"M'boys Can Swim!"

I asked Husband last night if he secretly felt some sort of macho pride in having gotten me pregnant. My husband isn't the stereotypically macho type-- he doesn't watch sports, drink beer, walk around with his shirt off every chance he gets, kick dogs, or whatever. I was expecting him to say something like, "I was just happy."

Instead: "Yeah!"

So I pressed the issue. "Do you think that's just because of where we are in our life right now? Because we're ready for a baby? Or is it some sort of quality inherent in most men? Like, if we were 17 and I got pregnant, would there still be a part of you that felt manly for having knocked me up?" He said that underneath the panic and confusion at the thought of becoming a teenaged father, he'd have still felt a macho pride about the situation.

Huh. Interesting.

I wonder if women ever feel something akin to that. Something like, "Yes! My ovaries rock!" I didn't. I thought to myself, "Well, here we go!" I felt that a process was just beginning. I didn't feel a sense of accomplishment because I felt like I still had so much more work to do. Husband's job in the baby making process was pretty much finished back on July 4th, but I'm committed to seeing this all the way through-- I must feed my little parasite, carry it around, and share every second of my time and all of my energy with it. Husband does a fantastic job of taking care of ME, but I'm taking care of Baby alone right now.

I'm glad that Husband feels a sense of macho pride, though. It's cute. (Is that an emasculating thing to say? I hope not.)