Sometimes it feels like I have three distinctly different babies.
The first is the one I think about, imagine. This is a hypothetical baby, a concept. She's the one I've bought dresses for in big sizes because they've all been clearanced for the summer. When I've bought baby items in general, they've been for hypothetical baby (or for future gifts - I'm a sucker for a bargain!) When looking at cribs, I was thinking of the safety of hypothetical baby. Which stroller would be the most comfortable to ride in? I'm not sure that I could truly imagine our baby using these items. I think many of us have some form of hypothetical baby. Until we have an actual baby, we can really only imagine what our own baby will be like. Will it be a boy or girl? What's it's birthday? Will it look like us? Will it be easy? Cranky? Will it like me?
The second baby is the alien I feel in my uterus. I can call this baby my parasite and it doesn't feel mean. This is the being that grinds into my bladder, stretches big and tall and really enjoys pushing the limits of her environment. I see my stomach moving around, but I can't actually see a baby. It's really cool, but completely freaky. It's this baby that is the reason I can't bend. It's this baby that my mind connects to the constant reflux, and it's this baby when I vomit water in my mouth (love her? of course, but I don't picture her in a pretty outfit or playing with a toy. I picture my intestines and colon being compressed into the lung region!) This is probably the baby that is most real, only because it is difficult for my mind to disconnect from something kicking me. Even if it is coming from the inside.
The third baby is elusive. She is the actual baby that we will bring home. She is what we made from us. This is the baby who will receive a name we've (somewhat painfully) selected for her and who will live in the room that we're hard at work on. She's the one who needs diapers and is who everyone is so anxious to meet. She's the one her grandmas will not give up once they get their paws on her. She's going to be our daughter. She's not always going to be a baby - she will be a little girl and an adolescent and an adult and an old lady. As much as I can feel a baby moving and shifting and turning inside of me, this is the baby who will be the real one.
There are times when my babies collide.
Hypothetical baby in the crib becomes my actual baby as I feel the alien kick me and my dinner comes back to greet me and I think of the recent study showing a link between heartburn and hair.
Alien baby comes to life during ultrasounds and I can see her legs kicking me as I feel them kicking me, and I know she's not indigestion or a cat or something, and the doctor refers to the actual birth of this actual baby and even though I am able to speak clearly to him, my mind is a little fuzzy with the idea that it's all somehow related.
Even as my due date gets closer and things become more real and I'm more and more convinced that I'll be bringing home an actual, live baby, there's still some of that disconnect between what I feel in my body and what I know in my mind and what I feel with my heart.
I wonder if, on her birth day, this baby will become one whole as I am finally able to put the pieces together.
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5 comments:
I'll bet the baby that's born to you will completely wipe out the distinct memory of those other three.
I'm probably in trouble, because I think of one baby, and she's perfect in every way, even when she's flopping and grinding around on my bladder (she's just having a lark! what a happy baby! or, it's my fault that that big old bladder is in her way), and I'm probably in for a rude awakening, literally, the first time she is completely displeased and cranky all day and night. My baby? No! She's perfect! This is not my baby!
I absolutely understand what you mean. Even thouhg I know the movement inside me is going to be my baby, it is hard to imagine it as a baby right now.
I mean, if my belly was see-through, I would see a real live baby!! Incredible!
Thanks for the comment! It's nice to know I'm not the only ringless prego out there. :-) I understand about the "different babies". I just can't wait to meet our little guy and his personality! OH, and I love the pink outfit!
Great post. Save it for her to read one day. :)
this is an AWESOME post! i may print copies to hand out to my confused friends and family who are offended that i still call it "it." i just can't seem to explain it to people, but i think i only have two of these babies.
i do not really think about actual baby. she is just simply not here yet. i do not know her, and unlike a lot of people i guess, i don't sit around and wonder about her.
and parasite baby isn't really a baby to me. it's just a list of symptoms and movements. i know a baby is allegedly the cause of these things, but i just can't seem to absorb it, even when i see it on the ultrasound screen.
my babies do not collide. i think this is why i don't feel a huge emotional attachment. actual baby is the one i will be attached to and i have no fear that will happen as soon as i meet her, but i just don't associate her with the other two.
i love your perspective and i guess they will all come together on the big birthday. very interesting idea.
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