Each time the floating baby bumps against the side he asks, "Is it kicking you?" and reaches for my belly to feel it. He has felt it move a few times already and so have the girls. She moves a lot. Sometimes I wake up at night and she's tumbling around in there, knocking against me and I wish I did have a live webcam to see what she's up to.
It's the one gift in pregnancy, the movement. From those first, gentle tappings to the whole body movements you feel later on, it makes the sickness, the fatigue, the strange pain under the ribs all worthwhile to feel a baby move inside you.
I used to enjoy roller coaster rides. I could handle almost any ride except the ferris wheel. I didn't like being stuck up so high, dangling unsurely. But I loved the fast rides, the dips and spins, especially the spins.
But, now I can no longer take those kinds of rides. I don't get sick or anything, just terrified. A couple of years ago Clark and the kids convinced me to get on the log ride. Even a 3 year old can do the log ride, but during the slow, chain pulled climb to the top of that hill I began to sweat and clench. Instead of raising my arms and letting myself feel the freefall down the hill like Clementine did, I pressed my feet into the floor, stiffened my arms and with all my might tried to hold us back from falling.
I'm not sure what's changed. Motherhood's sense of protection for my own well-being? Knowing I have to be here to raise my kids. Or maybe just old age. Either way, I let Clark handle all the daring rides now.
It's enough excitement for me when the baby makes a sudden flip. Sometimes my mind can't distinguish the movement from thinking I'm falling. In some ways, it feels the same, the stomach flips. I'm always a little off-balance now, overprotective of my delicate, yet cumbersome condition, putting my hands out to catch myself. Meanwhile, the child inside me is enjoying the ride of her life.
17 comments:
I love your description of being pregnant! I enjoyed being pregnant so much, but I think I may have taken it for granted, to a degree. It's just so easy to forget the wonder each movement of the baby brings. For me, it was a precious time...relish each moment!
Loved this post!! :) Feeling the baby move is probably the thing I miss most about being pregnant. That and how everyone is so nice to you. :)
I also love the baby button. I follow another blogger and her baby button is a day ahead or a day behind yours, I can't remember which. I'll have to mention the secret internal webcam to her. Her baby is in another's body:)
I could never do the log ride. The ratcheting up sound was tooooo much for me. Also, just waiting in line for a roller coaster was too much, I would only go if there was a really cute boy involved that I was trying to impress with my coolness.
Baby kicks are the best until they run out of room.
I feel that your sense of mortality is heightened when you become a mom because of the consequences of what would happy if you were not around anymore...so the rollar coaster rides scares me because of the danger of not being my children's mommy anymore.
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I know just how you feel! I loved feeling my daughter move inside my belly! So awesome.
And I too used to LOVE roller costers, but I can no longer do them. I get terrified! I went on one at Disney World a few years back, a little one for kids, and I nearly peed myself! lol
I took my 11 year old to the Harvest Fair last night and we were talking about the same thing. I don't go on the rides anymore because of some sort of mother protective hormone that kicked in after giving birth.
Your description of pregnancy is brillant!
great post. I think as we get older we (some of us) do see how fragile life is. I know I have seen heartache and trials that I never want my family to go through. I know I cannot avoid much, but I deffinitely am not the daring person I used to be. I find myself being the person I used to scoff at.
Karma maybe?
Enjoy the baby-flipping!
My floating baby is one day older then yours...check it out...I'm adopting though...but he's still all mine! God Bless!
Uncanny, isn't it, the flipping of a baby inside of you? Something so natural but for me, it felt like I must have been the only woman ever to feel that. A real gift.
I haven't been pregnant in a LONG time but I loved your description. I loved being pregnant and I had just forgotten.
Can't do the rides either. It must be a mother/hormonal thing.
i'm so glad i'm not the only one that can't do the rides any more! Not only am I terrified but physically, I cannot do those things any more. I did a somersault for the girls the other night and it made me so queasy. Just riding the pretend roller coaster at chuck e cheese tonight had me off balance for a while.
Glad you are feeling good these days!
What a beautiful post. However I am one of those weird ones that was glad when the baby was out and the jabs had stopped ;-)
Oh that is too precious! I love a child's perspective on the ever expanding and moving belly!
I miss the big belly and feeling the kicks, although I can do without the pukey feeling. LOL about your fear of the log ride. Personally, I have issues with jumping on the trampoline. Drat. I guess that's my cue to do some kegel's! LOL
All from a lady who was up ladders painting a few months ago! LOL! Glad your doing well! Happy Pregnancy!
Love this post. I'm the same way about roller coasters. I rode the swings a few years ago thinking "how bad could the swings be?"
Bad. Very bad.
baby movement is pretty much the coolest feeling on earth.
i noticed the same phenomenon with death-defying coasters... I do think you're right. God builds in this life-preservation mode into us when he puts His children in our charge.
beautiful, beautiful post!
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