Nine months later, it seems a distant memory finding out that you are pregnant – bringing in a child to this world. After all the range of emotions you go through – if you are not one of those girls-just-waiting-to-be-a-mom, you really do go through mental, physical and emotional upheavals. At no stage is it easy, but definitely there comes a time when you can actually feel a sudden shift and your mind says, admits – “it’s all worth it.” Suddenly priorities change, people around you change and your thinking changes. I’m guessing it’s a different experience for every expectant mother, but though I always believed I lacked a maternal gene, or thought I would never really get it, there came a time – surprisingly – when I did get it. I got how cool the whole deal is – building a little human, watching it grow – limbs, fingers, toes, organs, systems, spinal cord, brain, features… and to think your body is capable of doing all of that! While intellectually we know it, to actually feel it as a process is an entirely different feeling. When your baby starts moving inside, and you feel life forming, you want to hold onto that feeling. It’s surprising how quickly you get used to it all – carrying the baby, feeling the movements…it becomes something you often don’t even think about. One of nature’s most basic processes, and it is a marvel how efficiently the system works all on it’s own to get it all done. And then it all boils down to the last few weeks, days, hours, when you wait to actually meet the baby you’ve created face to face. There is impatience, there is trepidation, there is anxiety and there is a whole lot of excitement. And are there expectations? Possibly a lot – expectation that your child will be everything that you are dreaming it will, expectations of those around you. That’s a heavy load for a little tot! Possibly why I am not a fan of the term ‘expectant mom’ — it’s like you’re waiting to fulfill expectations. When you should be waiting to simply add a positive burst of energy into the world.