Essential Baby blogger Joseph Kelly
Very shortly after Susie and I had announced that we were expecting Maisie, our first child, I came home one day to find that my mate Dan had left a copy of Peter Carey's novel The Tax Inspector on my door step with a note that simply said 'Read this book and tell me what you think. Dan'. Intrigued, I tucked the book under my arm and headed inside to find a comfy reading spot.
A few weeks later I called Dan and arranged to meet him at the pub. Straight away he wanted to know what I thought of the book.
"Yeah it was OK. The end was a bit weird" I said.
"No, no. Forget about the ending. What did you think of the woman in it? The tax inspector?" The tax inspector in the title of the book was a Greek Australian woman called Maria Takis who, we are told, is very beautiful and has recently separated from her partner. She is also eight months pregnant. "Didn't you think she was incredibly sexy? I think pregnant women are the sexiest women in the world - and you're going to be living with one!"
To be honest, up until this point I'd never thought of pregnant women on any sort of scale of "sexiness". To me, pregnant women were sort of like mini-vans: transportational units for conveying children. And the only pregnant women I had ever observed were strangers on public transport who always looked hot and uncomfortable. And, just so we're clear, I don't have a fetish for hot and uncomfortable women.
But Dan had one thing right - I was living with a pregnant woman who, as it happens, was changing both physically and emotionally from week to week. The physical changes themselves of bigger breasts and a bigger tummy were novel, but not immediately what I would call "sexy". In fact I had to overcome the sense that holding this newly shaped Susie was a bit weird because she felt nothing like the woman I had married. Deep in the recesses of my mind it felt like I was cheating on my wife - with my wife!!
The emotional changes were a different story. Susie has for each of her three pregnancies been mercifully free of morning sickness. Instead, with each pregnancy she has been enveloped in a very warm and comforting bubble of pregnancy induced contentment. It's as if the more life started to grow inside her, the more life radiated through her. Call it the pregnancy "glow", but it seemed as though Susie had tapped into the essence of life and was keeping it as her own secret. And that was sexy.
We have now had three children and, at the risk of outing myself as some kind of weirdo, I've loved all the changes pregnancy has brought to our relationship. When we were discussing number three, one of the things I look forward to the most was that pregnancy time when everything seems to slow down and Susie and I have a very strong and shared focus on a new baby. And even with a couple of kids in the house we seem to find more time than usual to be together. And what's not sexy about that??
Do you find pregnant women hot or not? Has pregnancy given your relationship spice or put it on ice?
Comment on Diary Dad's blog.
