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Susan’s Life with Baby: I Like the Movin’ Movin
Cha-cha-cha-changes! There are so many changes happening to my body during my pregnancy, I think I’ve lost count of all of them. Not to mention the fact that I don’t even know what it is like to feel “normal” and not pregnant anymore. Did I really used to be able to look straight down and see the tops of my feet?
Of all the changes in my body, both inside and out, I think the most recent change might be one of the coolest. In the first trimester, while I was lucky enough not to have morning sickness, I did have lots of different gurgling stomach symptoms: gas, bloating, cramping, etc. You name it — if at affected the stomach region, I felt like I had it. But now the rumbling in my tummy is something all together different because it has nothing to do with my digestive track and everything to do with the little person inside me. Feeling the baby move is a truly incredible gift.
At first, I wasn’t sure if it was the baby moving, or the mac‘n cheese I had with dinner settling in. It almost felt like a corkscrew spinning around in my abdomen, but I think as I grew bigger and the little guy had some more real estate to stretch his legs in, I started feeling his movements more clearly. People told me when the baby moves, it would feel like a fluttering butterfly, or a popcorn kernel popping in my belly. What it felt like to me was a gentle wrenching and twisting in my female parts — like a little fish doing a dance through a narrow coral reef. Now, it feels like sudden bursts of excitement and I totally understand the popcorn description. What’s even cooler, is that the movements are becoming more constant and regular throughout my daily routine. It can be really distracting at work because all I want to do is focus on the baby when he moves, but I know I need to stay on task.
Now, as I write all of this, I realize that I am not the first woman to be awed by feeling her baby start to move. I am one in a long line of ladies over centuries who have also experienced this milestone. However, like so many things in life, I think you can’t always completely understand something until you experience it for yourself.
The cherry on top of my baby-moving sundae is last night, my husband finally felt the little dude move, too! A week ago, we went to see the topical movie “Away We Go,” starring John Krasinksi and Maya Rudolph. The movie was stellar, and was the perfect choice for parents-to-be as the two main characters themselves are also expecting their first child and trying to decide the best place to live and raise their family, but I digress. Throughout the movie, I felt the baby move about as I often do when I am sitting still, and my husband kept his hand on my bump for the duration and felt nothing. Zip. Zilch. Not even a tiny pulse. So last night, when he actually felt several series of movements, we were both thrilled. It is so special for him to actually feel the baby and realize it is already a living thing, even though we haven’t actually held him or heard him cry yet.
There are so many aspects of being a mom-to-be that just don’t seem real yet, so feeling the baby move just helps it seem a tad bit more of a sure thing. Now, I just need to realize that the crib and changing table propped up in pieces in our guest room will be a lot more useful if it is actually assembled, even if it means bidding farewell to our cozy guest room! All in good time…one change at a time…
Tags: Life with Baby, pregnant, stories
