Hi BabyNames.co.uk fans.
I hope this post finds you well.
In an effort to keep up some social normality, Ana and I attended a small house party with our baby last weekend. Enjoying all the attention from the onlooking broody women, I lifted my baby up in the air and back down for a kiss. An audible ‘aww’ echoed around me. As I lifted my baby away, I saw that it was sporting a beige beard of curdled milk. Just as a bird feeds her chicks, I smacked my lips together a couple of times to discover a dose of warm sour milk had been regurgitated into my mouth.
No one likes a showoff.
With our story continuing at Ana being 32 weeks pregnant, now seems as good a time as ever to tread carefully around the topic of love-making. Due to the cringe-worthy term (and an awareness that family members may be reading this), I wish to take inspiration from a recent article and substitute the term ‘love-making’ for ‘tea-making’/’making-tea’.
For example, when does anyone find the energy to make-tea when you have a baby?
Are you with me?
For those of you who are pregnant or have been pregnant, you will know the tricky business of tea-making. But for those yet to experience it, imagine trying to passionately make-tea with your partner whilst testing the limits of an inflated balloon placed between you. It is difficult to not apply force to the balloon when making-tea. It doesn’t make any difference when someone says, “No, it’s fine. Just do it”. I still can’t enjoy the tea-making as I don’t know the durability of that balloon, and I am bound to be distracted. I may even be caught wincing and frankly, looking scared, whilst making-tea. Although making-tea in a different position could be favourable physically, I agree it seems insensitive and no-one has ever really enjoyed making-tea looking the other way. It just isn’t the done thing.
In all seriousness, I think it is important to keep up a level of intimacy even in the later months of pregnancy. Little did I know that mine and Ana’s level of intimacy was about to move into another gear in the final six weeks, as I was asked to aid her with a birthing preparation exercise.
Fact attack!
Perineal massage is a method performed to relax and soften the perineum, the area between the vagina and the rectum. This practice is most often undertaken during the final six weeks of pregnancy in order to alleviate tears to the perineum during childbirth and help prepare for the sensations experienced during childbirth.
For further explanation, please watch the video below:
Admittedly, I volunteered my assistance without fully understanding the implications implied. If I had found the video prior to being knelt at the foot of our bed with almond oil in my hand and a puzzled look on my face, I may not have offered my help up so readily. But I manned up, unscrewed the lid on the almond oil and proceeded with the task at (other) hand.
Ana and I kept this up throughout those final weeks of her pregnancy. Sure, it wasn’t quite the intimacy I was promoting, but it was definitely intimate. In one way or another, this pregnancy would bring us closer together.
