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Original poster

Reproduction is incredible

102 replies

LittleLionMansMummy · 14/03/2017 23:31

A year ago my dd had only just been conceived - a ball of cells containing information and not even yet an embryo. She's now the most beautifully angelic looking 4 month old, sleeping peacefully in her crib, and she rolled over for the first time today. She's a real little human, her character is already emerging. Times like this really do make me catch my breath. How life can change so much in such a short space of time. Smile

OP posts:
JungleInTheRumble · 15/03/2017 07:16

The egg that made you definitely wasn't in your grandma. You started off as one cell within your mother. Your mother started off as one cell within her mother.

Still cool though. And we all have. Mitochondrial DNA which is passed down through the female line for, well, forever. Mitochondrial eve was a woman who lived maybe 200,000 years ago and is the most recent female from which everyone in the planet is descended from! Maybe one day one of us will (briefly) be mitochondrial eve. Interesting to think about.

There's an equivalent for the male - y-chromosome Adam.

DoubleCarrick · 15/03/2017 07:22

Op I'm so glad you said this. My ds is nine weeks old and he's just incredible. Not because he's mine but because of the fact that he grew from a tiny dot into what he is now. I had a scan at six weeks pregnant and he was a couple of millimetres and now he smiles, coos, breathes, can see, hear,etc. It's just an incredible process and every day I'm blown away by him and how amazing he is

lilydaisyrose · 15/03/2017 07:38

I feel like this too OP. My daughter is 12w old today and she was conceived a year ago this week (she was born overdue). How amazing that this time last year, she didn't exist, then I grew her inside me and now she gives me such incredible joy. Bonkers.

FKat2016 · 15/03/2017 07:40

I regularly think this about my unplanned 3 month old. I have grown a human inside me?! With a face and body and hands and feet?! What an incredible accident. Despite the difficult pregnancy, horrendous labour and postnatal depression- this little being is the light of my day. And is smiling at me broadly as I type this and talking many gooos and oooohs. ❤

MrsBellefleur · 15/03/2017 07:42

I feel this way, my little girl is 4 next week and I'm currently 38 weeks pregnant with her little sister and it amazes me that I created this tiny funny human creature and the wriggly lump getting in my way and kicking the hell out of me right now will turn into another one of these beauties!

Mysterycat23 · 15/03/2017 07:49

Amongst all the negative doom mongering shit chatted in the world this thread has cheered me up thank you. Being a parent is a super secret club of wonder and miracles hidden in plain sight it seems. Done in sleep deprivation for the most part but no less wonderful for all that.

liz70 · 15/03/2017 07:51

Life and creation in all its forms is incredible, and all too often we take it for granted.

Original poster
LittleLionMansMummy · 15/03/2017 08:17

Not because he's mine but because of the fact that he grew from a tiny dot into what he is now

That's exactly it. They're like little complex miracles. I also have a 6yo ds and he's now capable of forming opinions and and arguing back! I'm equally amazed that for the first six months of her life, my milk is all that's keeping dd alive! The human body is amazing.

OP posts:
Whitelisbon · 15/03/2017 08:40

I'm regularly astonished by that too. I mean, I can't even successfully draw a stickman, but I made 5 children, two of them at the same time.

NeedMoreSleepOrSugar · 15/03/2017 08:49

Love this thread. My little miracle is lying next to me talking to miracle number two through my belly button (apparently it's a telephone to the baby! Grin)
Sometimes Im struck in wonder that such an ordinary person as me could have built one as amazing as dd, and that I'm doing it again. Makes the horrendous pregnancy much easier to bear, that's for sure!

1stTimeMama · 15/03/2017 08:50

I told my children this just yesterday. I have 4, and they're all young enough for me to be able to wrap my arms around them all at the same time. I sat for a moment just taking them in, and blurted out that I still cant believe that I actually made them. That each of them started life in me, and how wonderful they all are. Ridiculous levels of sap, but I couldn't help it!

Applebite · 15/03/2017 08:53

I think this about DD too. In fact I was telling her about how she was a tiny mini-applebite inside mummy's tummy when I changed her this morning (she was more interested in yelling POOPOO, which fortunately there wasn't!).

When she turned 1, I cried because she wasn't a tiny baby any more. DP came in, saw me, and said, "YESSSS, only 17 more years until she moves out!!!!"

isupposeitsverynice · 15/03/2017 08:59

Haha applebite we have an ongoing countdown to moving out day. It will be bitter sweet I don't doubt.

