Seeing pregnancy through Priestess glasses

Wednesday, cloudy, feeling mentally creative, physically inert.

The most amazing thing has happened in the last couple of weeks. The baby has started to respond to outside stimuli. This means two things: 1. I can't rest the sharp corner of my book on my tummy anymore. 2. Dear Hubby is going to be extra annoying poking, smooshing, and prodding my belly in hopes of feeling the baby move.

In all sincerity, it is a small price to pay for the amazingness that is feeling the baby jump when my ankle suddenly pops, feeling the roll to the right when my other children lay against my left, holding my hand on my belly so that I can feel the baby move from the inside *and* on the outside. This is my absolute favorite part of pregnancy. Laying for what feels like forever, with SM's hands on my belly, asking him "did you feel that one? How about that one? What do you mean 'no,' that one was super strong!"

I think this is also where not having a midwife or OB, yet, is to my advantage. Or perhaps is has to do with having a mostly-unassisted birth in the back of the car last time. Ever since then, I have been completely changed when it comes to feeling with my instinct/awareness. And there's no one "official" to tell me it's stupid or not real. What the hell am I talking about? Well...

I can usually tell you where in my body the baby is laying without touching with my hands to find out. How? I dunno. I just kinda stand there and sense for a moment and I can picture it in my third eye and almost invariably, if I use my hands to smoosh my tummy, I'm spot on. I can also sense when the baby is more "present," like his/her soul is more awake and aware of the body its in. Usually it's a few moments before the moving starts up, but not always. And the crazy part is: sometimes I feel that I'm calling to the baby's spirit, that part which is higher self, flitting in and out of the baby's body while en utero. The same way you would call to an ancestor or a deity. More often than not, within seconds, movement picks up, or I feel that sense of awareness right back at me.

Then there are long stretches where I don't feel anything really. I don't feel pregnant; I could just forget altogether if the stomach wasn't in the way when I go to sit up. In those times, I think the baby's soul is present, of course, but actively elsewhere...joined with its higher self, dreaming, even looking at our family, wondering just as we are...

It is a completely different pregnancy, when looked at from a Priestess perspective. Soon, very soon, SM and I are going to have a ritual of sorts, adapted from How to Uncover Your Past Lives, by Ted Andrews, where we are going to welcome and intentionalize (it's a word, now, lol) with the spirit of the baby that is within me. I'll let you know how it goes ;)