Chapter 3: Third Trimester

September

I slowly succeed in opening my bright blue eyes for the very first time. Their color, I most likely inherited from my Dad – just like the red, thick hair.

I'm really happy to see that odd, downy hair disappear from my face! I already feel less like a hatchling, even though I still find that remaining lanugo – what appears to be the correct, scientific word for that strange, downy hair – onto the rest of my body quite troublesome. I still look like an animal, but already more than a mammal, than an odd looking and bill-less baby duck.

It actually seems to me that other sounds except from Mom's heartbeat are better audible than before. I wonder if it could be me, or if that's usual.

What fun it is to be able to kick and stretch! I now experience lack of room already, though… and that possibility of getting crammed up in here soon seems more reasonable every day. I now weigh nearly three pounds and I'm just sixteen inches.

I'm coated with some wax-like thing that should protect my skin, and help me to keep onto the same body temperature when I'm born. I don't yet feel like leaving my safe environment, though.

October

Alright. First, I'm looking like I'm cooked… and wrinkly… and now I'm getting chubby as well? You certainly cannot be serious about this!

I have turned head down over the last half month. I'm ready to see what it is like on the other, wide side. I'm nicely warm and relaxed here, and I'm hoping to be inside Mom's womb just a little while longer, but it is truly getting too petite for me in here… I'm no pea size anymore…

I cannot do my acrobatics that easily anymore, which is rather sad now I have become so much stronger, and even manage to have Dad feel me whenever he lovingly puts his hand on Mom's tummy.

Oh no… is this getting started again? Mom's off to pee for about the ninth time today, just like in the beginning. I'm around five pounds and seventeen inches now, I think… perhaps it is normal… I'm constantly pressing downwards after all…

I repeat: I'm getting crammed up here!

November

I think I finally managed to break through my sac! Please don't start at me… I'm well aware that it is a bit early, and that it surely sent Mom, and Dad, into panicking, but it is really getting too petite for me in here! I'm around twenty inches, and weigh approximately eight pounds.

Slowly, that lot of water that surrounded me during my time in here disappears. My head's settled against Mom's birth canal. Mom's screams and Dad's encouragements reach me, combined with another couple of unfamiliar voices – even though one of them seems like I have heard it before.

Lighting gets more intense, together with Mom's screams. "You are doing wonderful, Calleigh dear," Dad's voice sounds.

Oh damn, I think. "Oh fuck!" Mom cries, when she's trying to get me past the pelvic bone. She succeeds into this with an almost inaudible 'pop', and guides me onto Earth with one last, hard push.

Coldness suddenly surrounds me and almost instinctively, I start screaming.

Someone catches me immediately before lifting me upon Mom's tummy. Dad's there, too. "Little Yseult," he whispers, and Mom's tummy starts going up and down while she cries, and sobs.

"Yeah," she answers in tears of what I would assume to be happiness.