Personal space...? Ha, what's that!

Ive come to realise there is no such thing as personal space once you get pregnant. People become completely and utterly fascinated by your bump as it grows. The bigger it gets, the bigger the fascination and desire to touch it. It seems your body becomes public property. It is no longer part of you, but rather the exterior casing of the baby - and everybody wants to touch the baby. Too bad if you are used to enjoying your own personal space, because that no longer exists. I am now merely a vessel (I guess that's a step up from an oven? T has been calling me an oven for the last few months). It appears the invisible barrier that normally surrounds my body is no longer there. There is just something so magical about a pregnant belly and the little life growing inside that everyone is transfixed and wants to be a part of it.

The interesting thing is how people act when they touch my belly. The people who I am closest to, who I have no problem with, are the ones who are the most apprehensive. You can just tell when someone wants to touch your belly, they get that look. The 'I really want to touch your belly, but I don't want you to punch me in the face' look. My friends have been the ones who ask before they touch and then they stroke my belly ever so gently and for the shortest time possible so as not to be intrusive. This I can handle. They even have a conversation with me while doing it, which is always nice.

Strangers on the other hand, and people who I've met only once or twice, are less polite. They usually come straight up to me and just start frantically rubbing my belly. I mean like they think a genie is going to come out of there if they do it for long enough. They also usually forget that I'm even there and instead just talk to the baby. My bad, I forgot I'm just a vessel. I don't get why strangers are more ballsy than my friends though, shouldn't it be the other way round?

Lucky for everyone I am just so super happy to be pregnant that people touching my belly doesn't bother me too much. I'm so excited to have a belly I'm just like oh yea people want to touch it cos there really is a baby in there. Sometimes it still feels too good to be real.

I'm sure the touching will head into overdrive once you can feel the baby kick from the outside. For now the kicks are reserved just for mummy :)


Toni xx