The first time I felt her hiccup was last week. I felt Archer's first hiccups around the same time. It took me a while before I realized what was happening. The rhythm of the movement like drums. Badabum. Badabum. Badabum.
I was to be monitored several hours a day, five-days-a-week, during my last six weeks of pregnancy (because of the Preeclampsia) and when nurses hooked me up to the multitude of machines my belly would drum. Every. Single. Time.
The first time I was too novice to know what was happening. To recognize the rhythm.
"Will you look at that?" The nurse smiled. "He's hiccuping!"
"He is? Are you sure?"
"Yup. Very common at this stage. And cute."
"Oh my God! My baby is hiccuping?"
I didn't even know it was possible.
It might have been the moment my pregnancy felt most real. My baby was hiccuping -- something that living, breathing humans do. And all these years later, whenever Archer gets the hiccups I become nostalgic for those very first hiccups. The ones we experienced together.
hiccup! hiccup! hiccup!
I felt her hiccups for the first time last week and had the same kind of "Oh My God. This is happening!" She's in there and she's swallowing and surprising me with twitches of liveliness. Vibrating my body with her human idiosyncrasies. Just like her brother did.
Thus reminding me to catch my breath and enjoy this time, these final weeks of pregnancy: carrying around the ultimate question mark.
Because soon enough I will lose vessel-status and have my body back, which is what I have gone on and on about desperately wanting but there is a part of me that treasures this time. Knowing that without even trying, I'm making something completely dumb-founding(ly) beyond comparison perfect. The ultimate creative act. No drafting. No red pens in the margins.
And yet: Hiccups. Glorious hiccups.
GGC
33 comments:
The way you put things into words is so perfect. Very beautiful. You make me want to be pregnant again so very much!! Hopefully soon.
There are times where I feel a flutter in my stomach and remember what it was like to feel a tiny hand or foot moving around in my belly. Those days are gone (my youngest, and last, is almost four), and so those moments of remembering are even more sweet. You are right to remember and enjoy those special little moments between you and your little girl.
I've read your blog for the past couple of years and have enjoyed following Archer's development along with my daughters who is now 30 months old. And now that we are both again pregnant at the same time - I'm just 35 weeks now - I've again enjoyed reading along and being here 'with you' as we experience some of the same things.
Thanks for reflecting on these experiences and putting them into words - for (all) the both of us.
And on the topic of baby movements - though I am grateful to feel my little one in there moving and kicking and flipping and yes hiccuping, reassuring me that everything is well - I wish s/he'd give it a rest already! I am definitely moving right into the 'okay, I'm done with this now' territory.
Last night we were relaxing on the couch and my girlfriend took my hand and put it on her stomach. I felt little Sienna dancing around. "Look, Sienna, it's Daddy's hand." Ana smiled, a proud mother. The journey is, indeed, a beautiful one.
hiccups - miraculous!
you and i have a tattoo in the very same place (the text on your hip) - you're the first person i've seen with the same positioning. has it stretched at all? i'm worried that may be a side effect of my hopefully planned pregnancy next year.
Oh my goodness I can't get over the fact that your belly button has stayed IN! I am 36 weeks and have an innie but it's so popped out it could poke an eye.
Steph
Bec,
You look beautiful....this is such an exciting time!!!
My Banana Girl hiccuped so much that her older sisters and I made up a story about it. We would tell it to her when she was born... mostly, we were sharing a story with each other about this new gurgling little sweetie.
Really sweet belly shots!
This is beautiful and to echo the others, you look beautiful, too! You must be so excited to meet her- I am excited to learn her name! Enjoy the final weeks before she comes~
Another beautiful pic! I remember the hiccups, so cool and funny at the same time. That is one thing I miss, feeling my baby girl moving around and wreaking havoc in my belly!
Awww. I have yet to feel that hiccup, but then, I'm not as far along as you yet.
Question: What did you do to still have an innie? I'm scared mine will be popping out and am wondering if you've got any ideas to share (and yes, I'm serious).
haha i noticed the belly button right away too! and no stretch marks again- you lucky duck.
you made me want to be pregnant again for about a nano second. the urge is gone now but thanks for that moment ;)~jjlibra
The no stretch marks is good genes, man. My mother had three babes and nary a stretchmark in sight. Still, I lather my belly three times a day with cocoa butter and such. Just in case that actually helps.
This might be why none of my tattoos have stretched during pregnancy (not even slightly.)
overan-- I actually posted about tattoos stretching during pregnancy, here:
http://www.girlsgonechild.net/2008/06/tattoos-stretching-during-pregnancy.html
Re: no outie Belly button. I'm guessing my perma-innie has to do with the fact that I was blessed (not) with an umbilical hernia, which is basically a caved in stomach around the belly button. My innie is normally VERY innie. Like, abnormally so. Again, it's hereditary and I don't recommend it. Very uncomfortable during pregnancy because there is no muscle or tissue beneath or around my belly button. It's like a cave. In junior high my friends used to see how many baby marshmellows they could fit in my belly-button (not kidding) because of its depth and proportions.
