Dear baby Braxton

  I'm at  21w1d, and I hadn't felt you kick - until this afternoon. I know people will say I'm not sure if I'm feeling you in there or not, but I sit all the time and just try to feel for you. I was starting to get worried that this whole "mommy mojo" wasn't rubbing off on me like it does others - heck, they say that women know what they're having before they acutally find out at the doctors office, and I had no clue.

  This past week I think you've spent a lot of time kicking me in the back, I've had the worst pain, and now I think I've pulled a muscle in my lower belly which was giving me problems the last two days. This morning I'd had enough and told your Daddy to have a talk with you. Now you have to know that today is your Daddy's 27th  birthday, and I normally wouldn't ask him to give you a talkin' to, but it needed to happen - you're already not listening to me.
  So I laid on the bed, pulled my pj's just below my belly and he put his lips right up to it and started talking ina whisper I couldn't hear. He was there a while, and I had no idea what he was telling you, but when he pulled away you kicked right where he'd been. I finally felt you!
  I exclaimed "He kicked! " with a big grin on my face, tears in my eyes, and your Daddy just had his big grin going on. He then leaned down to you and said "Thank you."
  Turns out he'd asked you to stop kicking my back (if that was what you were doing), my lower area, but to kick at the tummy so either of us could feel it - and for you to do it for his birthday. And you listened.

  Now I did cry, and cried again when I called your Grandma to tell her it happened, and I didn't think I would. I mean, I cried for a few minutes when we found out you were a boy, but that was pure terror of actually being pregnant! :) This time it was just this crazy amount of joy that spread through me, and is making me realize that, sure, we're half way done with this pregnancy, but it's taken me this long to believe you were actually there!
  Your Daddy keeps picking on me telling me it's just my mommy-genes trying to kick in - trust me, his daddy-genes were there years before you decided to come along, he's just one of those guys. Maybe he's right though... maybe it'll just take me a little longer to get the hang of it all, but I can honestly say that kick was well worth the wait.

  So thank you dear baby boy for listening to your Daddy, and making his birthday one heck of a special day.

- Mommy




MY BIRTHDAY GIFT!!!

Hey Braxton,
  You know today is my 27th birthday, and I tell you that you have given me the most wonderful present that I could ever ask for. As you know from your mother’s letter she has not really felt the mommy gene at all. I always tell her that it is there, and that it is just laying dormant for that one little thing to get it going. But I never thought that you would be that one little thing…
  Mommy has been feeling a lot of pain recently in her lower back, and we just could not figure out what it was. Then after like a week of this pain one of her blogging friends, (Oh, blogging is this weird thing people do to let family friends, and complete strangers know what you are doing or feeling) told her that she had the same thing, only to find out it was her baby kicking her in the back. Well we figured that is what you must be doing since you were becoming such a big boy.
  So after awhile your mommy was becoming a little agitated that you were hurting her with your kicking, (I guess we’ll have to put you in soccer huh?) that it was time for daddy to put his foot down and give you a talking to. Well ever since we found out that mommy was pregnant with you, I promised that I would never hit you out of anger, but instead try and talk to you like you’re a person, not some animal. So I leaned down and talked to you in the softest manner possible, to please stop kicking mommy in the back and instead for my birthday kick mommy in the tummy, so that one of us could feel it…
  Then all of us sudden mommy looks at me and says that you had kicked right were my head had been. I looked at your mommy and she started crying, but had the biggest grin on her that I had ever seen. And with that my little man had given me two gifts. Not only did he kick so mommy could feel it for the first time, but that little kick started mommy’s mommy gene. So thank you son for your lovely gifts. I LOVE THEM.

Love, DADDY