Fame

One thing that I have learned about pregnant women is that people tend to treat them differently. Sometimes this is a good thing, like when a stranger will hold the door for Molly or offer to help her carry something. Other times this can be awkward, like when random people on the street ask to feel her stomach or decide to tell us about their friend’s horrible labor story. People simply enjoy engaging pregnant women in conversation, even if said pregnant woman is not interested, clearly in a hurry or visibly uncomfortable.

This might not seem odd to many of you, as a lot of the people reading this blog live in small, Southern areas that tend to be a little friendlier. While Washington DC is much better than most major metropolitan areas - we have a much more cordial, small-town feel than New York or LA - your average, everyday stranger is usually self-absorbed and indifferent to what is happening around them. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We love DC, but if you tried to make everyone’s business your own, you wouldn’t make it a block before you got shot, arrested or both. Maybe this is why it seems so unusual that Molly gets stopped almost daily while walking down the street.

I bring this up because Molly has been attracting quite a bit of attention lately, especially now that she is so late in her pregnancy. Just yesterday Molly was featured on the local NBC news affiliate. She was walking down to the gym to workout at 8:00 am, and NBC4 decided they needed to feature a pregnant woman in their weekly Healthy 4 Life segment. You can WATCH THE VIDEO HERE, but I am not sure how long it will remain online, so watch it fast! Unfortunately, after more than a year online, the video seems to be gone for good.

Here are a few screen grabs from the segment now that it has been taken off of the NBC4 website:


She looks great, but look how they butchered our name.


Working out with celebrity trainer Laurent Amzallag.


I think Laurent is trying to flirt with her.


Butt shot!

In other news, we attended our second Labor and Delivery class at the hospital, and again it was chock full of stuff I didn’t know. This class was a little more frightening, as we discussed how they administer an epidural, what happens if the baby needs medical attention after being born and other difficult topics.

During the lesson about the three stages of pregnancy, the instructor (Mel Gibson) explained why women have contractions and how they help in the labor process. Molly happened to be having a Braxton Hicks contraction during the lesson, and raised her hand to tell the class. Mel Gibson came over to feel her stomach, and suddenly Molly was up at the front of the room talking about her contractions. At the next class break, Molly was the most popular person in the room. Everyone was coming up to her asking if the contractions really hurt, when she was due, how she managed to look so good this late in pregnancy and – of course – if it would be alright for them to feel her stomach. No one in the class, not even Mel Gibson, thinks that we are going to make it through the final two classes without having the baby. We hope to at least make it through the next one, where we get to tour the hospital and learn about the Labor and Delivery unit.

It is really cool to stand back and watch Molly contend with her newly found fame. These types of situations happen almost everywhere we go and Molly always handles them with grace, even when I am about to tell the person to back off. She is a natural; I think she was a celebrity in a past life.