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She's Having a Baby!
by Vanessa Williams
11-May-03
Mother's Day 2003 - Back to the warmth of Los Angeles on a two-week break from shooting the television series Soul Food in Toronto, I enjoy Mother’s Day and my birthday weekend in the arms of my fellas: my husband André and our son Omar.
On Mother’s Day after church services we did something we never do -- we went to the beach. Although we live in sunny California, it’s rare that we ever go to the shore and enjoy one of the things California is famous for. So, on Mother’s Day Sunday, for the first time in years the three of us lay on Venice beach taking in the sun, speeches and songs. There’s a gathering going on, a Code Pink: Peace on the Beach demonstration in the tradition of the first Mother’s Day (where women gathered to protest the Civil War and the loss of their sons. The women wrote a proclamation vowing to band together and never let war and loss happen again, to anyone’s son).
Afterwards, my family and I walk to the shore and let our feet get wet. Splashing and playing, Omar tumbles and gets more than just his toes soaked. I make a note to myself, “When you get back home from Toronto…go to the beach, regularly!”
In this picture I’m three months pregnant and already showing! It’s as if my body sent out an all points bulletin to alert the organs and cells that “Hey, we’re PREGNANT! You all know what to do. Assume the position…and STRETCH!”
They say after your first pregnancy that you show even earlier with your next; since I showed at four months with my first, it stands to reason that my belly would begin to spread with the first whisper that I was pregnant again. Of course, there goes my plan to lose a few pounds. Now I prepare my ego for the latest “the invasion of the body snatchers.”
It’s not so much that I mind growing a belly. Actually it’s fun and kinda cute. And I certainly can’t resist all the love, gushes and special treatment you get as a pregnant woman. I feel especially blessed and empowered when I’m pregnant, like I’m walking around with a smile inside me. A little miracle person is forming within and that makes me and all mothers miracle workers. It’s an awesome assignment. No wonder you glow.
So I’m glowing and growing off-screen, but my on-screen counterpart is mysteriously getting bigger. The producers assure me they’re going to write the pregnancy into the show, but for now, instead of being one of the fashionable expectants that litter the pages of In Style and Fit Pregnancy magazines, I’ve been relegated to wearing “muu muu”-style black sheaths with unstructured jackets. Okay, it’s not that bad, but I can’t wait until my character Maxine is out of hiding and we’re styling my belly à la Sarah Jessica Parker.
I’ve already seen a nutritionist and had my first prenatal exam. My diet consists of small frequent nutritious vegetarian meals and, of course, potent prenatal vitamins, full of folic acid and all the other extra vitamins and nutrients necessary to growing a healthy baby to term. I feel fine and fit and I occasionally practice with my prenatal yoga tape, but the significant symptom of pregnancy is first trimester fatigue. In this and my first pregnancy I haven’t experienced morning sickness, so lucky me, I get to gain weight through the entire nine months.
Seriously, I do appreciate the blessing of not feeling ill every morning, it’s just that the weight thing stays on my mind; perhaps because I make my living in front of a camera that already adds 15 pounds to whatever weight you’re carrying. I’d love to be one of those moms who snap back immediately after delivery and people have to ask with disbelief “ You just had a baby?”
But enough about my vanity, and my falling victim to our society’s obsession with thinness; that’s both inhuman and unwomanly. For me, pregnancy is a great time to celebrate the magic of full hips and thighs and a big round belly that bring good things to LIFE!
Editor's note: This diary represents the opinion of the writer and not necessarily that of the March of Dimes.
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