Gas Bubbles

I think for the sake of simplicity I'm going to refer to this baby as "she"--at least until it is proven indefinately that this is in fact the inappropriate pronoun to be using. If someday we find out that the baby is not a "she" and he, having been taught to read, reads this and any other entry referring to him as "she": I hope you will know that I do not mean this "she" as an affront to your masculinity. I'm sure that you are very masculine and the ultrasound in which this grievous mistake was made was, in fact, a gross oversight of said masculinity.

There, that should be enough of a disclaimer.

So anyway, I have been feeling her for a little while now. The first time I knew it was her and not something else was the day before we moved. It was sort of like a little tap on the inside of my abdomen, on the lower left side. I'd been feeling that for a few days before I knew what it was for sure, but the day before we moved I was pretty certain that what I was feeling was the baby. The feeling, by that point, had gotten a little bit stronger and had also moved from the left side of my abdomen more towards the center. Some people mistake these feelings for gas bubbles, and it does sort of feel that way, but after a while you just know that that's not what it is.

I've been trying hard to figure out some sort of pattern for the tappings, trying to figure out when the baby is most active. She seems to get excited mostly in the afternoon and evening, seemingly when I am eating. This may or may not have to do with the food I'm consuming; it may just have to do with the fact that usually at lunch and dinner I am sitting down fairly quietly and am more likely to notice the little movements.

I read on the internet that the baby can taste the food that I am eating through the amniotic fluid. I also read that for most of her development in utero, her tastebuds that detect sweet things are the most mature and active. I guess that explains why babies like sweet things--because it may be one of the only things they can taste properly. As it is, though, there doesn't really seem to be a correlation between the movements and what I am eating. For example, this afternoon while Tim's friend Mike was visiting, she seemed to be doing a jig in there and all I was drinking was my virtually flavourless raspberry leaf tea. During dinner and frozen yogurt afterwards there were almost no movements.

In general, though, she seems to be active mostly in the evenings. I wonder if this will continue after she is born. That would be nice for Tim, if it was the case. I'd be at school while she was having her naps or whatever and then home when she was awake and ready to party.

It's pretty nice to feel these little movements. Especially when I am by myself, like on the bus, because it is a reminder that I'm not actually by myself, which is sweet. I'll have to remember how nice these little taps were for when they become swift kicks to the kidneys a month or two down the road.