The Beginnings of a New Relationship: Getting to Know My Unborn Baby

Alhamdulillah its strange how you can build a relationship based on intuition, conjecture and the guesses about a person you do not really know and have never met. Take my little ones. I have three children and I am expecting my fourth one insh’Allah in the autumn.

You would think the child is born, the personality emerges and you form a relationship. Yet I feel as if I know this unborn baby already. Each movement and kick, the changes in my taste buds and preferences, feels like part of the story and another piece of the puzzle in getting to know this little one.

With Little Lady, I had a baby that was hyper and kicked all the time, this is visible to me now in her energy. I remember looking at her scan photo and seeing a black thumb-print like mark on her chin and wondering what that could be. When she was born I realised that had been the dimple on her chin. Little Man was slower and stronger and gave me cravings for sweet foods. He was a bigger baby and still has his sweet tooth. I recognise now the perfect little nose and very full lips from his scan photo. Gorgeous had slow, languorous movements in my stomach. He gave me a taste for red meat and strong chill which I had never had much of a penchant for before. He was born a whopping 9.2 pounds, a real bruiser and is still a head taller than the rest of his classmates. He is also the only one of my children who can take his chilli.

This baby? He/she is full of energy, its movements are small and swift like Little Lady’s used to be and it is wide awake late at night and early in the morning when I am most rested. It also seems to wake up every day in the middle of the afternoon and have a good play, usually when I am in a meeting and trying to keep a straight face. Since I have become pregnant I cannot stand the slightest speck of spice or chilli as it burns my throat and stomach and I have lost all interest in anything sweet which is a bonus. I suspect this might set the tone for the little ones future preferences. From the scan photo’s I can see full lips and a pointy nose – more like Little Man than the other two I think.

I’m looking forward to my next scan in less than two weeks – it feels almost like visiting the baby! It’s a strange feeling to feel so protective and affectionate toward someone you have yet to meet.

"And God brought you out of your mother's insides while you knew nothing, and gave you hearing and eyesight and feelings, that you might be grateful." Qur'an (16:78)

"...then We made the drop a clot, then We made the clot a lump of flesh, then We made the flesh bones, then We clothed the bones with flesh, and then We produced another creature from it. So blessed is God, the best of creators." Qur'an (23:14)