People are real and so are labor pains.

This seems like it's coming out of nowhere, but do I care?  Nah.

1.  Giving birth to a human being opened my eyes.  I began to look at the people around me -- at the grocery store, at church, in stand-still traffic -- and I realized that the earth is swarming with people.  Each of these people were brought into the world by a mom who felt contractions, experienced the most pain a human could experience, and in the end -- by some miracle -- out came that person.

2.  Seriously.

3.  This brings me to my main point.  Not until I had a child did I realize the complete sacrifice it is.  And, yes, they certainly consume your life once their sweet selves are actually in the world, but when they're sealed inside your body, that's an entirely different story.  A life is inside of you, and you are nourishing this life, carrying it, feeling it, constantly living with it.  It effects all of you: your sleep, your eating habits, your puking habits, your body, your mind, your emotions, your wardrobe.  Then the scariest, most exciting day comes: labor.  The center of your body is tightening and releasing -- you feel it in every nerve.  The contractions start small and slowly grow and grow until you are so concentrated on what used to be the natural, thoughtless movements of your body -- you think through every breath, measuring it.  You think through the lean of your body, trying to bend to the most tolerable position.  You think through each step, each pause, every slight movement, and you feel every part of your body.  "Pain" becomes a feeling and an emotion and it's all that consumes you -- that and the thought of the sweet baby that will soon be in your arms.  It builds and builds and when you think it can't get worse, it does.  Yet somehow you pull through it until a little, crying bundle is placed in your arms and it needs you more than it needs anyone in the world.

4.  Okay, that's impressive.  Way to go, all moms across the universe.

5.  And maybe THIS is my main point.  Because of my eye-opening experience and my understanding of what it means to bodily-house and bear a child, the 2 following things just make my neck twitch a little, my lip curl a little, and my left-over baby belly bounce a little (<-- gross, funny, and only half-true):
Hearing, "Oh, my sister is pregnant.  They find out the sex of the baby in a couple months.  Pretty cool."  Pretty cool?!  Your sister is a super-hero, okay.  You should be passed out on the floor by how  impressed you are that the life inside of her is actually a boy or a girl.  You should be in awe that your sister is WITH CHILD.
And, secondly, the Facebook status.  An aunt or uncle or friend or acquaintance has every right to be excited about their friend/relative going into labor -- by all means, make a status.  But when the status is something like, "The baby will be here in a few hours!! Hooray!!"  I can't help but think, "IS THE MOTHER ALIVE?!?!"  Where are the updates about the mom?  Your sister-in-law feels like she's riding the wings of death, and all you can think about is the awesome, adorable baby that she and her husband and all those doctors are working so hard to bring into the world.  Have some respect for the almost-dead.


And I think that just about covers it.