The curious incident of the dog - Christopher's story on becoming a father

Journal 2

(Dealing with pregnancy)

I'm going to be a father. My wife is pregnant and she is carrying our child. Pregnancy is a scary thing, one moment she is happy and eating everything in the fridge and the next she is in pain and crying about something irrelevant on TV like the puppies she was watching the other day. which doesn't make sense why she's crying because it's not like the puppies are in pain or something bad is happening to them, but she cries anyway. And despite how she cries she still watches the same channel. Why? I don't know. I learned that during pregnancy everything about the female body changes and Significant changes in your hormone levels can affect your level of neurotransmitters, which are brain chemicals that regulate mood. Therefore she is very emotional. I may not understand her sadness but I try to be supportive. I sit next to her while she's crying and I rub her back and listen to what she has to say. I used to not like touching people but I've learned that in some cases it's necessary. Like now.

"Christopher! Oh, Christopher!" She cries to me while she picks up a tissue from the blue tissue box sitting next to her with a bunch of other wet snobby tissues lying around, she then blows out her wet nose. "What is it?" I ask wanting to know why she's crying. "These puppies Christopher!" She cries again. "Soon they'll be taken away from their momma!" She cries harder this time blowing her nose again and then hugging a pillow to let her sobs out. I look at the TV screen seeing what might be on the screen. There was a litter of newborn puppies trying to walk to their mother. I scrunch my face confused. The puppies aren't even being adopted yet. I look back at her and rub her back again. I learned that sometimes I should just agree and be supportive.  "It is sad." I said to her, "But it's ok. The puppies here won't be treated badly." I say trying to make her feel better. She looks up a bit as she lets out a few sad whimpers. Her brown hair hung down messily on her face. She wipes her wet eyes and breathes in through her stuffy nose as she tries to calm down. She then looks at me and slowly nods. "Your right..." she says blowing her nose out again. "Oh what would I do without you Christopher.." she says, seeming to cry again. I let out a huff getting a bit tired from her crying. Every month it seems she gets more emotional than the next but I've gotten a bit used to it. In the end, it's not technically her fault she feels so sad. It's the hormones in her body. I find that most problems can be solved scientifically so her crying is normal. It wouldn't be normal if she wasn't and I think I would be more nervous about her pregnancy if she wasn't crying.

"Christopher, I am feeling a bit hungry.." she says, wiping her last tear away. "Do you think that you could make us dinner..?" She asks, looking at me teary-eyed. Her soft blue eyes being glossy and puffy from all the crying and her nose and cheeks red. She sort of looked like a wet apple. But a nice one. It was weird to describe. No one looks good when they're crying. It's a fact. Not even me. Everyone gets red eyes and a puffy face. Their face also changes to being unpleasant. More ugly. Also, mucus comes out there nose. And I hate mucus. But somehow she looked nice even with her red rashy nose and her puffy eyes and even with all the mucus coming out her nose and the amount of tissues lying around. Although the mucus still disgusted me. "Sure." I nodded, stood up, and walked towards the kitchen. I looked through the fridge to see what we had. I wasn't sure what to cook or make and I know recently she has been getting what they call 'pregnancy cravings'. Sometimes her cravings don't even make sense and are just plain disgusting at times. She might enjoy it but I certainly don't. I'm usually the one making it for her and it pains me to mix whatever sauces and foods she likes me to mix in. I know it may be a bit childish but I still don't like to mix in my food. Every portion has a place and a separate spot. I don't like mixing in my food. It's like cross-contamination. One time she asked for tuna and ice cream. And I asked why and she said it was one of her cravings. I didn't want to do it but I knew if I didn't she might get angry which can happen with her emotional swings. I saw her eat it happily and I decided to not watch her. It grossed me out. I then wondered why women get pregnancy cravings. Lately, I've been reading books and doing research about pregnancies. For her and my sake, I was getting a bit anxious about what could happen. I learned that scientists don't even know the exact reason why but pregnancy hormones can heighten the sense of smell and taste, creating both cravings and aversions. Which is interesting. And it seemed to be normal. Which is good. It might be concerning if she didn't have cravings. And that would make me more anxious.

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thanks for reading!

ik It's super short but it is an extra credit assignment for my class so it aint gonna be that much 😭

Maybe I'll add more in the future and I'll update it but we'll see.

since I did say there will be 3 parts this is only the first part so the second will come out. so be patient about that!

published - 10/14/2023