest Zoe,
I went to see the midwife this week and she said that you are growing healthily. You are now more than 4 pounds and you have plenty of amniotic fluid in there. When I was in N.H., I woke up one morning to find that my back was hurting a little more and that my belly looked and felt differently. The midwife confirmed that this was probably the date you turned your head down, since now you are clearly in a head down position! Having your head down apparently has nothing to do with whether or now you will arrive early, but nevertheless, I am nervous that you are going to come before we have taken the childbirth class.
Yesterday I went to view the ABC room at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, which is where we will be having you. It is a beautiful room with green walls, pictures, a huge grey tub, and a queen size bed. I was really impressed--especially when I saw the normal birthing rooms---they were so much uglier. They only had one little cot that was hooked up to a big machine, and that was it! I am so glad I am choosing to have you with little intervention and the opportunity to walk around, take a shower, take a bath,etc.
The lady who showed us around the hospital had a list of recommendations of things to bring when you start labor. She made a joke that "you might want to remember to bring bathing trunks for your partner because it is quite the shock when we see a naked guy laboring with a woman in the shower." Apparently, people get so into the birthing process, and the guy is trying to help, and he ends up....naked?

Dearest Zoe, 
I am now about thirty three weeks pregnant, and I wanted to share with you a letter I wrote over Spring break because I think it will give you an idea of how much has changed since then. I was only around 19 weeks pregnant, and I didn't know that you were even a girl!

April, St. Augustine Beach, FL
When I first told my first graders I was pregnant, I don't know what I was expecting to receive in response. Warm accolades, a toast, congratulations perhaps. I imagined that they would be full of burning questions, perhaps worried about me. Instead, when I sat them down and gravely announced my prengancy, they were simply perplexed. There was several seconds of silence, what seemed like abnormally quick acceptance, and then several students began to make connections to their own short six years of experience with pregnant women:  "My aunt was pregnant." One girl offered. " I saw someone on TV who had a baby and then threw the baby out the window." Samira told me. After everyone had offered their vague and disconnected stories on pregnancy, we talked about umbilical cords and belly buttons. I told them that their mommies had fed them through these holes in their belly. Everyone touched their belly buttons in awe and I was certain I had taught them plenty for the day.  Carlos, still perplexed about pregnancy, mentioned that babies were actually delivered by birds, which confused the whole class more. At this point, I was certain we had had enough for a day.