Final Stretch?
It’s hard to be patient waiting for a baby, but there are two big factors that help.
There is a strange ocean inside of me. Tiny feet lodge behind my ribs if I allow my body to relax into a curl. A spine rolls across the taut skin of my belly.
At the ultrasound, the little face is squashed hard against the placenta, jaw opening and closing to drink in amniotic fluid. It wriggles, but can’t go far: there isn’t far to go.
“But we can stretch more,” my ultrasound tech tells me. I’m not sure if she means it as a reassurance.
In the gym, I do leg raises, squats, lat pulls, scapular pulls. At the mirror, I breathe to lift the belly and pelvic floor with every exhale: that same core exercise that felt uselessly light at fifteen weeks now a saving grace to hold my posture when I walk. I’ve had almost no low back pain, both miracle and hard work.
On the advice of my local pregnant friends, I’ve invested in a giant, U-shaped pregnancy pillow. It’s magic for that tricky pelvic joint. I got a recommendation on brand, where to buy secondhand in the UK, and checked the tracking page several times a day — waiting for my godsend to arrive, rolling my eyes at the irony that I’ve waited until the baby might reasonably arrive first. But I suspect I’ll need the support postpartum, too.
When I finally get it home, I discover that there are more than three available…
