pregnancy @ 34 weeks

Dear Baby,

Your mama is a teacher, and each year is very much split into chunks of time to distinguish between the terms and holidays, so I always have an awareness of whether the term is going to be five, six, seven or eight weeks long. However, I have never been more acutely aware of time being measured in weekly milestones as I have while expecting you.

2 is the number of weeks at which I knew I was pregnant

3 weeks is how long I waited to take a pregnancy test, just to see in writing that I was most definitely pregnant, even though I already knew.

6 weeks young was the age you were when you travelled with me to my home town to host the baby shower of one of my oldest friends, and you were still our biggest secret.

7 is the number of weeks that your Great grandmother's life was cut short of meeting you.

8 weeks was when we bought your cot, wardrobe and chest of drawers - the first pieces of furniture for our new house which we hadn't even moved into yet.

10 weeks is how long you had been growing inside of me when my sister came to stay and said, 'Please can you have a baby soon?' Little did she know, she would only have to wait another 30 or so weeks to meet you.

11 is the number of weeks you had been inside of me when we got the keys to our new house, which is the place you will come to know as home.

15 weeks was when I baked a chocolate cake and iced the words, 'congratulations you are going to be grandparents' on the top with a shaky hand and a full heart at the prospect of telling my parents that we were expecting you.

18 weeks was the stage of pregnancy where it felt safe enough to tell my school that I was pregnant.

19 weeks is how long you had been growing for when we discovered that you will be our firstborn daughter.

25 weeks was your first experience of a plane ride when we flew to Barbados.

At 26 weeks, your Mama swam among beautiful fish and turtles and wondered whether it feels different for you when I am swimming and weightless.

33 weeks is when the children in my class started to get really fascinated by the size of you growing in my belly, and started to include you in the stories they created.

And now we're here at 34 weeks. You are lying in a great position and you like to wiggle your back from side to side each afternoon at around 4pm, making my belly look quite hilarious. You get hiccups a lot and I only feel your kicks and punches on the right side of my belly. The sight of newborn babies on TV makes me cry and I cannot help but wonder whether you will have a full head of dark hair when you are born, just like your Mama, or if you will be bald and blonde, just like your Dad was as a baby. Keep growing strong, little one, we cannot wait to meet you.