Episode 5: The Floor, My Weight, My Loves

Pregnancy shifts relationships in big and small ways, every time.⁣

I feel these shifts, sometimes with clarity and awareness, facing them head on, ⁣

sometimes they sneak up gradually,

imperceptibly, ⁣

until they’re present and existing inside my body and consciousness as though they always lived there. ⁣ ⁣

It’s different this time. ⁣

My 4th pregnancy, third time I’ve made it this far. ⁣

There is knowledge in this growing body. ⁣

There is familiar. ⁣

There is return.⁣ ⁣

The floor becomes foreign to my belly first. ⁣

Now, it is becoming less welcoming to my back, ⁣

my lower spine rejecting its hardness and inability to soften into me, ⁣

the weight of baby making my breath feel labored, ⁣

nausea creeping in and a feeling of unease and panic following. ⁣ ⁣

So I shift and roll and move with all the changes, making them a part of me, ⁣ staying fluid and free and accepting of it all. ⁣ ⁣

I work to embrace these shifts in the dynamics with my children as their excitement grows, ⁣

but their frustration with not being able to climb on me and play quite so rough and tumble with me starts to invade. ⁣

I watch my partner glide slowly into caretaker, support person, and lead parent, ⁣

a role that washes over him as my needs start to expand and my limitations become more obvious. He’s familiar too. ⁣

We learn to move together. ⁣

grow together. ⁣

and make space. ⁣

This little soul is making their presence known

more and more ⁣

and we’re getting ready.⁣

Movement is Magic.⁣ ⁣

21 Weeks