pregnant pause

It's been a long week, pregnant beyond me, beyond a mother, moments taut around all of us.
Time slows for family and friends who check in periodically, loved ones watching anxiously from sidelines, waiting with us.  Time slows, and these days time doesn't do that often, usually sliding downhill fast, days pass in blinks and decades are gone in gulps, usually we're busy fussing over too many things to notice minute hands.  Lately though, wondering when a new human will arrive, we're playing inside slowed moments, hearts clenched in prayers of gratitude and eager hopefulness, a bursting roundness and joyful anticipation about all of us.  The baby's silence somehow adds power, building suspense, a reminder that something significant will soon happen.  We can hardly wait.