BUMP in the night

We felt the first kicks on Thursday night.

We were talking about the very topic - and how I hadn't felt anything - while we were getting ready for bed. On laying down, I put my hands on my belly as we spoke, something I've done many times in the last month or so. Nothing.

I took my hands off the belly and relaxed another few seconds, and that's when I felt it. BUMP. Definitely something I had never felt before. A movement by something small inside of me. Not digestion, not gas, not my heartbeat or breathing, not anything having to do with my own rhythms, but a movement driven by a different source. Trying not to spoil the moment, I put my hand there, and BUMP, I felt it again, clear as anything.

I grabbed Greg's hand and put it there. BUMP. Yup, he got to feel it too.

Since then, I know what I'm looking for, and I notice it about 4 times a day. Unlike the first time, it's usually only one or two bumps before he takes another long break.

It's a little piece of amazing. A little person, inside of me, moving of his own volition.

I'm beginning to believe that even to a person who is raised among large families, where pregnant women and babies are prevalent their entire lives, the stirrings of another life inside your own body would be an entirely new, strange thing.

It's also a big reminder to me that time is racing by. If you're counting by months, the end of September is 5 for me.