Pressure

Parenting is kind of like living in a pressure cooker or under a microscope or as part of an olympic competition. There's just a lot of pressure and a lot of competition. From the get-go. From the first day of pregnancy you start thinking about those pregnant women that run marathons at 36 weeks along. You start thinking about those women that just "glow" and love every second of being pregnant. About half-way through the pregnancy you start analyzing how much weight you've gained and wondering how that compares to your friends and coworkers that have had babies. If you're like me, you start out the pregnancy really gung-ho--this time you're going to eat really healthy, cut out all the junk, cut out caffeine, exercise and stay in good shape the entire time. And then you reach about 6 weeks and start feeling miserable. And suddenly, you really could care less if you ever see another vegetable and those perky pregnant women on the workout DVDs make you want to go crawl in bed and pull the blanket over your head.

Add in the hormones. It's just a mess. You wind up feeling like a massive failure before you even hold the kid in your arms. I'm having a little failure pity party today. Tomorrow will be better.