My pregnant partner,
Let me begin this by simply saying that to me, you are a superhero. A strong, powerful person for whom my admiration and love grows for every single day.
Right now you’re in your second trimester, and you’ve never looked more beautiful. Every day I am amazed by you.
Somehow, through some incredible feat you are growing a human inside of you - a baby who has hands and feet and their own fingerprints already! They have hair on their head and taste buds and eyelashes! - and still manage to get through each and every day as though it’s no big deal, as though this is just another thing to take in your stride. I am in awe of you and how you just keep on grinning about the future.
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I’ll never forget the way you looked when the doctor told us that our lives as we knew it were set to change forever. The way you protectively cradled your belly in the car ride home even though you weren’t showing, the way you smiled for hours on end as I fumbled through DIY assembly manuals and failed to construct a cot correctly, the way your heart grew overnight to accommodate this new little bean-sized person into our world. Suddenly, it just seemed to us both as though this was always the way it was supposed to be.
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Part of me is terrified about what is to come. I worry about the baby not liking me, or about stuffing up and not being able to help with the feeds properly. That they might make you upset or somehow change the incredible dynamic that we have always had. That you will never stop taking up as much of the bed as you currently do or decide that this life without soft cheeses and cured meats is something you want to continue with. But every time I have these freakouts I just look at you and remember how you’ve handled everything that’s come your way and I know that not only will we be fine, but that we’ll be great.
Because no matter what happens, this baby will be half of you. They will be everything that you are right now and more.
Mostly, I want to take this moment to say one thing above anything else: thank you.
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Thank you for letting me experience this with you. Thank you for giving over your body so that we can embark on this life-changing journey together. Thank you for helping me to become a parent. Thank you for keeping your cool and putting all of the appointment times in my calendar. Thank you for vetoing my lime green baby room paint choice. Thank you for humouring my stupid questions and allowing me to do practice runs to the hospital every Sunday. Thank you for being you.
Soon we will be three. An unbreakable trio of love and adventures of our own. And it’s all because of you.
So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
