Shake your bon-bon, baby!

The body is a marvelous machine...a chemical laboratory, a power-house. Every movement, voluntary or involuntary, full of secrets and marvels!
Theodor Herzl (1860 - 1904)

I’ve been so excited and eager to feel the baby move inside my tummy.

The first detectable movement of a foetus is called ‘quickening’.
It has been described as ‘flutterings’, ‘popcorn popping’, ‘quiver of butterfly wings’ etc.
I read that this would normally occur between 18-24 weeks of pregnancy.

I’ve been so excited and so eager to feel this, and ironically, I completely missed out on the first day I felt it.

I only just realized the feeling after many days of thinking that it was just indigestion or muscle spasms.

And then it dawned on me… My GOD! That’s the baby!

How did I finally realize it was the baby?
Because the movements were frequent and very distinct.
And it came at a certain time of day every day.
And I did my experiment.

I lay down flat on my bed with my palms flat on my belly.
I kept very still and very quiet.
……………………………………………… THUMP!
There it was… my baby moved!
I FELT IT inside and on the palm of my hand.
I was so so so pleased and I silently urged the baby to do it again.
THUMP… THUMP… THUMP…
Ahh… my child is like many firstborns, eager to please.

After that, I’ve felt it even more often and even more distinct.
I’m LOVING IT!
I spend a lot of my time with my hands on my tummy, feeling the thumps and smiling to myself.
Yes, it doesn’t take much to amuse me these days.

Joy is not in things; it is in us.
Richard Wagner

At first, only I could feel it since the baby’s still quite small. But nowadays, if Wan does ‘the experiment’ and lays his palms flat on my belly, he feels it too. He describes it as ‘berdenyut’ (pulsating/throbbing), which is a good way to describe it, really.

From the inside, I feel a bit nyilu (sorry, don’t know the English equivalent of that). From the outside, it feels just like what it is, a tiny little person in my tummy, thumping on the inside.

Honestly, it’s a gorgeous feeling.
I’ll be in a dead-serious meeting when I feel a sudden ‘thump!’ and I’ll smile discreetly to myself.
I’ll be reading a book in the bedroom while Wan is tinkering about and I feel the ‘thump!’, so I’ll look up and nonchalantly inform Wan “Your baby’s up”, whereupon he’ll drop whatever he’s doing and come to say a huge HELLO to my tummy. (For some reason, my husband thinks he has to shout in order for the baby to hear him…)

It adds to the drama that whenever Wan bellows his hello, the baby will pause in his thumping, only to resume with extra enthusiasm.

I can’t wait for when the baby gets bigger so his thumps are more like kicks.
But for now, I’m perfectly contented with his little thumps.

There are people whom one loves immediately and forever. Even to know they are alive in the world with one is quite enough.
Nancy Spain