This time last year…

I was really really pregnant.  I know that a lot of women say this, but I’m not kidding you, I was asked almost daily if I was having twins.  I took this picture on September first last year thinking that I had at least 18 more days before we would be meeting this incredibly important person in our lives.  Little did I know that it was going to be only 11 (well, 10 really) more days before the young sir made his appearance, and this fantastic early arrival is high on the list of things that I am grateful for.  When I look at this picture now, I am so struck by my girth first and foremost (I mean, really!) but it also surprises me how clearly I remember the feeling of that big old belly.  I was not a very comfortably pregnant lady.  I felt so heavy, I lost my breath even glancing at stairs, and during the final months, I had a very tender pulled groin muscle that  constantly screamed at me.  I loved the feeling of having a big healthy baby growing away in there, and I enjoyed the extreme privacy of the internal monologue that comes from being pregnant, (finally someone to talk to when I’m endlessly talking to myself!) but the physical restraints really tugged at me.  At the end of the day, I have enjoyed being a mother to this child so much more than the pregnancy itself, which is a good thing.  Over the next two weeks, we’re going to revisit the last 12 months with Asher as we count down to his first birthday, and today is the nod to this last leg of his journey before coming out into the world.  While I look at this picture and see my belly stretched to kingdom come, Asher might look at it and think, hmmmm…that’s when my ankles were next to my ears all day long.  Ya’ll.  Seriously.  We grow people inside of us.  I grew a person.  And I love him.