Rib Kicks and Hiccups and Somersaults, Oh My!!

Jon's family really loves to listen to Bill Cosby and they've got all these hard to find audio recordings of his stand-up routines on their computer. Well one of them has this really funny bit about babies in utero and how hard it must be for them. They're in this tiny room and it's really really humid, and then he says (and this is funnier the way he says it, with sound effects and whatnot), "the last 2 weeks or so they just start to go crazy in there man, punchin' and punchin' and writing their name on the walls..."

I know what Bill's talking about. And I have 2 months left, not 2 weeks! This baby boy of mine has been a very active baby for the last several months but for the most part the action was gentle, and amusing. Except when he'd make a direct hit to a few spots on my lower anatomy that would usually make my eyes roll back in my head--but that was pretty rare. Then he went really quiet for 2 days and I started to get worried, but he moved a little still, so I decided that things had gotten a little too crowded in there for his usual aerobic workout and this was going to be the way it was for the rest of my pregnancy.

Ha! Not exactly! My new theory is that he had a major growth spurt for 2 days that required some serious sleeping because my active little boy is back with a vengeance, and the strength of his movements have multiplied threefold. I no longer have to tell Jon what hijinks the baby is up to; he can see them. I've now had my first rib kick and a few breathless moments that were possibly resulting from lung kicks. I can feel him actually turn, which is really strange, especially this one day where I swear he was laying sideways for a couple of hours. Whenever I've laid on my side in bed he's always had a fun time kicking at the bed. Well those were the good ol' days because now I'm pretty sure he turns sideways and is jumping on the bed. And about once a day he gets a good case of the hiccups. For the most part it's a bit like having Jerry Lewis or some other physical comedian in my stomach. He keeps me company and he makes me giggle and he has impeccable comedic timing.

In other news, it has been brought to my attention that my referring to my little miracle as "the kid" really irks some of my loved ones, so I will try not to do that anymore and instead use the the universally acclaimed "li'l bit". My other nickname for him is "Roo" as in Kanga & Roo from Winnie the Pooh. I think it's pretty appropriate! Except I guess that makes me Kanga...

So that's the news! I'm off to start dinner and pretend like Roo isn't trying to dig some kind of escape route right now! I'll keep you posted!