Description
Nobody told me about the giant difference between your 1st and 2nd pregnancy. Why is that? It would have been so helpful to be warned about the enormous guilt that descends upon you because you basically ignore the 2nd child until they arrive. All those lovely moments: talking to the bump, playing music for the bump, knitting things for the baby to come… D had it all, Zo had nothing but exhaustion and guilt. At the end of a day spent chasing after a rambunctious 1 year old, who had the energy to talk? I couldn’t even be bothered to rub oil on the bump most nights; a lazy practice for which I have paid heavily in the stretch mark currency.
So it was that my RAS mentor, Val Pettifer, advertised a 2-day mixed media workshop a mere month before I was due. I was still in my frantic must-do-lots-of-art-before-baby-arrives-and-sucks-all-my-time rush so I signed up in a hurry and prayed that I’d be able to attend. This pregnancy was so not the energetic easy street I’d had with D.
Participants had to decide on their theme in advance in order to collect the relevant collage and mixed media items. I took the opportunity to do something for my ignored, long-suffering, unborn daughter. (Can you tell I was feeling the guilt?) I wanted to give her something my first born didn’t get – her own painting – but exactly what would I paint?
From the onset we called the bump Sunshine because we had the most amazing beautiful sunny weather for every pre-natal appointment. So I thought, I’ll do a piece that looks sunny and reflects my dreams and hopes for her so she knows that I did think about her, that I did love her, that I did want to meet her and nurture her more than anything, even before she arrived.
