Real Women Have Curves

I don't know if y'all know this or not but the uterus grows 500 to 1000 times it's orginal size during pregnancy. I have been anticipating feeling a bump and while I have seen some changes in my body during the first three months of pregnancy it wasn't until yesterday that Nathan and I felt the uterus and baby begin to pop out.

The belly is sticking out too but that's just organs and roo (the name I lovingly gave my stomach in college). But this uterus . . . it's amazing. Amazing to know that our "little tenant" lives in there. A little baby with finger nails, tooth buds and kicking legs is growing and I can feel that it lives there when I touch my curves. I now have a physical tangible understanding of the growth. And it's great too because only Nathan and I notice this change. It is still our secret baby that the world doesn't see yet. I can only imagine how amazing it will feel to actually feel the baby move. Women really are lucky to get to have that experience.

I have also learned that a baby brings perspective. When you are pregnant you learn to give up all of these thoughts you have on how your body should look and feel. Your body begins to put this little one first. When the baby needs protein, the baby gets it before I do and that's incredible to me. It's a way for me to learn and adjust to put this baby first. I can only imagine that this is training for the years ahead.

This is not to say that pregnancy is one big state of euphoria. And a part of me feels guilty for saying this since we want this so, so bad and have worked so hard to get here. Morning (noon and night) sickness has made its presence known for the last three months and I look forward to the hope that it will pass in the next few weeks. It is amazing how it can overtake so much of my life to be so challenged by food . . . it's everywhere and it is the center of social events. I also have fears. Scared of labor, scared to be a mom to a child, scared of a change in our marriage but with these fears come peace. Life is put into perspective. I am growing a child and it's the greatest gift of responsbility that God could have ever given to me and Nathan.

On to second trimester . . .