I saw this model of an eight-month-old fetus at AtBristol Science Centre last week. Jess from Along Came Cherry and I took our kids there for a Toddler Takeover and we both reckon this baby looks huge for that gestation! I couldn’t believe how heavy the 9-monther was. Not that I even understand pregnancy in terms of months, really. Talitha’s conversations with the baby are becoming more elaborate now. She tells her what she’s doing. She’s even started – occasionally – using her name. She’ll say things like: “I’m splashing in my bath, —” or “I will wash your hair…

After spending so much of this pregnancy saying that I’m not thinking about it much, it’s as if in this last stretch – especially with Christmas out of the way – something has clicked. It’s suddenly so real. I’m enjoying playing with little feet as they kick through my skin. It’s a familiar feeling yet so different. It’s becoming natural to talk to this baby – something which came much easier to two-year-old Talitha than to me. She takes many opportunities when we are alone to kiss my tummy and say: “Hello, baby. Having a nice day?” We’ve told her…

Like lots of things in this pregnancy, the baby bump crept up on me. I feel like it’s happened overnight. One day, I was my usual size and the next, it was all pregnant woman ahoy! In fact, I still think of my body as being, well, unpregnant. In my mind’s eye, my waistline is still in tact. Then I bend to tie my shoe laces or reach across a table for something and can’t understand why it’s so difficult to reach. I pull up my jeans and wonder why they won’t pass my thighs. I’m betrayed by jumpers that…

It seems my pregnant body is being very text book about things. Whereas I felt pretty rubbish inside and out almost the entire time I carried Talitha (from morning sickness to pelvic pain to anxiety) this time around I experienced an incredible lift almost as soon as I’d entered the second trimester. I had more energy and felt stronger than even before I’d conceived. There’s been little discomfort and virtually no pain, which I thank osteopathy for. I felt limitless, joyful, productive, incredibly alive. Much of the time, I kept forgetting that I was pregnant. My skin and hair hadn’t…