Ambergontrail – Trying to get through life without dying of dysentery

When do you become a parent? When you conceive? When you first see that little blob with the yolk sac still attached? When you feel her booting away at your insides? Or is it when she is born and you hold her for the first time, marveling at the miracle you helped to create?

From the second you suspect you’re pregnant your mind is on the baby. Keeping it healthy, keeping it THERE. You take your vitamins, you refuse hot dogs and lunch meat, you refrain from sushi, coffee and even tea. You eat things you know are good for the baby (like liver and other iron rich foods), and you drink gallons of water, despite how the very taste of it makes you nauseous. It’s funny, the tiniest thing inside you makes you the most aware of what you’re doing and how you’re living your life. Hell, i gave up nail polish for 20 weeks!

Due to my fear of hair coloring while building people, I now have a Pepe le Peu (Pew?) stripe going through my hair, which is actually looking pretty darn hip, my friends. Pregnancy does some odd things to your thoughts- MUST PROTECT THE MINIATURE BALL OF CELLS!

I feel like I became a parent when that stick had two pink lines. After all, what does a parent do? Nurture, love, protect, feed and clothe (I built that amniotic sac, missy! Don’t you try mess with that umbilical cord I worked so hard to provide!), give shelter to, provide as much as possible for their children. Yep, I’m doing that right now. ALL women who carried children (successfully or otherwise) are parents. They did everything possible to nurture their embryo/fetus, right?

Now, as we begin to get the room ready, get the crib set up, and start planning our birth plan- I realize something- I’m going to be a mother, and I’m finally ready.

Last night something new happened… I was laying in bed next to Paul, watching TV, when Piper began to move inside me. It’s funny, from day one of your pregnancy you’re worried nothing is going on in there. Once you feel it, it really begins to feel real, and your worries die down almost instantly. That’s another subject, though.

Up until recently, Paul has felt random pops and twitches, not consistently. Last night, however, was different. He had put his mouth to my belly and was saying hello, kissing my belly. What happened next? She kicked him in the mouth.

He was stunned. He put his hands on my belly to feel her rolling and poking around in there, then put his mouth to it to speak to her again. Yet again, she kicked him in the face. He put his cheek to hear inside- kicked in the face.

I love it.