Dear Baby Bow

Dear Baby Bow,

At first I was worried that I couldn’t find a nickname for you. All the other pregnant mamas seemed so content with their little peanuts and jumping beans, but nothing came to me so I just kept calling you Baby Rainbow. 

Your Aunt Britni called you Poppy since I told her about you when you were still the size of a poppy seed. Your Nanu called you Acorn and Unicorn until it was confirmed you were a singleton not, like she had dreamed, twins. Your Pop Pop was convinced you were a boy, so he didn’t quite approve when your Dad started calling you Baby Bow, but I knew you were a girl from the beginning. And Baby Bow stuck. 

We decided on your real name pretty early, but you’re still mostly Baby Bow to me. When you’re karate kicking my (right-side) ribs and surprising me with jabs to my pelvis, when you’re bouncing on my bladder all day every day, when you’re reminding me, not so subtly, to not lay on my back because it cuts off your blood supply, it’s obvious that you’re already your own person. I knew I’d be impressed with how early you showed your personality once you were born, but I didn’t expect to already know so much about you just from the way you wiggle and dance inside my belly every day. 

Several people have told me you’re the most active fetus they’ve seen just from watching my belly move, either in person or on the many, many videos I’ve taken on my phone. I’m fascinated and endlessly entertained by how strong you already seem to be. 

I can’t wait to see your chubby cheeks and to find out if your profile still looks how it did in your 20-week ultrasound. It’s still so hard to believe, even with ALL that movement, that you’re really in this giant belly of mine, that in less than a month I’ll get to hold you in my arms, smell you, feel you, and finally see the face that I’ve been dreaming of for much longer than just these past nine months. The familiar face that I’ll never not know again. 

I’ve wanted a baby ever since I was old enough to ask my mom to have another one for me (she was done). Baby dolls were my absolute favorite, and when my friend told me she was going to get a little sibling, I cried because I was insanely jealous. It’s so surreal that I am finally going to have a baby girl of my own to love forever. 

Once you decide to make your debut, you’ll officially be Scarlett Olivia Rainbow, and it’s going to be exciting, overwhelming, and so many things I can’t even imagine yet. We’ll have inside jokes and traditions, I’ll show you Disney classics, play you all my favorite bands, and read you Harry Potter, you’ll teach me so much about life and love and myself, you’ll help me experience everything for the first time all over again.

But I’ll always remember and cherish this time with you right now. When it was just me and Baby Bow moving through the world as one. When my ribs were always sore and your dad and I were just fantasizing about being your parents all the time.

Thank you for letting us be yours, Baby Bow. You’re already so incredibly loved. 

We cannot wait to meet you.

Huge thanks to Sufia Huq Portraits for capturing these Summer of ’69-themed photos for us.