Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle

I love being pregnant! Yes, I am sick as a dog with no end in site. I have heartburn whenever I eat anything yummy, and sometimes I feel like a whale...but I still love being pregnant. For all the bad (and every pregnancy has various stages of bad) there are things that are just so good that they make up for anything I have to go through to experience them!  I've been feeling the baby "swim" around in there for weeks and weeks now. I started feeling familiar movement sometime around 11 weeks, which is much sooner than I did with my son, but I have heard that happens with your second. The last couple of weeks the gentle wiggling sensations have become definite kicks and punches, but I still hadn't felt anything on my hand from the outside...Until today that is. (Yesterday if you are on the East coast.)  On April, 4, 2011 at a little before 2am Eastern Standard Time, I was kicked from the inside out!
I had just finished chatting with my husband on messenger and had the laptop resting on my tummy when I felt a strong little whack and at the same time could have sworn I saw the computer move a little. My first thought was surly not! So I moved my hand down there to where I had felt the assault and gave a gentle nudge back to see if I could tempt my child to do it again. A few quiet moments and...whack! Another strong little kick (I am assuming it was a kick if s/he is still in the same position that s/he was during my last ultrasound) that actually made my hand move a bit. 
I was SOOOOOOOO excited! There is nothing quite like feeling your baby move, no matter how small the movements, but there is something just as amazing when you can start to feel little taps and beats on your hands as you gently stroke your stomach! One of the most amazing and greatest blessings of being a mother, and something that no man can ever fully understand.
I was elated...and saddened. That little (or not so little) tap was a reminder of how much my husband is missing right now in our lives. He is currently deployed, and while I know it is his job and I am so very proud of him, he will miss all of the exciting milestones this pregnancy has to offer, including the birth of our new son or daughter. It's a trade off, and we know that. All of the things he missed with our son he will get to experience this time around because he is deployed now instead of shortly after the birth like last time...but it is still sad for me to think that he will never ever feel this child kick. So, as with many of Bubba's early moments and discoveries, this amazing moment was also a little bitter sweet too. Such is the military life.
I look forward to many many more nights in bed playing the "poking game" with little Legs! It's a joy in pregnancy that I plan to cherish!