The stranger within

One of my pregnancy guidebooks (Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy, a book with a great reference section I would recommend anyone looking for an objective and well-organized book immediate before and during pregnancy) tells me that at week 29:

Your baby's weight and size are continuing to increase this week. As a result, you're probably feeling increased activity inside your uterus, with your baby's movements more frequent and vigorous. Some of your baby's jabs and punches may even take your breath away.

Indeed. What began almost four months ago as "fluttering" movements that I could barely notice are now at times forceful. These movements sometimes keep me awake at night, and during the day the movements of the mound on my tummy (by being pushed from inside) are quite visible from the outside.

At this point in my pregnancy (32 weeks) I am finding myself focused less on me (how I feel/ how I look/ how my body is changing, etc.) but more on this being inside me (how is it doing, how does it look, what will it be like?). At the same time, I am realizing more and more that this being is NOT me--it is an independent being with a mind of its own. What began as a part of me is now viable outside me ("almost all babies born at 32 weeks will survive and have a normal life", according to my pregnancy guidebook). It kicks and jabs (and hurts me!) at its own whim. Funnily enough, the image that recently came to my mind is that scene in the movie "Aliens" when this alien-baby pops out of Sigourney Weaver's tummy!

It is written in the same guidebook that the most active time to feel fetal movements is between 27 and 32 weeks. So perhaps from now on until birth, I will feel less disrupted by the stranger, the independent being that I am housing.

I am looking forward to meeting this stranger within.