Sometime in the past week, my belly has grown. It’s still not enough to put me in maternity pants (I’m still wearing my regular jeans and still need a belt, albeit on the last hole), but enough to be a little bit noticeable. I think it must change the way I stand, because my (male) boss commented a week or so ago that I was starting to look like I had a bump under my coat. I told him it’s mainly because it’s a maternity coat (so it cinches like an empire waist and the flows out over my belly), but it’s also because of the way I was standing (almost arched back and belly pushed out). I don’t think I would normally stand like that! (A story for another day is how and when I told my bosses I am pregnant.)
Earlier in the week I had a meeting with an undergraduate student who didn’t yet know I was pregnant. I caught her eyes making a sweep over my belly and I knew in that moment that it had occurred to her. So a few minutes later (after I’d left the office to get something and come back), I told her I was pregnant, and she indeed said that thought had occurred to her today when she was looking at me!
I think at this stage it’s helpful to tell people because otherwise, they really don’t know. A friend of mine keeps gets congratulated on her pregnancy, and she’s not pregnant! I remember the last time I was pregnant, looking around at women on the street and thinking that so many people really look like they could be in the earliest stages of pregnancy! But there’s no way that all of the women with little bellies could actually have been pregnant.
I also, finally, felt the first “real” movement! I was sitting at my desk, just after lunch, and I felt a series of definite bumps in the upper right part of my belly. It was exciting enough that I almost got up to tell people about it, but then I decided they either wouldn’t care or would find it weird. (The two people just outside of my office are both male and recent college grads, so I think pregnancy is probably still fairly foreign to them.) So I just IM’d my husband instead, who was very excited to hear it.
I actually think I’ve felt movement in the past few weeks, one that even felt as early as 12 weeks. I know that’s supposed to be too early, but what I felt then felt more like a mass turning over than a jabbing kick, so it seems reasonable to me. Since then, I’ve felt an occasional something which seems to me to be baby movement, but it wasn’t until yesterday that it was really definite.
Oh! And maybe I’m feeling something right now! (I just ate breakfast.)
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