Kicks-starting : Thoughts of a Mother-to-be
One of the most joyous and anticipated moments in your pregnancy is when your baby starts to kick. That feeling, that moment can’t be put into words. Our little one, being as Irish as one could be started to knock on my tummy on St. Patrick’s day! Not making this up, never had I imagined that our munchkin, darling of Indian parents will decide to step dance on the most Irish and most iconic national day for Ireland. So, to us, this happened on the 17th of March which was exactly 18 weeks or the beginning of our 5th month together. :)
Up until now I used to feel some air bubbles inside me from around 15 weeks or so. Before that I could never really tell that these were not-just-some-wind in the stomach. I am sure our baby won’t be very happy to know that we made comparisons to gastric problems :P . Gladly I am not alone, a lot of first time mothers feel the same way.
But on St. Patrick’s day, as I lay in my bed still lazing on a Sunday morning and talking to my friend, Heena to wish her happy birthday over a phone call, I hung up very quickly because I had to share this realization with Rahil (my pregnant husband!) that someone was kicking up a storm on the inside. The movements were harder and felt out of my control for the first time. :) That, my dear friends, was incredible!
These early flutters are not visible or perceptible from the outside, which means your partner won’t be able to enjoy them early on. Or sometimes the more noticeable ones are very fleeting, there for one second and stopped the very next. It took a good 3–4 weeks for Rahil to feel these with his hands. I saw such joy in his eyes that day! :) touchwood.
Since then, flutters and bubbles have transformed into hard kicks! It is most reassuring to feel your baby active which lets you know that the baby is growing and getting stronger with each passing day. Now, I feel the kicks get more frequent right after I finish eating, conveying the sugar rush from me over to our peanut. :)
Another cute act has been the baby’s Indian Bollywood gene!! Sometimes, I can feel simultaneous kicks from two angles, one from the leg kicks and one from hand punches — almost like Bollywood dance steps! Maybe a born dancer or a Bhangra lover (thanks to his dad’s Punjabi roots, who knows!) I had once told my friend, Tanya “Yes, all Indians know how to dance right from their mother’s womb!” Haha, such truth! Other than the kicks continuing while I sit through serious office meetings or while sleeping at night, I always feel thoroughly excited to touch my tummy when my baby starts to move and respond to us.
And now as the baby is growing, I can feel his head move inside which you can tell by the hard surface that moves about and like the likes of Zinedine Zidane, I get the head butts as well. These at times give me a sudden jolt with my internal organs bearing the heat of the action but nonetheless it leaves me with a smile, always. :)
Can’t wait to see you in our arms and kick-starting our lives together, little one. God bless you! Touchwood.
