You should walk in wearing a button that says glad I'm not you.

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"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."

Some people are more sensitive than others and are also magnets for weird stuff like random strangers coming up and rubbing their belly without permission. I never got tired of saying when I was due, boy or girl ( never knew until born so that always prompted the obligatory "No Way!" and "How can you not find out" questions). I never really dealt with the touchers though - that's just weird. Maybe she gets inundated daily with her job. Imagine having a beer belly that random people come and rub without asking. Or since this is technically a tri-forum, having a six pack that everyone thinks they can touch and rub. After a while you get defensive. I've seen t- shirts like the button she had but I guess you can't wear the same shirt daily.

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Harry: "I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this."
Loyd: "I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's full of shit, man."

It would only take one belly-touch from a stranger for me to pull something like that if I were pregnant.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Is there a chance she thought the button was funny?

I don't know, she's always pleasant to me in a reserved way. I could see her being persnickety, she doesn't strike me as jokester, but who knows.

No doubt that would be weird but the whole tone of the thing was "don't talk to me about the baby" not to preempt some nutty person from randomly touching her. Not to mention at work she's basically enclosed behind a counter. You'd have to make a real effort to touch her or ambush her when she came out :)

That's an interesting response. I think even if I thought that librarian was a total bitch I'd still think she was wearing the button for the humor.

My wife is pregnant. She walked our dog two days ago after a full day of work. Dog took a shit, she bent down to pick up said shit and vomited on it.

Who knew morning sickness lasted all day for weeks on end? Not this guy!

Mrs wimsey came up with some pretty creative compound swear word rants while pregnant, esp during last few hot summer months. She also lost her shit and threatened to assault someone who made like she was going to touch mrs wimsey's belly while in line at the grocery store.

I don't comment on someone's pregnancy unless they open the line of conversation, or I can see the head crowning and need to find out what hospital they want to go to.

Have you got her mowing the grass too?

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Moving to a house (from a current no-lawn apartment) in the fall, I'm thinking 2nd trimester is the perfect time to introduce lawn work.

In some women it lasts until that baby is out of the mama. Not from an N=1 experience, but my sister with her first and a friend with all 3 of her kids. Brutal!

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Harry: "I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this."
Loyd: "I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's full of shit, man."

My wife has asked various women the old "so how far along are you?", only to be told "Oh no, Im not pregnant, Im just fat"

Finally learnt to just shut the hell up

When my daughter was six days old someone came up and told me that they think it's great I'm pregnant again because my children will be very close together in age.

At least they didn't give you the "Irish Twins" comment.

Probably just in a bad news since her job has her stuck in the 90s. At least you are there with her.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

I have witnessed this on a few occasions in my life. This has to be one of the most awkward situations that one can be in. Pretty awesome witnessing the reaction on both side of that exchange. I have seen some women react like it was no big deal, others look like they want to beat the shit out of them.

I always keep that one in my mental notebook in case I ever want to underhandedly destroy some woman's self-image. Don't know why I ever would, but it's there.

I find it's not so much this because I tend not to ask those things of people I don't know (mostly for that reason).

The real one is when you're on the bus/subway and can't quite tell. Do you offer the seat and take the risk that you look like an idiot? Or do you not, and take the risk that you look like a jerk?

At first I thought the solution was to make eye contact and just get up quietly, but there's always the chance that some other jerk will take it.