123. How Could She Not Know?

A couple of months ago Jeannette visited her family practice doctor.  She was constipated and having abdominal pain.  The doctor thought there might be a pelvic mass and ordered an ultrasound, requiring a month or so to be scheduled.

You've guessed by now: she's in her 8th month of pregnancy and will deliver this month or next.
So of course we wonder about her apparent cluelessness.

But think about it.  Many years of attempted conception; pretty much given up on it.  Too many months with periods a day or a week late and thinking, "maybe this is the month, maybe I'm really pregnant this time."  And then the tests return negative, the period begins.  Disappointment, tears, the self-promise to never allow expectations to rise again only to be inevitably broken.

So of course she's not going to allow herself to think that her weight gain, the abdominal expansion, the lack of periods, the intra-abdominal turmoil, could all be signs of pregnancy.