The Little Stranger

When a woman becomes pregnant the child growing inside her is often labeled "The Little Stranger." I am very curious about this choice of title, especially being pregnant myself. People talk about how you need to know a baby's sex so that you can name it ahead of time and learn to identify with it. I would have to disagree. You know your baby inside and out by the end of the nine months that you have carried it. That is true for me at least; I have gotten acquainted with him/her by each little wriggle, kick, punch and roll over the past 6 months.

With each doctors appointment you learn more about your child. Each time that you get new weights and measurements for it you are delighted with its growth and progress. For me, each ultra sound and each listen to the heartbeat have been the best ways to discern who she or he will be.

Feeling your baby move inside you gives you tons of hints as to whom they are. Each flutter tells you important things about them and helps you to get to know their personality. Little things make all the difference in getting to know your growing baby. Silly things like what foods give them the most energy and what things make them, and you, have heartburn. Even little things like what drinks make them get the hiccups. They get excited over certain foods that you eat and fussy over others.

You can get learn about your child's personality by paying attention to all the little movements it makes. My baby even gets startled when I do, and is as jumpy as I am. When he or she responds to my voice or my touch with a wriggle or a big kick it tells me that they are comforted by my presence already.

When Daddy comes home at night and she moves to the side of my body that he is sitting on, she is telling her Daddy that she is glad he's home. When we read the in-utero Dr. Seuss book to him/her, it gets very active and then settles down very quickly afterwards. This lets me know that this child will enjoy having a story read to it each evening before bed.

My baby particularly likes music. He will thump his little fists and feet along to the beat and rhythm of what I am listening to, sometimes just a commercial on television that has a snappy beat to it.

Babies do all sorts of wonderful things to tell you who they are while in the womb. 'My baby even kicks my dog in the side when she tries to lie in my lap. This baby definitely doesn't like to be crowded. I am very glad it has a big bedroom to come home to and will have a plenty of space to grow and play in. It sure seems that this baby would be very unhappy if he or she didn't.

I believe that you can and do get to know your baby while it is in the womb, if you want to. You have to be aware, and you have to try and figure out ail the little clues that he/she gives you about themselves and who they are going to be. I don't know if my baby is a girl or a boy, and I don't need to in order to learn its personality and to grow to love it more and more each day. If anything, both the baby's Daddy and myself have gotten to know more about her this way.

We have learned so much from all the baby's little cues that each of us already have our own special little nicknames for her or him, ones that I am sure will be around long after the baby is here and happy. So I'm not sure that the nickname "little stranger" should apply, at least not for long. Your baby is only a stranger as long as you let it be.

Take some time to get to know her or him, listen to her and all her little cues and clues, and I'm sure, like me, you will see that it really is not such a "little stranger" after all. Instead I think you will find that he or she is a very familiar little person that will be here all too soon.

When your baby arrives, I think you'll be surprised by what each of you will already have learned over the past nine months. So you see, babies aren't really "little strangers" after all.