I didn't write this post, although I wish I had. This is a guest post brought to you by Geohde's Great Blog Cross-Pollination! Read carefully - you have to guess whose it is.



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Now I was one of those girls who, as a kid, loved forming girls-only
clubs that had secret signs and used invisible ink bought from the
back of comic books to write secret messages that boys couldn't see. I
have three sisters close in age to me, and we've been accused of using
a lot of inside jokes and even having whole conversations while hardly
using a word (my husband HATES this.) When I became a nurse, I was
inducted into yet another club, where medical lingo and sharing
gruesome stories over dinner was the protocol.

This week, as I sat at lunch with other girls on the unit, I think I
was inducted into another. My friends on the unit are all mothers,
with one other being pregnant herself. We were all commiserating over
our pregnancy symptoms and sharing stories, when one of the girls
leaned over and said, "You know, I hate to say it, but women who have
children are very cliquish, they're part of this Mommy Club. You know
you're one of them now. Have you noticed people will start telling you
their horror stories? That's the equivalent of hazing you."

And you know what? I think she's telling the truth. I've noticed that
since people have learned I'm prego, I'm treated a little differently.
Not like I was shunned before, but women talk to me more often at
work. Childbearing is a commonality that most women share. And that's
what can suck about it too. Not all women who want to share it can.

I know my pregnancy was a total fluke. I hit the 3% lottery and got
knocked up on a rest cycle the old-fashioned way. And it could have
been completely different. I could just have easily still be feeling
like the fat girl getting picked last for the kickball team.

Still, there is one secret society we on this edge of the blogosphere
are a part of, we out here in IF land. We have our own secret
language, our own horror stories, our own tales of triumph. Our
in-crowd might be smaller, but it is just as tight-knit. It feels good
to be straddling both circles, knowing that whatever the outcome of
this conception, there is always a place to go home to.

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Did you guess whose post it is? Ok, I'll give you a hint - in the form of this list of paricipants. Now did you guess? If so, click here to find my post for today.