Question for mommies and those mommies to be

So here's a strange question going out for moms and moms-to-be.
How long does it take, or did it take you to feel a 'connection' to the baby that was/is growing inside you?

I was thinking about that last night. DH was talking to my belly and I started thinking about how I really don't feel anything emotionally. The most I can say I feel is a feeling of protectiveness. Like if the dog is around me I cover my stomach so not to get stepped on...but as far as a feeling of LOVE...it's just not there.

I remember hearing other girls mentioning how they really loved their baby from very early on, like as soon as they found out...
but to me it still doesn't really FEEL like there's anything in there to love, despite what the pee stick and the doctor told me.

If anything, I feel mostly a sense of awe and also curiosity that there's somthing growing inside of me, but I have no feelings like I have a CHILD in there or a person to be or anything that warrants feelings of maternal love.

Maybe when I go for my first u/s, my natural tendencies and emotions will kick in? I guess that save for the fact that I'm wearing all my pants low and my face looks a bit rounder than usual, I just don't feel pregnant. At least not to the point of loving something that right now just feels like it's 'imaginary' and certainly not a PERSON.
Does that make any sense?

I think the protective instinct kicks in right away even though one doesn't feel pregnant right away. You naturally cover your stomach when the dog is around to protect the baby.You try to eat the right foods & take better care of yourself.
I think many of us don't believe we have this little miracle growing inside us even though the HPT said +. I think once you see your little one on the sonogram for the first time, you are so overwhelmed with happiness because you can actually see the little life & now truly believe it is really happening.
I think when the baby starts moving and you feel them kick, you feel another instant bond.
I'm only 12 weeks but I can tell you that I look forward to the kicks & anxiously await the day our little baby can be in our arms at last.

this is so so so so so so so normal.

I completely understand. Completely. I will be perfectly honest here. Lord strike me, but I felt nothing until the second ultrasound. I felt pangs of like wow - this is neat - or wow i like the baby i think...but NOTHING like when i got to lay there with my husband and look at her for a long time, find out it was a little girl...see her little body squirming around with real hands and a little nose. I promise the feeling will come. Be patient with yourself. It will be fine.

(*and fm me your real name, due date, and posting buddy for our master list! - see my Attn all preggie post from today!)

Good to know. I was starting to feel like I was a bad person or something or I'd be a terrible mother because my natural, or what I figured should be natural, maternal emotions still hadn't kicked in.

Susan- you are sooo not alone in this. I felt amazed at the IDEA that a baby was inside of me, but there was almost no proof that is was real, if that makes sense. I felt very protective of my stomach and my health. I never cried at any of the u/s until this last one when the tech said the baby had hair. And I am a crier too. I actually hated the flutter stage because it made me feel very nervous, which is how butterflies in my belly always make me feel. I popped rather early so I felt pretty fat to be honest, more than pregnant. But as time went on I really did a feel a very strong connection with my little one and now I feel him/her all day long. I think when you start to feel the kicks and see your belly grow you begin to really FEEL emotions for the baby.

THere is a book that I am dying to read and I think you might really like to
Misconceptions by Naomi Wolf

Of course when you feel the baby kick or see your belly getting bigger, you will feel the connection. I think I started to feel it sort of before that when I got 'My pregnancy week by week' and looked forward to reading what my baby was up to each week. One week they said he was the side of an appleseed and I started calling him the appleseed, the first of many nicknames in the womb.

When I first found out I was pg, I walked around more in awe of the idea that feeling that connection.

Truthfully (and this may make me the WORST mom in the world), I'm still working on the bonding thing.
I am getting more used to the fact that I now have a REAL baby growing in me, and I protect it and care for it, but I only recently realized that I actually feel *connected* to it. I am not sure if that makes sense, but I tried to explain as best as I can.

I think you're pretty normal.