The golden crochet hook moved between the threads of yarn in my hands, I was watching Frozen on the telly, and the Christmas tree gleamed in the dimness of the room.
As Elsa sang "Let it go" I felt the first wave in my lower abdomen. It was as if a clamp had tightened around the lower part of my stomach. Gently, but hard enough to hold my breath for one second and squeeze my eyes shut. Elsa continued to sing, swaying her narrow waist on the ice balcony. I kept the first contraction to myself. Another appeared even before the ice princess sang that the cold did not bother her anyway.
There was another contraction and another, and I greeted each one with growing joy. Wave after wave brought me closer to the shore, until the end of this trip and the silhouette of a new land appeared- Motherhood.
A small grimace must have appeared on my face because J noticed that something was going on. We started timing the frequency of contractions and it turned out that they come every 2-3 minutes. I was calm because I knew that it might still be a long way to delivery. I stood up and my body began to sway to the rhythm of contractions side to side, in a new dance that I will repeat many more times over the next 24 hours.
The water in the bath was soothing as always. The only place where my tired muscles could rest and my belly float to the surface. The baby liked it too, the relaxed muscles of my pregnant belly gave her more room to move.
She showed me different parts of the body: once the knee, then the foot, and the entire arch of the spine moving from the left to the right side of my body. Now when I hold her against me, I recognize the same familiar shape of her body that I felt under my fingers when she was still a part of me.
We've had countless baths together over the past few months. I had to be careful not to make too much noise by putting the glass of water on the edge of the tub. She was jumping up and down in fear, and the instinct in me awakened again and told me to protect her above all else.
The waves of pain ended over. As always, I fell asleep on my left side and thought about whether the next day would be the one where I would meet my daughter.
It was.