I was teaching high school until my 9th month, and every day right after lunch, my son would get the hiccups in my belly, to the point that my 6th period class (the one after lunch) would always ask about it.
As an infant, he still got hiccups all the time, and it was fun to point out to my daughter and husband that what he was doing then was what he had done inside my belly. Amazing.
I do NOT miss the way he would kick the shit out of my rib cage. But I would put up with it again if I could magically be, oh maybe 7 months pregnant again for about an hour, just for nostalgia's sake. There is something incredibly miraculous about having a wiggling baby inside you.
I'm wishing you easy rest and a complete absence of health problems for your last few weeks. Good luck, and huge virutal hugs!
Hey there...I just read your book, and loved it! I hope you are selling millions of them. Congrats on Baby # 2's pending arrival.
I remember that happening. Very sweet, and, as you say, very real.
You look gloriously beautiful -- ethereal. Enjoy.
You make is sound so beautiful. And it is pretty amazing.
It's just that the fetal hiccuping that I got at least once a day, usually multiple times a day, for months until the end Drove. Me. Crazy.
I'm glad you can enjoy them. You are still looking super hot!
Until an ultrasound tech told me they were hiccups, I thought Axel was kicking or dancing - and had the best rhythm in the world for a fetus. Yeah, no such luck.
I have to tell you about the most wonderful doctor's experience I had Friday. It was actually my partner Victoria's doctor and it's Victoria's pregnancy, but a wonderful experience for me and all womankind. Victoria, who is a big, sexy Mama, but not fat, started her pregnancy at 170 lbs. Now she's at 19 weeks and has only gained 2 pounds. Of course, Victoria's having the reverse problem you've described, but we were concerned. The doctor (who is a man) said that she's perfect and has the right amount of fat-stores and that all that talk about women gaining 25 to 30 pounds is crap. He said that the traditional weight charts consider the ideal weight for women way too skinny and that women who start pregnancy very thin should probably gain more than 30.
So I think the reason you have gained more than two pounds is because you were probably too thin to start.
I never felt that with Pumpkinpie, but I had heard from a friend-of-friend about baby hiccups with her son, so this time when I felt them, I was all like, "Weird. what is that regular bumping? Ohhhhhh..." It is pretty strange, but interesting to think that something who isn't even breathing air yt can hiccup.
Oh, I am so with you on the hiccuping. Both babes had them ALL the time in the belly. And both babes have the ALL the time now. Not as much as they get older, but very regularly. And every time either of them hiccups I flash back to being pregnant and having them always with me.
Thanks for bringing me back.
I love reading about all the small movements mommies feel while pregnant. I never noticed Princess hiccuping while I was pregnant. I'd only notice if she kicked really hard or stuck some part of her body up so I could see it bulging out.
I wonder if I'd notice hiccups if we ever have another baby? It sounds so sweet.
Yah for hiccups!!! I'm about 35 weeks and felt my little girl hiccup for the first time two weeks ago and it was wonderful. At first I was like "why is she hitting me so consistently down there" and then I realized no wait this is hiccups! She gets them everyday now and I love it. It really was one of the first times that I could make the connection to a human being and what was growing in my belly!
Candace
Adventures in babywearing, I had a huge outtie also, turned out to be an umbilical hernia, which can cause huge problems. I had surgery to have it corrected after my second.
You've somehow make the girl who never wants children to think that pregnancy might be kind of a neat thing to experience. At least the hiccup part, not so ready for any other part of it. What a very cool experience!
All three of mine hiccupped constantly the last few weeks. By then end it was kind of old.
Your belly looks so cute! But I really have a question... Why is your skirt all pulled up around your butt in the first picture? Really really curious about that.
http://notesfromthesleepdeprived.blogspot.com
Isn't that crazy! I was shocked when my boy hiccupped in the omb also. Cool stuff.
Oh you expressed that just perfectly. My kids had the hiccups constantly in utero, which drove Nate crazy because he thought they would also inherit my inability to get rid of them.
Seriously, I get hiccups for like an hour at a time. It's bad.
Oh, I loved the hiccup stage. It was this reassurance that everything was going ok in there, even if it made it IMPOSSIBLE to monitor her with all the machines. She had hiccups multiple times a day - and she still does!
My belly button never popped out, either! I don't know if it would have if I'd gone farther into my pregnancy, but I think it's hereditary, like you said.
Wow, pregnancy is one scary, weird and freakin'fantastic thing. I hope I can do it one day and experience those "hiccups" you describe so vividly too!
I love in utero hiccups. It's the weirdest, most profound, connected feeling of both of my pregnancies, up until the time I pushed the babies out and held them in my arms.
As long as you don't think too long about what it is they're actually swallowing with each endearing hiccup, the act remains glorious.
The ultimate question mark--what a fantastic way to describe a resident in-utero.
I really hate you for not having stretch marks. You look gorgeous.
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