Getting to know you

Up to now, I've kind of felt detached from the baby - I know there's a being growing inside me, but it was more of an abstract idea. The last few days, however, I've felt like I'm getting to know the baby. I know that after I eat something sweet, there will be a party going on in my belly. When I lie down in bed at night, the first 10 minutes or so are a whirlwind of activity and then the baby seems to go to sleep. Sometimes when I put my hands on my bump during an energetic bout of wriggling and turning, I clearly feel a foot or a leg and that's an amazing feeling.

On Tuesday during my yoga class, we learnt about the different ways in which we can interact with our babies now and even how we can teach them a sleeping pattern that they will recognise after the birth. By stroking your bump energetically in the morning, you can teach the baby that it's time to wake up and once they're born, you can stroke their back for the same reason. Nice theory, except the baby wakes up well before I'm ready to and there is no way there's going to be any back-rubbing at 5 am... At the end of the yoga class, we all poked our bumps to see if the babies would react. I was one of only 2 women laughing because we were being kicked frenetically by the little creatures in our bellies. This is definitely not going to be a calm, quiet little child.

Two days ago I woke up at 5 am and couldn't get back to sleep. That keeps happening, but I don't get tired, so I must be getting enough sleep nonetheless. The baby woke up too and was wriggling around. Then I felt something I'd never felt before, as if the baby was jumping up & down. After a while I realised what it was - the hiccups! What a funny feeling. When R cuddles up to me early in the morning in bed, he always wraps his arm around my bump and almost every day now, gets a few kicks or what he says is a high five from his child. It's so nice that he can also interact with the baby in this way.

I keep discovering new things and they all add up to make the baby feel more real, more like our son/daughter and not just some abstract child that happens to be growing inside me. I'm really enjoying getting to know this little person already. It's true what my yoga teacher said - we're not going to become parents once I've given birth, we became parents the very moment I got pregnant.