(*NOT MINE, OBVIOUSLY!!* lol)
My phone started pinging yesterday afternoon... Messenger group chat among dh's cousins. Just guess!! -- an ultrasound photo!! His cousin who has lived in Australia for the past 15 years or so is PREGNANT. (AND -- GASP!! -- she's NOT MARRIED!! lol -- this DOES NOT HAPPEN in dh's Italian Catholic family! lol I don't think any of the cousins care, although there may be a few older relatives who will cluck their tongues over it.) She is due early this fall.
She just turned 40 in January. I honestly thought she didn't have any interest in having babies. She's a doting aunt & godmother, but never seemed too interested in settling down and having kids herself. She's a pretty successful executive, leads a fabulous social life (at least it seems so from the photos she posts on social media), and travels around the world a lot for both business and pleasure. "I hope she doesn't regret it someday," her sister-in-law confided to me & SIL once.
Of course I wish her well -- especially right now, given the state of the world... Many of the cousins remarked on how nice it was to have some good news in the middle of all this global chaos and uncertainty. (I wonder how many of them will be as worried for her as I'm going to be?? -- knowing what I know about pregnancy at the best of times, never mind in the middle of a global pandemic...)
Just feeling a little wistful that she managed to pull a rabbit... ummm, baby... out of the hat before her fertility ran out -- right at the same point where I had to give up on my own dream of motherhood. :(
Maybe she was always interested in having babies, but never found the right person, does a good line in fooling people (clearly successful in that), and travels for business and pleasure because that's what she does when she couldn't have kids, or just because she loves it. (I'd have done that if I had kids or not - if I could afford it.) If she's having children alone at 40, she seems to have chosen to do that because otherwise it would have been too late.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, any pregnancy announcement is a little bittersweet, I agree. I had one in my family recently, from a niece who has PCOS and was worried she'd never have kids. She very thoughtfully told me in advance of any public announcement.
The dad is in the picture... it's possible there could be a wedding in the future. (Or not, lol. I guess we'll see!)
DeleteI am glad your niece was tactful enough to give you some advance warning!