Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Belly Reflections

Almost from the first moment that I knew I was pregnant, I looked forward to feeling our baby move.  I mean, I was really excited about the idea!  And for the past 3-ish weeks since my morning sickness stopped, I've seen it as the next sign that this pregnancy is real and is continuing to be healthy.  I know that you don't have to feel your baby move for everything to be totally normal.  But still, I started to think, "Maybe I am just getting fat, and getting over a 3-month bout of bulimia."

No, honestly, I am sure that I have felt the baby moving as far back as 6 weeks ago (around 14 weeks).  I read up a bunch on feeling baby movements, and all of the things said I'd feel gas or feathery feelings.  So I've been waiting for those kinds of feelings.  In the mean time, I started feeling things that were more like muscle twitches in my abdomen.  At first it was not very often at all, just an occasional twitch.  Which made it seem likely that it really was just a muscle twitch.  I mean, my abdomen was going through some changes (Hello, uterus!), and I knew that my ligaments were all getting ready to stretch out, which means that muscles are not supported like they used to be.  So it made sense.

However, like I said, I have been looking forward to feeling the baby like crazy!  So I said, "This is just a muscle twitch.  BUT...I'll remember this and if that ends up being what my baby feels like, I'll know that it was really movement."  Yeah, I'm no dummy.

Fast forward about 3 weeks, and I started feeling these "muscle twitches" much more often.  At this point I was like, "I will bet that this is the baby."  But I had no proof.  They were still pretty light feelings.  They did not feel like they had any more power behind them than the first few twitches had.  And I thought, "If this is the baby, wouldn't they be getting stronger?"  So I again put off a certain diagnosis.  I said, "I am pretty sure this is the baby, but I might be wrong.  I am not going to officially say that I've felt the baby move."  Because a false official statement like that would ruin my reputation.  :D

So, this last week I felt another one of those twitches, and there was a lot of force behind it, and I knew that I had felt my baby.  And then I felt it again.  And again!  I am suddenly feeling it very frequently.  Dave joined a band when we moved to Mesquite (Deserves its own post!), and I went to watch them practice last night.  When they first started playing, the baby went crazy!  She was moving around a lot.  I had earplugs in, since we were in a small basement and the music was really loud.  And I kept thinking, "Maybe the music is too loud for her!  Too bad I can't protect her ears too."  And then I realized that her ears are protected by her placenta, my uterus, and my skin.  Yeah, her ears were fine.  It's just probably the loudest things she's ever heard so even though it wasn't too loud for her she reacted pretty strongly.

All of these movements were only felt on the inside.  I've had my hand over my belly during lots of these, and never felt anything that way.  Until today!  I was sitting working at my computer and felt a pretty strong bump.  I put my hand right where I had felt it and kind of pressed a little, and she bumped it again in that spot.  I totally felt it with my hand!  I pressed around with my hand some more and felt her one more time.  I am in love!

I'm sure that a blow-by-blow of my awakening to the reality of fetal movement was thrilling for you to read, and just what you wanted today!  But just in case you didn't get your fill on the topic, please comment and let me know what it was like for you when you first felt life inside you.  Or let me know if you have any questions about it...Since I'm now an expert!

10 comments:

  1. Merry, that is so exciting! One of the cool things the second time that was that I knew it was the baby right off:) I think it made me think, oh ya I really am pregnant and that is a real person in there. I love your comment and common sense approach to the band thing too. We went to the warren miller screening with Julian (prego) and he was going absolutely nuts the whole time I was so scared he was oing deaf I covered up my belly with our jackets. I LOVE hearing about your pregnancy stuff!

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  2. Congrats! Hunter reacted the same way to the band thing.. Only he would completely stop moving when it wasn't a live band and just the music that they play between sets.. Looks like you will have a music lover and a little dancer on your hands :)

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  3. Merry - you are so cute! I am so glad you're 'writing this all down'. I wish I would have been better about that throughout my pregnancy(ies).

    I think the funnest part of being pregnant for me was being able to tell what their personalities were before they were born. Lilly is still the same as she was inside the womb, and this little boy (I think) is going to be just like his dad...

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  4. Yay! I love feeling the baby move! And it's funny, I really thought it was just muscle twitches at first, too. It took a lot of tries before I could get Isaac's hand on my belly in time to feel a kick, but he finally did the other day. I think he thought it was much softer than he imagined. But it feels strong to me! I'm excited for you and excited to hear about Mesquite too :)

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  5. This is SO exciting for you!! I don't blame you for giving a play by play. The most exciting part for my was when my husband could feel our babies move, that'll be so special for you guys!

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  6. Oh that's so exciting!! I love hearing about the play by play...most people don't talk too much about it!!

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  7. So...tell me more about this band your husband is in...

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  8. I think you've read enough that you could teach your body how to be pregnant. Hee hee. I did the same thing. Isn't it fun to listen so carefully to every little development?

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  9. Love it. So much. And you. SP, I can't stop smiling. I love how you were in denial for how many weeks before you admitted to yourself, much less the world! I'm excited for you. The next step is to help Dave catch it. Benjamin was sure I was making it up for a long time, until we finally caught it. Keep the stories coming! Talk to you soon.

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  10. I love feeling the baby!!! You are lucky I didn't feel mine until about 23 weeks! haha But the doctors say that mine is real small so it took awhile to be able to feel him.

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