Hysterical

I have this iPhone pregnancy application, where you can access online forums. After entering your due date when using the app for the first time you get access to heaps of general pregnancy forums, like '35+ mums', 'dad's corner', 'multiples and twins', etc. I've also been placed in a 'February 2011' forum, which is actually quite an interesting one, as there are heaps of women on this forum all due in Feb '11. Which means sharing the same symptoms, oddities, pleasures and concerns.

This pregnancy app originates from What to Expect When You're Expecting, a US bestseller, so there are mainly Americans on these boards. This way I get quite a clear picture of how pregnancy care is arranged in the US, and how women in the US think and act around pregnancy. It's certainly different.

For example: they get pregnant women a first (vaginal) ultrasound when they are 5 weeks underway. What happens then is that there is nothing to see on this ultrasound as it is acutally quite early on. Often there is just a gestational sac and no yolk, or the other way round (still not an expert...), resulting in a lot of hysterical women on the forum who think they are miscarrying. Because there is nothing to see, a second ultrasound is arranged, just a few weeks later. Some of them can then actually hear a heartbeat, but a lot of them can't or it's erratic, as it's still early on. More hysterical women on the forum...

Then we've had a couple of weeks in which people wondered 'to tell or not to tell' and 'who to tell'. A lot of stories about horrible Mothers in Law, jealous friends and sisters, and work colleagues who couldn't keep their mouths shut. It's quite the rollercoaster ride :-0

And continuously going on are stories about hormones and moodswings. Some are crying because they've sent their husband out in the middle of the night for a very specific sandwich, and when he finally got home with the right thing they realised after looking in the fridge that there is no hot ketchup! Hysterical, so I thought... until:

1. Ziva came home the other night with a dead bird - booohoooooooooooo
2. My manager said she had no problems with me cancelling my trip to Wellington - boooohooooooooo
3. A police dog in Christchurch got shot and on the tv they showed him lying on the street - boooohoooooooo
4. A young boy brought flowers and a card to the police station for the dead dog (story in the newspaper) - booooooohooooooooooooooo