This man tried being as pregnant as his wife for 24 hours

Is there a woman alive who wouldn’t love to see how a man handled pregnancy? We think not. The aches, the pains, the difficulty sleeping, the inability to tie one’s shoes—they’re all par for the course when you’re pregnant. But it’s just not something men can understand. Unless they try it for themselves.

One expecting woman, Lindsay Balmert of Ohio, challenged her husband Chris to be pregnant for 24 hours. And he accepted:

Using duct tape, the couple strapped an 8-pound medicine ball placed into a drawstring bag around his waist, along with a sports bra filled with weights. Chris emptied the dishwasher, did the chores, shopped for groceries and stopped by a cell phone store while lugging around his “baby bump,” finding himself out of breath as he struggled to complete simple tasks. Chris also found that sleep did not come easy as he struggled with back pain and insomnia.

He naively admitted to his wife the next morning, “I thought this would be a lot easier than it was.” (And women around the world could be heard laughing hysterically!)

Though he was grateful to remove the ball after 24 hours, he agreed to take another challenge if the video reached 100,000 views: labor simulation. Unfortunately for Chris (and perhaps fortunately for Lindsay) the video garnered well over 100,000 views. So the Balmerts found a labor simulation device and proceeded to record their experiment:

Wires were attached to his abs sending electrical waves through his muscles. Chris lasted all of 15 minutes.

“I feel so bad for you. I’m sorry,” Chris told his wife as his eyes watered from pain.

As amusing as these videos are, there’s more to the Balmerts’ story. They eventually learned that the baby girl Lindsay was pregnant with had a congenital heart defect that could require surgery three days after birth. Rather than sinking into sorrow, the couple decided to document the pregnancy so their daughter would be able to one day watch them and see how her parents handled the news with positivity.

Today, baby Ryann is happy and healthy, and the Balmerts remain optimistic about her future. We’re thrilled to see the family looking so happy:

This funny Instagrammer gave her husband a similar challenge—at least for a photo shoot! Instead of a medicine ball, this couple used a watermelon, which we’d say does a pretty good job of approximating what it feels like to be 39 weeks pregnant.

“So I made him try being me for an hour,” she captioned the hilarious photo. “Didn’t last 15 min.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXBwYEaFl_A/?utm_source=ig_embed

And the funny posts didn’t stop after this mama gave birth. Here’s another cheeky post from her page, where she pokes fun at the notion that staying home to take care of kids is somehow “easier” than going to work outside the home.

“‘I DON’T KNOW HOW YOU DO THIS EVERYDAY!’ Is now my second favorite thing he says,” she captioned the photo of her family. “The first one is ‘Don’t cook dinner, I’m bringing chipotle!'”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb0Kc0BlxWj/?taken-by=mayavorderstrasse

If you do somehow convince your husband to try experiencing what it feels like to be pregnant for any length of time, then he probably deserves his own mock paternity photo shoot. Dad-to-be Nick Roberts had a photographer friend stage photos of him in poses similar to what you’d normally see in maternity pictures. Instead of a baby bump, Roberts cradles his exposed belly. The results are hilarious!

If your partner wants to be more physically involved in your pregnancy, but isn’t quite up for strapping something heavy to his abdomen, this pregnancy bracelet could be a kinder, gentler option. The pregnant mom wears a device on her belly, and the non-gestational parent wears a bracelet that vibrates whenever baby kicks. What a cool way for dads to start bonding with baby before he or she is even born!

Do you or your partner want to brush up on the actual logistics, if you will, of childbirth before the big day arrives? Take a look at this viral video that demonstrates the process of cervical dilation using a balloon and a ping pong ball. It does a good job of explaining how it works, and the visual may help you focus when you’re in labor:

Do you wish your husband could experience pregnancy for a day?