This is for you, James, when you're old enough to read. That time seems many moons away as today you are still 4 months away from being born! Your daddy and I are waiting for you so impatiently. We can't wait to meet you and see your little face! Who will you look most like? Will you have dark hair like mummy or blonde hair like daddy? Your eyes will most likely be green eventually but they'll be blue when you're first born. Your nose will be a tiny little button and your fingernails will be minute little circles - even smaller than holes punched in paper, smaller than ladybirds. We've seen you wiggling about on the ultrasound and heard your heartbeat - strong and fast. I've felt you move inside my tummy and it feels like little kernels of popcorn popping. I love feeling you because it reminds me that you are there and that in the not too distant future we will have a son. I wish I could feel you all the time! Daddy wishes he could feel you too but you are too small at the moment for your kicks to be felt from the outside. He puts his hand on my belly every evening and you probably feel the warmth coming through. I read that at the moment you can hear his voice better than mine because it is lower and deeper. I hope that you can hear him and it makes you feel safe like it does me.
Your daddy and I think about you all the time. Not just what you will look like, but what kind of personality you will have. Will you be bookish like mummy, or musical like Daddy? One thing is for sure, you will be wonderful, whatever you like to do, and we will always encourage you to be your own person, and do the things you enjoy. Your grandfather Dowling thinks you will be a West Ham fan and play Rugby. I picture you playing the guitar like daddy, and I want to teach you how to rollerblade. But you can try everything and just stick with the things you like. I really do think about you nearly all the time you know! I go to work everyday and I get on with things but in the back of my mind I am just thinking of you.
There are lots of websites talking about all the different phases of pregnancy and how you are developing and I look at them quite often even though by now I mostly know what they say!! This week (Week 23) your hearing is pretty well established and you are approximately 29cm long 'crown to heel' as they say. Although you are almost as long as a ruler, you are still quite thin. Over the next few months you will put on lots of fat and everything will get stronger and more developed. Mummy is already making the meconium - the best quality breast milk that you will drink in the first couple of days before normal milk takes over. Mummy's body is preparing just as much as she is preparing in her mind, and preparing the house for your arrival. Mummy wants to spoil you by buying pretty nursery furniture but you won't notice it until you're much older so we will save the money so it will last longer and I can stay at home with you for as long as possible before going back to work.
Anyway my gorgeous little Jim Bean (I like to call you this, and Daddy calls you Jimbo), I must do some work now. You're not here yet so I need to at least try to think of other things.
Big kisses to you, all my love always,
Mummy.
