Commentary by Danielle Pelkey

The North Jefferson News



I feel like everyone around me is either pregnant, just had a baby or making final arrangements to never have another child as long as they live.

These stages are quite different, although they all deal with the same subject — children.

When you are pregnant, especially with your first child, it is the most exciting and nerve-wracking time of your life. The fear is almost uncontrollable, but so is the excitement of being called “mama.”

When you’ve got a newborn on your hands, the feeling can be quite different.

Although you love this new baby and you would do anything to keep them safe, the lack of sleep tends to wear on your mind and body. There are many days that you just wish the sun would go down and everyone would go to sleep, for the love of God, just sleep.

But during the late hours of the night, when you’ve been up for way too long, you just wish the sun would come up so you would have someone to talk to.

The final scenario that my friends are going through is the permanent fix to having children. At this point in the game, it seems like more men than women are taking the steps to end this part of their lives.

They say it is easier on the men, and I would like to think this is the truth. Having something so final and permanent take place is such a sad time because everyone knows what that means. There will be no more pitter patters of little feet in the household.

This may make many of you send out a sigh of relief, but I know more than a few couples that have had these procedures reversed because they just weren’t ready to give up the early stages of parenthood.

These stages are all so funny because I am caught up somewhere in the middle of them all — I’m pregnant, I still have a daughter that rarely sleeps through a whole night and the thought of getting pregnant again any time soon makes me quiver.

There are some updates on the child that I’m carrying. We have finally come to a conclusion on the name game. After six months of pregnancy, we have decided to name our newest little girl Anna Cadence Pelkey. She will be named after my grandmother, Anna Louise Tesseneer, who passed away just a few weeks before we found out we were pregnant.

Another breakthrough on the pregnancy front is that you can gain too much weight while pregnant. Although everyone tells you that you are eating for two, the doctors do not seem to agree with them on that issue.

At my last doctor’s appointment, it was pointed out that seven pounds in one month is a little excessive at this point and I am to cut back on seconds and on the sweets.

I don’t think I agree with him on these issues. If not for seconds and sweets, life would be boring; just the first plate of food and nothing to polish it off with.

If this is the new rule, then I am absolutely going to make my first plate count. Don’t hold back on making the first plate if there are no chances of getting a second plate.

In a world full of super-sized menus and cheap snack choices, it’s hard to even consider these words of advice, but I will.

Maybe at my next appointment I’ll only gain six pounds. Now, doesn’t that sound better?