Quickening

Isn't that a marvelous word to describe the movement a mother feels when her unborn child makes his/her presence known for the first time?  With my daughter, I felt a tiny little flutter to the left of my pelvis sometime around 16 weeks or so.  Over the last week, I've thought that I felt this baby several times, but with the lower GI issues we've had lately, it was hard to tell.  On Sunday, however, while I was in the shower I felt a movement that I was absolutely sure was this baby.  And over the last few days, I've felt something low in my belly that felt like cramps but without the pain.  Not the flicker-flutter that I felt with Meg, but a wholely different feeling altogether.  This afternoon, I was lying on the couch trying to catch a nap, when I felt an almost swirling motion just above my pubic bone.  I pressed on the skin over that area and was rewarded with more swirling/pain-free crampy feelings.  How nice to know that there's really someone there!

It must be growth-spurt time for this little one, because I've done nothing but eat and sleep the last few days.  Even as I write this, I'm so hungry and tired that I can barely think straight.  Never mind that I've eaten half the house today and slept about 12 hours last night.  Plus, by the looks of my gums and conjunctivae, it appears that I am becoming somewhat anemic, so I am off in search of alfalfa capsules to remedy the situation.