How are you keeping?

39+ weeks

As you can see, I’m on the verge of no longer having my special status of being pregnant! No one will worry about me lifting things or hurting myself any more. I will no longer have to plan 10 extra minutes into my outings for the conversations that will happen between me and 4 other women who have had children at some point in their lives. No more excuses to sit down while everyone else does it, or to take a nap whenever I feel like it. No more questions of ‘How are you keeping?’

See, here in Scotland, when you are pregnant your wellness enters into a different category. No one says, ‘Hey, how are you?’ ‘How are you feeling?’ ‘You doing ok?’ The only question of that nature that anyone ever asks you is ‘How are you keeping?’

The first time someone asked me this, I did manage to figure out what they were asking and as this question came many, many times after that, I quickly realized it was one reserved only for pregnant women. No one warns you of this, and everyone who asks expects you to know what they’re asking, so it’s very possible my answers have never made any sense and I’m completely misunderstanding the question. But, I figure if I’ve made it this far and people are still asking, I can’t be too wrong :)

So I will no longer be ‘keeping’, I’ll be holding, cuddling, shhhhshing, and praying that baby would just go to sleep! And after over 9 months of baby being on the inside, I am really looking forward to that.