pregnancy @ 22 weeks

The weeks of this pregnancy seem to be flying past at an incredible speed. Right from the beginning, I have been waiting for pregnancy to stop feeling so normal, but it hasn't. Except for the rate at which I have had to prematurely disregard most of my Summer wardrobe, due to my ever expanding belly, everything feels normal. 

(Would you like to know what I am wearing today? A pair of denim shorts, held together with a hair-tie because they are so far beyond buttoning up! It's the height of maternity fashion, I tell you...or perhaps it is just the most practical alternative I had to wear in this hot weather.)

I have surprised myself at how little reading on pregnancy and parenthood I have done so far. I thought that I would be someone who would want to devour books written on this new-to-me experience, but so far, all I have been reading is Ina May's Guide to Childbirth which is a fantastic book about her decades of experience as a midwife, and her understanding of how incredible the female body is when it comes to giving birth. And yet, at night time, my dreams have been filled with caesarean birth and trying not to laugh post c-section to avoid the sensation of my insides coming apart. Ouch. 

I am beginning to become more familiar with the movements of the little babe inside me. They have progressed from tiny flutters, to being tiny rhythmic movements that I can see through the skin on my belly, which feels as tight and taut as a drum, but looks as round as a football. I have had people comment that I have 'such a neat bump', and others saying how big my bump is for this stage in pregnancy. All I know is that the size of this little bump means that I have to roll over to get up from sitting or lying down, and as far as the scans show, the babe is growing in the best way possible. 

Over the last few weeks, the children in my class at school have been sharing some of their thoughts and questions with me and their parents about the baby in my tummy, and I wanted to write them down so that I can remember their wonderful ways with words:

'Have you got a baby in your tummy, 'cos your tummy's really fat!'

'There's a baby inside Mrs. King's tummy, but they're sleeping so they're not ready to come out yet.'

'You've got a baby inside your tumbly!'

'When can we see your baby? Will we see it tomorrow?'

'How will it get out?'

'There's a baby inside your tummy and it's getting bigger and bigger and then it's gonna come out a hole in your tummy!'

There's nothing quite like children's honesty and curiosity, is there?!