The House of Mabry: The would-be pregnancy diary in a nutshell: Part II

I have always been fascinated with pregnant bellies, and my own was no exception. I could not keep my hands off of my swelling baby bump. During the early weeks my pregnancy was more of an abstract idea than a concrete reality. While seeing our baby on ultrasound did make my pregnancy more real, feeling my baby move inside of me for the first time gave me the sense of motherhood I had been longing to experience.

It was a Friday night in February 2009, and I was a day shy of sixteen weeks. I had just gotten settled into bed when I felt a strange fluttering sensation in my belly. It was the softest swish, almost like the little ripple of a goldfish making a turn in its bowl. The sensation came and went so quickly I was not sure it even happened. I had just read in a pregnancy book it is possible to feel a baby move at sixteen weeks but most women, especially first time mothers, do not feel movement until closer to eighteen or even twenty weeks. I lay in bed thinking about how absurd it was to even consider I could feel the baby so early. I dismissed the feeling simply as indigestion and went to sleep. The very next night as I lay in bed trying to get comfortable the same swishing, fluttering sensation swept through my belly again. I was shocked. Could this feeling really be what I thought it was? Could I really feel my baby move so early? I was afraid to move. I wanted so badly to feel that soft little swish again, and I did feel it once more before falling asleep. I was elated! I knew then what I felt the night before was exactly what I had so easily dismissed.

Feeling my baby move was like falling in love all over again, only I could never predict when my tummy would flip or flutter with butterflies. Those first flutters and swishes gave way to gentle knocks and bumps and later sharp kicks and jabs.

Even more exciting than feeling my baby move was seeing my baby move. I was lying on the couch at my parents house the first time I saw my belly ripple. I felt the baby turning, and at the same time I saw his body push against my skin. I am not sure exactly how far along I was then, but I do remember it was warm weather, which would have been when I was around six months.

Our baby was active to say the least. He moved the most in the evenings when I settled down on the couch to read or unwind, and I relished every flutter, swish, kick, flip, turn, poke, and punch, even the ones that hurt. I constantly told Casey to feel or look at my belly, which turned out to be mostly annoying for him because it was quite awhile before he could feel the baby. When Casey finally felt our baby kick, he forgot the annoyance of all the times I made him stop what he was doing and rush over to my belly for nothing. I delighted in the time we spent together feeling or watching my belly. Those moments brought us closer as a couple than I could ever have imagined before becoming pregnant. The love we felt for our baby intensified the love we felt for each other.

As our love grew my belly did, too! I was so excited when my baby bump first began to show. I felt like I had finally been accepted into an exclusive club I had been trying to gain admittance to for months. As I got further and further along I could not believe how enormous and round and protruding my belly was. I was amazed by my skin’s capacity to stretch the way it did. I stood endlessly in front of the mirror, turning this way and that to marvel at the morphing of my body.

My burgeoning belly proved to be quite cumbersome. Everyday things that once were simple to do became difficult. Most of the time I found humor in these situations. Two of these silly incidents stand out in my mind. The first happened when I was trying to eat a burger in the car. I placed the wrapper in my lap and leaned over it to take my first bite. At least that is what I thought I was doing. I looked down after that bite only to see mustard and ketchup all over my shirt. But I had leaned over the wrapper. How did all that junk end up on my shirt? I wiped up the mess and leaned over the wrapper for another bite. I looked down and realized I could not see the wrapper. All I could see was belly! I strained to lean out over my belly so the wrapper would catch the mess, but it was impossible to do. My belly had become so big that putting a napkin, or burger wrapper in this instance, in my lap was useless. After that I just put the napkin over my belly! The second thing happened when I was trying to clean my bathtub. I sprayed the tub with cleaner and got down on my knees to scrub it. Each time I tried to lean over the edge of the tub my belly pressed against it, making it impossible for me to reach the basin with my brush. I shifted my position and tried again. I still could not get far enough over the edge to clean the tub.

That is not all my belly kept me from doing. I could never get comfortable in bed to sleep. I used four pillows to situate myself and took up the majority of our king sized bed. I had trouble getting in and out of my car, and my belly always scraped the steering wheel. Shaving my legs was the bane of my pregnant existence. And forget about a tub bath! I felt miles away from the sink when I washed dishes. I had to stretch to reach my husband for a hug or kiss. Really, my belly was quite hilarious by the end of the pregnancy.