Life in general is amazing isn't it. I like plants. I find the world all the more wonderful and magical and amazing for not believing in a creator (how lucky are we) but I can see why for some people they're led to the conclusion there must be one. Don't let's argue about god, of all things, on such a nice thread Wink

skerrywind · 15/03/2017 09:08

Yes, it's wonderful whichever way you look at it.

And as my little baby ( who is now a strapping 6ft young man) sets off from home next week for a gap year working abroad I still feel that wonder.

He squeezed my hand yesterday- and in a breath I was transported to the time that his tiny baby hand squeezed my finger, or that little toddler trusting my hand as we crossed the road.

That big 18 year old hand feels just the same hand as all those years ago, a long time, but the years have passed in heartbeat.

hawaiibaby · 15/03/2017 09:11

Absolutely love this thread.

And
Being a parent is a super secret club of wonder and miracles hidden in plain sight it seems. Done in sleep deprivation for the most part but no less wonderful for all that

Exactly this. It's easy to lose sight of the goddam amazingness (not a word, I know) of it all but life and creating life is a thing of beauty and I feel very privileged.

hawaiibaby · 15/03/2017 09:14

That big 18 year old hand feels just the same hand as all those years ago, a long time, but the years have passed in heartbeat.

Well. That's just made me cry as I feed my littlest boy and listen to my 3yo singing next door. It's already passing so quickly Star

Hope your son enjoys his gap year and emails you lots!

DJBaggySmalls · 15/03/2017 09:19

skerrywind Your eggs are in your ovaries at birth, they develop in your mothers womb. So yes, the egg that made you was inside your grandmother when she carried your mother.
They are immature and cannot be fertilised, but they are there.

skerrywind · 15/03/2017 09:24

hawaiibaby thank you. And sorry for making you cry.

BrieAndChilli · 15/03/2017 09:26

It blows my mind when I think about how these exact children of mine were a 1 in a billion. A different month of conception(so different egg) or just a different sperm from that particular session of sex and we would have had a totally different child! You just have to look at my 3 who are all from the same parents to see how totally different they are and it makes me wonder about all the other different variations of my children that never were

Applebite · 15/03/2017 09:37

I also thought my DM's eggs must have been inside my grandmother. If they were in DM when she was a baby, and she was in my grandmother, isn't that QED?

Plus there is that new research about how what your grandmother ate during pregnancy affects your body type/weight even 2 generations down the line. Fascinating stuff (and maybe all that stodgy war food explains my physique!!! Grin)

Applebite · 15/03/2017 09:38

Brie - not just you - your parents and both sets of grandparents and all great grandparents etc etc. The chances of any of us being here are billions to one!

Original poster
LittleLionMansMummy · 15/03/2017 09:43

Yes skerry that brought a tear to my eye too!

I remember years back, I must have been a teenager, I was lying on the sofa with my feet on my mum's lap. I looked at her and suddenly noticed her looking intently at my feet with a wistful look on her face and a funny little smile. Even before she told me what she was thinking I knew: "I remember your tiny newborn feet and I know how perfect and precious life is, it's gone so quickly". It was a moment of connection I'll never forget, particularly as I now feel the same way about my own children!

OP posts:
skerrywind · 15/03/2017 10:05

LittleLionMansMummy now you have brought a tear to my eye.

Emboo19 · 15/03/2017 10:11

When I went to the GP, with my very unplanned pregnancy, I'd asked how the implant hadn't worked, she'd asked if I'd decided what I wanted to do and all that had been discussed.
Then she said 'life sometimes just has a way' that was a lightbulb moment for me, that this baby was just that a 'life' not just a baby or even my baby.
That he or she would be a person, would have their own dreams and ideas, and everything that life entails.
My dd is 5 months now and I look at her and in one breath can't wait to see who she grows up to be, and in the other I want to be able to freeze time so she never grows up!

mollyminniemo · 15/03/2017 10:20

Insane to think before the day of conception- our DC didn't even exist in any form, not on the universe at all. Suddenly by 1 sperm and 1 egg randomly coming together- in 9 1/2 months after cooking in our belly- out pops a mini human being, fully formed, insane! Still think about the amazingness this all is at least once a day.

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