A womb-baby called Blue Sheep- pregnancy memories

We are being enormously early in our preparations with this second baby. Even though we have a little while to go, I have already packed up drawers full of tiny baby grows and… Um… Oh. I realise that is all I have done. *ponders* What else am I meant to do… apart from eating shed loads of cake…. *Googles “New Baby preparations”*

Unlike with Ramona, I feel this baby could come any day. It has been hanging out in my depths for sometime, wriggling around making me think it might just slip right on out. (“slip” PAHAHAHA) Also, unlike my first pregnancy, I am quite ready for it to be over. I loved being pregnant with Ramona, really revelled in it. But this one seems to have taken it’s toll on my body a bit more. Seriously achey bones and muscles that pull and scream.

But there are some bits of this pregnancy I will cherish forever, most of them to do with the way Ramona has responded to it all. As if she understands it completely and is already forging a connection with womb-baby. I want to remember these things for the rest of my life:

How the request for “Mummy Milk” changed to “Me have Mummy Milk and Me Feel Baby!” – every nursing session is accompanied by her lovingly stroking my bump. (This does get a bit indecent when she wants to nurse in public.)
Every morning, every single morning, she wakes up and snuggles down to my bump and greets womb-baby with a few kisses.
Sending her off to dream land, curled into each other, her hand pressed against a spot just under my ribs with womb-baby kicking into her palm. Like they are already communicating.
The evolving names for womb-baby, from simply “baby” to “sister named Boy” to “Blue Sheep” to “Twinkle”. I know I should honour her choices but… that is one child-led step too far, thanks.
Just her simple greeting that she murmurs against my tummy several times a day, proudly and lovingly, “Hello my brudder or my sister.” (Ramona says “brother” like she belongs in the mafia.)
Her sense of ownership. My bump is her bump. She has grown up with this bump, observed its emergence, and delights in it.
The increasingly developed conversations she has with womb-baby through my belly button. She even does womb-baby’s voice, a gravelly, nasal growl…
Ramona:“Hello, baby. Did you go to work with Mummy today?”
Womb-baby: “Yes, Ramona, I went to work with mummy AND mummy’s boobies!”
(Womb-baby is already provoking some sibling jealousy!)

Who knows what will happen once baby plops (“plops” HAHAHA) blinkingly into the birth pool, when baby is taking up inches of Ramona’s space in our bed, guzzling gallons of Mummy Milk.

I’m hoping this delight and connection might go beyond the bump and we’ll all live happily ever after – I’ll keep you updated eh?!

*heads off to stuff more cake and smugly peer at the drawers filled with baby grows*