This was my last dance with baby inside.
This was my farewell to pregnancy,
a farewell to a state of being,
a farewell to a kind of connection with my baby and my body,
unparalleled and without comparison.
The last.

I went into labor hours after I made this dance.
In the middle of the night contractions began as I knew they would,
and I rested and slept in between,
feeling them get stronger and more regular in the morning as I nursed my daughter,
her last time as my youngest
and only nursling.

And we prepared for this last birth journey,
and we snuggled and loved on each other, our last morning as a family of four,
and I baked a pie.

#40weeks