Playing with the Baby

This particular event wasn't really momentous, but I found it adorable and slightly hilarious, so I had to write it down.

It seems Aaron was playing with the baby - without my knowledge.  Quite a feat, when you consider that I'm 23 weeks pregnant and kinda have to be there.

Last Friday night, March 9th, Aaron and I had gone to his grandparents' house for dinner, and when we came back home, we were (or at least, I was) very tired. But just for fun, when we were ready for bed but before we went to sleep, we decided to try a little fetal stimulation.

Quick educational moment:  According to the websites I've subscribed to, whattoexpect.com and babycenter.com, and the What to Expect When You're Expecting book, our little baby's ears are now fully developed, and can hear things like my heartbeat, my voice, Aaron's voice if he's close enough, music I'm listening to, etc.  There's no proof, but research has apparently shown that after an infant is born, it responds to sounds it seems to recognize, such as particular voices (especially the mother's), and even specific tunes or songs that were played around the pregnant mother often.

Anyway, Aaron is all for this idea of stimulation, because he says it makes him feel like he's more involved, and he wants to try to connect on some level with the baby I'm carrying - and I'm all for that idea, so we both enjoy little moments like this. So he went and got the "Go, Dog, Go!" book that his brother Braedon got for us as a wedding gift, rested his head on my belly where it was comfortable for me, and read the book to our baby. I thought it was adorable, and I remember having this book read to me since I was two years old, and it still makes me laugh. Then Aaron said he needed to do a couple other things before going to sleep and got back up, but I was really sleepy already, so I drifted off.

Fast-forward to Sunday afternoon.  We were at Aaron's uncles' house, and I overheard him telling his mom Melanie how he had played music for the baby by putting headphones on my belly.   .....whoa, what?! I had to interrupt - we haven't done that yet, have we? And then he told me, yes, we did, on Friday night. I couldn't believe it. I had no memory of this. So when we got in the car to go home, I asked him about it again, and he was just as incredulous that I had no idea what he was talking about.

Apparently, this is how it happened. When he came back to bed about 15 or 20 minutes after reading "Go, Dog, Go," I had fallen asleep. But he said I moved a little when he got back in the bed, so he thought I wasn't completely asleep yet, and he decided to try putting the headphones on my belly. So he plugged a pair into his iPod, put on Mozart and turned the volume all the way up, and then put the headphones on the left side of my belly - I was laying on my right side with my back to him. He said when the headphones touched my belly, I inhaled kind of sharply and raised my head and looked at the headphones, then seemed to relax again and put my head back down. He said I didn't respond to him when he asked if I was okay, so he assumed I was just really tired.  ....turns out I was just mostly unconscious. I'm guessing my subconscious brain said something like this:  "WHAT THE-- oh, it's just Aaron, nothing sharp in his hands, baby's not in danger, no need to become conscious, go back to sleep." So I did.

....Is this what they mean when they're talking about 'maternal instinct?'  I might need to work on that. Preferably when fully conscious.