向前一步:第144期 让你的另一半成为你真正的人生搭档(2)

 　　It was all worth it when my son was pronounced healthy and the nausea¹ that I had felt for nine straight months vanished within an hour. 当医生宣布我的儿子非常健康时，我觉得所有的痛苦都是值得的，9个月持续不断的妊娠反应也完全消失。

　　The worst was over. 最痛苦的时候似乎已经过去了。

　　The next morning, I got out of bed in my hospital room, took one step, and fell to the floor. 第二天早晨，我从病床上起来，刚迈了一步就跌倒在地上。

　　Apparently² I had yanked my leg back so hard during labor³ that I had pulled a tendon. 原来分娩时太过用力，让我拉伤了肌腱。

　　I was on crutches⁴ for a week. 我拄着拐杖度过了一个星期。

　　Being unable to stand added a degree of difficulty to my first week of motherhood but also provided one unforeseen benefit: 无法站立的状况让我在当母亲的头几周里遇到了更多困难，但也带来了事先没想到的好处：

　　Dave became the primary caregiver for our newborn. 大多数时候，照顾宝宝的人是戴夫。

　　Dave had to get up when the baby cried, bring him to me to be fed, change him, and then get him back to sleep. 孩子一哭，戴夫就得起床把他抱到我身边吃奶、换尿布，然后再哄他睡觉。

　　Normally, the mother becomes the instant baby care expert. 通常情况下，妻子是处理各类紧急情况的育儿专家，

　　In our case, Dave taught me how to change a diaper when our son was eight days old. 但我们家却是由戴夫教我怎么给8天大的儿子换尿布。

　　If Dave and I had planned this, we would have been geniuses. But we didn't and we aren't. 如果戴夫和我能事先想到这一幕，那我们就是天才了。但是我们没有并且也不是天才。

　　In fact, we should have planned a lot more. 事实上，我们的确应该准备得再充分些。

　　When I was six months pregnant, a Ph.D. candidate interviewed me by phone for her dissertation⁵ on working couples. 当我怀孕6个月时，一位博士候选人为撰写一篇关于上班族夫妻的论文对我进行了电话采访。

　　She began by asking, "How do you do it all?" 她一开始就问：“你是怎么做到这一切的？”

　　I said, "I don't. I don't even have a child," and suggested that she interview someone who actually did.  我说：“没有啊，我的孩子都还没生出来呢。”我建议她采访那些生完孩子的人。

1 nausea   

n.作呕，恶心；极端的憎恶(或厌恶)

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕期常有恶心的现象。
• He experienced nausea after eating octopus.吃了章鱼后他感到恶心。

2 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

3 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

4 crutches   

n.拐杖, 支柱 v.支撑

参考例句：

• After the accident I spent six months on crutches . 事故后我用了六个月的腋杖。
• When he broke his leg he had to walk on crutches. 他腿摔断了以后，不得不靠拐杖走路。

5 dissertation   

n.（博士学位）论文，学术演讲，专题论文

参考例句：

• He is currently writing a dissertation on the Somali civil war.他目前正在写一篇关于索马里内战的论文。
• He was involved in writing his doctoral dissertation.他在聚精会神地写他的博士论文。