(Diary) Week 42: Patience is a Process
But the baby is worth the wait.
Welcome to my diary. These are entires I wrote during my own pregnancy. What you’re about to read is unfiltered, unedited, and perhaps a bit uncanny. But these are my raw feelings written in real-time. Everyone’s perspective and journey is different. This is mine.
Dear friend,
Jen Glantz here.
I’m writing this in advance (week 40, day 5) and scheduling it to go out to you later on.
As you read this, I’m either in labor or in panic mode.
So to spare you those details, for now at least, I figured I’d write something special to you about what the final weeks of pregnancy are like.
Spoiler alert: You’ve never been more thankful for your friends and loved ones BUT you just wish they’d stop asking you if: you had the baby yet?!
Because if you didn’t, just seeing that message pop up on your phone can send a person into an angry stammer.
This part of pregnancy is all about patience - sharing more about that below.
Some quick things I loved this week:
❤️ I’ve been writing a lot of articles for other publications too. Sharing those with you here to eyeball, if you need a little something extra.
❤️ A really awesome resource for breastfeeding that Mandy Moore even used!
❤️ Products that I fell in love with this week:
-I put together a list of items that helped me get through pregnancy. Here are general items and here’s a list of the maternity clothing I bought - that I actually loved and wore.
-Sharing more about my stroller shopping process and which one I picked here. Also super grateful for this lightweight stroller that was sent to me over the weekend. Can’t wait to try it out!
-Hello Bello sent over a care package of diapers, creams, wipes, and more. I’ll be testing them out and sharing how I feel about the brand with you soon.
**I made a bunch of detailed lists of all the things I bought for pregnancy, postpartum, and for the baby. Here’s where you can eyeball / share these lists with anyone who needs them**
❤️I’ve been spending time spilling my thoughts on TikTok. Watch some of that fun stuff right here!
What Patience is Like When You Don’t Have Any
A lesson on patience
(from someone who does not have any)
Be 41 weeks pregnant. Go past your due date. Listen as everyone asks you a question you couldn't possibly know the answer to:
"When will this baby show up?"
Think about rolling your eyes. Roll your words inside.
"The baby gets what the baby wants and the baby wants you to stop asking. JUST KIDDING! I love you! I just have no idea."
Find ways to pass the time.
Deep clean everything in your apartment: scrub the walls, pick out the dirt inside your headphone buds, vacuum underneath your couch cushions.
Learn a new dance on TikTok.
Walk circles around the block until you hit 10,000 steps.
Bug your account. Ask passionately to file your taxes early.
Watch videos on how to make childbirth less intense. Realize it will be more intense than anything you’ve ever experience before.
Roll loose change.
Wash your hair. Wash it again.
Replace all the hangers in your closet with new ones.
You’re passing the time because by now, you thought you'd be someone's mom. You already spent months packing up your old life, setting up for the new one.
You cleared your calendar. You RSVP'ed no to everything that requires you to put makeup on. You scheduled 57 work emails. You filmed 46 pieces of content for the internet. You wrote so many things, in case your brain temporarily fogs up too much to write..anything.
Question your purpose in life.
What are you actually here on this planet to do?
Right now it feels like your only purpose is to have this baby.
Remember the book you wanted to write? The TV show you wanted to sell? The business you wanted to start so you could make millions of dollars?
Those feel like someone else’s dreams.
Not yours, anymore.
And without those dreams, who are you, anymore?
Everyone tells you to be patient.
You know things happen when you least expect them to.
But if you expect nothing then it just feels like you have nothing…
…going on.
And you’re the kind of person who needs something…
…going on.
Or else you wonder:
What’s the point?
Some days, you think patience is stupid excuse for watching time pass, for watching the clouds laugh as they run past you in the sky, for hoping for something when there is nothing.
Other days, you remember that patience is what creates beauty, and love, and joy, and what is meant to be.
But today, patience feels like leg jitters and a gargling stomach. It feels like forever. It feels like your only purpose right now is to learn it, because you are someone who doesn’t have any of it.
No, none of it, not at all.
