It takes patience and calmness to feel her. “Did you feel it?” K asks. “Yes,” I say, hesitantly: a small, quick pressure against the palm of my hand could easily be missed.

All this time, K, with her belly swelling, passed through all the early signs of pregnancy, and it was exciting for me, but still somehow distant. I’m an observer, not a direct participant. But once it became possible to feel L’s kicks, a new depth to the situation has emerged. Every day, the reality that we are soon going to be responsible for a little girl becomes more and more obvious and increasingly present. That goes without saying. But feeling L move about makes the realization all the more potent.