How things change

When I was pregnant with Toby I remember many times kneeling over the loo as Jason stood nearby with a glass of water, a damp cloth and a goofy grin. That was back when he was working across the street from our flat in Tokyo, could come home at a moment's notice and the whole pregnancy lark was fresh and new.

Now, things are so different. On Tuesday morning I threw up for the first time. J happened to be home because it was the morning of our ultrasound. I was in the shower and, as usual, the barfing was preceded with some quite attractive gagging. All very vocal. I expected J, if not to come running into the bathroom, to at least peek around the shower curtain and make sure everything was OK. Didn't happen. When I got out of the shower I told him that I had been sick for the first time. His response - 'Yeah, I heard.'

This morning I was sick again but this time I wasn't alone. As I kneeled over the toilet tossing my cookies, a little hand reached out and patted me on the back. Then I heard Toby say 'You doing great, Mommy' before giving me a handful of wadded up toilet paper.