Baby on the move

Sticky is well and truly on the move. Here’s my belly and notice the rounded end – that’s what it looks like when she tries to poke her head out through it!

She is now packing quite a punch. Over the past few days, she’s given me a few swift kicks and punches that have nearly winded me. I’m now beginning to think I may have a boxer on my hands, rather than a dancer!

While she is still lying across my belly, she’s starting to move up as I’m now feeling the kicks, punches and rolls a bit higher than normal. She must still have a fair bit of room in there to be moving around so much so it could still be a while yet before she starts to get a bit cramped. She’s about to become a “chubba bubba” so it will be interesting to see how quickly she grows.

I’d be quite happy if she stays on her side because it means I might avoid that delightful sensation others have told me about when she tries to yank her feet out from inside my ribs. I don’t think I’d miss out on too much if I didn’t get to experience that in my pregnancy. But, I’ll cope with it if I do.

While I feel like a punching bag at the moment, I’m making the most of it, and trying to prepare myself for when I won’t feel it as much. When she does eventually run out of room, I will feel the odd movement but it will go back to the waves and rolls, rather than the kicks and punches. I’ve become use to her daily routine and can now pretty much tell the time by how she’s moving. Some days she’s more active than others, but her routine is pretty set. It’s enormously reassuring to feel those movements and know everything is ok. I will have to find another way to reassure myself once those movements are no longer obvious.

I’ll be a bit sad once the movements stop. I must admit, I’ve now taken to lying on the couch at night, just staring at my belly to see it move. I’ve tried to film it a few times but of course she never does it when I’m ready for it. She likes to sneak up on me. But, when I am lucky enough to catch it, it makes me laugh, especially when she seems to be doing the hokey pokey and turning herself about. I watch my belly shake and roll from side to side in total amazement.

I think the pregnancy journey has given me an entirely new respect for my body and what it can do. As women, we spend so much of our lives hating our bodies. We torture ourselves with negative comments, striving to create some perfect image that doesn’t exist. Then, we take that negativity and pass it onto our daughters so they can torture themselves. I made peace with my body a few years ago but pregnancy and motherhood has taught me the value of continuing that peace into the future.

While I rub stretch mark cream onto my belly twice a day, it’s more about keeping my skin moisturised rather than caring about stretch marks. My husband told me he doesn’t care if I have stretch marks all over me and I told him I don’t either. At the end of the day, I’ll wear whatever marks I get with pride and appreciation for what my body accomplished. And, if my daughter comments on my wobbly belly, I will tell her that I’m very lucky to have it because it was her home for 9 months. And, because it was her home, and it bought her into life, it is something to cherish and love, not to hate. And if I ever hear her say negative things about her body or herself, I’ll quickly remind her of what her presence taught me.