Grab Your Rabbits Foot and Troll Doll

Superstitions.  Everyone has them.  Whether it's avoiding black cats or saying "bless you" after someone sneezes, superstitions are extremely common in everyday society.  And when it comes to being pregnant there is no exception.

The most common superstition has to do with the first trimester.  Generally women see it as bad luck to announce their pregnancies during the first trimester, and especially when they announce it to more than just immediate family.  Well, as I've said in a previous post, the wife has announced it to almost everyone she knows.    I, on the other hand, announced it to a select few...maybe five people that aren't my family.  I think my reasons were based on superstition.  I didn't want to keep it to myself for 3 months, and then if something happened I would be alone in my grief.  So I told those who mattered and would be supports.  My wife is just the type of person who would die with a secret, not because she goes to her grave with the secret, but because it would kill her to keep a secret inside.  I'm just always afraid of jinxing myself, so I have waited.

One of our close friends is Jewish-through-marriage, and two big superstitions for her are calling the baby by its name before it's born and buying baby things before the baby is born.  Regarding the first one, well that's just creepy.  I mentioned this to a friend and she was like "what to you do, say hey Betty while looking at the stomach?"  See.  Creepy.  I call it baby, peanut, or parasite.  Loving and endearing terms, but never its name. As for buying things, my wife found a crib that she loved after looking at about a thousand cribs.  (I actually contemplated switching careers to making baby furniture since that's where the money seems to be.)  The crib was on sale and included a mattress so she wanted to jump on it.  My in-laws told us they would help with the crib purchase so the wife let them know.  The crib was purchased but my mother-in-law was a little hesitant with the purchase being so soon.  The way I see it though, is that we are going to have a baby, one way or another, so purchasing it now makes no difference.  I don't want to jinx ourselves though, so it's still sitting in the box.