1 Mother 2 Another

One of the best parts about being pregnant for a second time is getting the chance to have those, “Oh, yeah!” moments over and over again. There’s a chemical released during labor and afterwards called oxytocin – a true multi-tasker of a hormone – that actually has been proven to have amnesiac properties to it, meaning that it helps you forget how bad the whole experience was. Sort of nature’s way of making sure you don’t remember so much that you only have one kid.

Combine that with the famous Pregnancy Memory (also known as the Black Hole), and everything old is new again. Every little milestone I’ve hit with this pregnancy, I think, “Oh, yeah! I remember this feeling!” and it’s so instantaneous, so familiar, that you can’t believe you ever forgot that feeling. I’ve had it with the bad – lower back pain, fatigue, Dog Nose – and with the good – feeling the baby move, hearing the heartbeat at the doctor’s office.

My most recent “Oh, yeah!” moment came last week, when peanut started having hiccups. I thought to myself, “Boy, the baby’s kicking really rhythmically!” Then I thought, “I remember this feeling. Oh, yeah! It’s hiccups!” And all the memories of Maddie and her hiccups came flooding back and I couldn’t believe I’d ever forgotten that babies have hiccups in the womb.

From what I’ve read, doctor’s aren’t sure exactly why babies have hiccups before they’re born; many speculate it’s babies’ diaphragms getting strong and ready for use, and of course there’s the simple “Because you startled her!” explanation. I do know that Maddie was famous for her hiccups – she’d get them several times a day, and they’d last for several minutes, sometimes waking me up in the middle of the night. I never really minded; it made her more individual, more real somehow. And I loved watching my belly pulse faintly. And for what it’s worth, my kid’s quite a talker. Whether she would have been without all the hiccups, who knows . . .

All I know is that her baby sister is following in Madeleine’s footsteps. Having “discovered” hiccups this week, peanut’s taken to them like a duck to water and gets them throughout the day. At 29 weeks she’s not so big that you really see it on the belly, but it can be clearly felt by placing your hand on my stomach.

I know the hiccups will probably get old over the next 11 weeks, but for now I’m really digging them. And I swear, I’m not drinking just to see her hiccup more.