Month Six

4/1
When the baby moves, it feels a lot like a muscle spasm—kind of a flippy twitch. And she shifts around a lot, so sometimes I feel the muscle-spasmy feeling on the right, sometimes the left, sometimes high, sometimes low. I love feeling her move. But the other day, my brain said, "Hello baby!" before I realized that no, no matter how smart and strong she's getting, that's not the baby kicking me three inches above my right knee.

4/4
I've been feeling and seeing the baby move for a while now, but today was the first day that I really realized I could feel her when she wasn't moving too. She gave a big jump, and then settled down. I was watching my belly, and noticed that one side was sticking out a little more than the other. I put my hand there, and there was definite resistance—more than on the other side. So I took the opportunity to give her a little back rub. Or... butt rub? head rub? Who's to say?

4/16
Now that we know that she's (probably) a girl, I'm much more tempted to look at baby clothes. Our plan has always been to only buy the basics before she's born (diapers, union suits), because parent friends of ours have all warned us about the onslaught of tiny adorable outfits and toys that will arrive. But it's hard to resist shopping. I'm a pregnant American woman, with nurture and nature pushing me from both directions to stock up! Nest! Prepare! Shop! So I spend a little time every week looking at tiny adorable outfits online, I admit.

But today I found a good way to talk myself down from the ledge of internet shopping. I was all ready to click away twenty two hard-earned dollars, when I looked down and asked my belly if she needed some socks. It instantly became clear to me that not only has she not attained full person-hood yet, not only is she no bigger than a blind kitten, she's not even coming out until July, when her feet will be plenty warm until at least September. I have months and months before she'll need socks.

Although, thankfully, since that last ultrasound, I have been able to turn off the morbid voice inside me that had been keeping me from buying socks by saying, "But what if she doesn't have two healthy feet? What then? Don't tempt fate! No limb-dependent purchases!"

4/26
Weird Little Thing About Pregnancy #476:
Imagine a non-inflated puffer fish (jalapeno-shaped, non-protruding spikes). Now imagine what happens to those spikes when the puffer fish puffs: they go from flat against the skin to sticking straight out, right? Now apply that principle to the fine hairs on a pregnant woman's belly. With each growth spurt, I develop perpendicular belly hairs. Within a day or so, everything adjusts to the new size, and they relax again. And over and over. Navel gazing? Me? Why, yes, now that you mention it. Quite a lot.