Kids keep you young? At 35 that’s hard for me to believe.
This pregnancy makes me feel old. Really, really old. Lately my purse is a portable pharmacy with giant bottles of Tums, Tylenol, various other meds, eye drops, tissues and Shout wipes.
Worse yet, my olfactory senses are disintegrating. That or my mental processes are on the brink. I won’t rail against the fact it might be both. Everyday – throughout the day – I catch a whiff of various scents: banana cream pie, fertilizer, salty pickles, poop on a shoe, or Earl Grey tea and milk.
Mind you, this isn’t related to my new, pregnancy-induced sniff-whiff power. (Which is mighty impressive.) These overpowering scents are pure imagination.
What isn’t my imagination are the gray sprouts and patches emerging in the outgrowth of my hair. It’s a drastic contrast the usual red-brown. Even sans my glasses I can see those ugly strands stealing my youth.
In the morning my bones creak. It takes awhile to get up and moving – and that’s with my heating blanket.
At the doctor’s office I’m given literature for geriatric pregnancies. Missing in the pamphlets are the images of vibrant, gorgeous, happy pregnant women. Instead the booklet is packed with explanations of various tests and the possible serious outcomes.
I have appointments to meet with geneticist, have a super-advanced ultrasound and an amniocentesis – all because of my age.
My pregnancy with Jay 15 years ago wasn’t like this. Yes, there were difficult months of morning sickness and later months of bed rest due to pre-clampsia – but between those, I felt like a glowing spring chicken. I scampered and dreamed. I nested and twirled. Life was grand and I didn’t give thought to being poor, what could go wrong or my age. I was going to be a mom – the rest would work itself out.
Today, I imagine the egg my middle-aged ovary released was as wrinkled as an over-dried California raisin. The only reason it sustained life was because an ardent sperm revived it with sweet talk and CPR.
Recently, I questioned the oldwives tale of children making parents feel younger to a friend. She had her children in her 40s and assured me that it was true — just not when you’re pregnant.
Who feels fantastic when they’re pregnant?
I’ll have to rely on her words of wisdom for now … and hope I don’t develop Alzheimer’s before the baby is born.
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Genevieve Hinson is a social media coordinator for Children's Hospital Central California. She's also a writer, wife and mom to two boys and a girl. The opinions she expresses here are her own, as is her obsession for coffee.
have I mentioned that I lurve your blog? because I do. hang in there, my friend, I hear pregnancy is a temporary condition.
I loved this line: The only reason it sustained life was because an ardent sperm revived it with sweet talk and CPR. I’ll be giggling about the visual it induced in my mind’s eye probably the rest of the day now!
I can’t speak from experience as per pregnancy later in life -I was 32 when my youngest arrived -but I will tell you this much about children keeping one younger, that part I do believe is true. Ok, it still doesn’t keep the creaking joints oiled any better and the memory tends to go off on its own little tangents too, but as one who is 64 years old and living with a 5-year-old and her 2 1/2 year old brother in my house, yes, they do make me feel younger in many way! Of course, they are my grandchildren and I DON’T have 100% of the worries that accompanies parenthood with them that I had with my kids but still, since they came on the scene, it does give me added incentive. Also gave me more fight when I was diagnosed with cancer five years ago, has helped me fight the depression that has so often plagued me throughout much of my life as well! And, as your friend told you, “Who feels good during pregnancy?” Ain’t that the truth though!
I was young (a baby really, at age 27, when I had my first child). But, I wasn’t doing any twirling…unless you count the twirling of the water in the toilet bowl that I threw up in EVERY, SINGLE day.
I did in my first pregnancy. In my second, not so much
Geriatric Pregnancy my ASS! You ARE the vibrant gorgeous woman who should be in the pamphlet, although it should be retitled Pregnancy in your PRIME!
Oh, and can you get on that pumpkin bread please?
xoxoxo
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[...] that interested, fascinated stare by the other person in the conversation is more about watching two squirrels fight on my forehead than any witty [...]
I think the doc’s are ridiculous. What about all these movie stars having babies on the high half of forty? Just read where Demi Moore wants to get pregnant.
Of course you’re aching and creaking, you have a family you’re taking care of while you’re pregnant.
Wishing the best for you, and don’t worry about what other people think.
Marilyn
I feel young again now. Truth be told, I had never felt older than when pregnant. But it was a strange experience.