Fluttering

I have (of course) been reading (well more like pouring over) my voluminous collection of pregnancy and birth books. I recently discovered that baby's first movements may be detectable by the mother around 16-18 weeks. I have been anxiously awaiting those first flutterings indicating that there is in fact a life growing within me. As the last couple weeks passed, I have consciously paused whenever I have detected any sort of movement, twitch, or flutter resonating from my abdominal region, hoping that I could discern whether this was merely a digestive fluke or muscular twitch or in fact an indication of life. I was beginning to feel utterly unsuccessful in "being in touch" with my body enough to decipher the origin of the abdominal twitches and flutters, that is until last night. As I crawled into bed last night at midnight (after an extremely long, but successful day of studying) and cuddled up to Mylo (who had already been soundly sleeping for several hours) I felt a fluttering in my belly. Then it happened again. And again. These flutterings were certainaly stronger than anything I had detected before. I wanted to wake up Mylo and tell him my exciting news, but I just lay there, afraid to move just in case the fluttering would stop. So I just lay there, one arm on my hubby, one arm on my belly, and marveled at this little living miracle that we created.