The thin black line

You get warned of all the lovely side effects of pregnancy, many of which I have had. The nausea, the back ache, the swelling of feet and hands (just starting to get this), the insatiable hunger, the odd cravings (ice cream!!!), the irrational crying at the drop of a hat (for me it's the bath that brings on the tears - I tend to sing to her while taking a bath, sometimes I'm fine, other times the thought of soon being able to hold her and see her little pink face as I sing Tender Shepherd to lull her to sleep makes my heart swell and the tears flow), the need to pee every 5 minutes, the hot flashes, the stretch marks...

And then there are the side effects of pregnancy that they don't tell you about, the pregnancy farts and the extra lubrication your body now cruelly produces, the extra hair - not just on your head, but everywhere, and my favorite, the one I have been secretly hoping for, La linea negra. A dark vertical black line that appears in the middle of your belly. There's something so primordial about this black line, like we're showing our true primate origins.

And now I have my own linea negra that goes all the way up to my sternum of which I am very proud of - the only pregnancy symptom I'm enjoying, because it makes me feel part of something bigger than me, part of something ancient and yet new.

ps. The photo is not of me. What with my appendix scar, and the purple stretch marks that have congregated around the scar, I thought it best to spare you.