Report from Inside the Womb

(I translated this from my wife's blog)

I was traveling in the car yesterday with Noah (2 and a half), when suddenly he started to talk about when he was inside the womb. (I think it had to do something with the fact that we had looked at his birth pictures together the night before.)

Noah: Mommy, remember when I was in your tummy?

Maki: (I thought, "Wow, this could be an opportunity to talk about what life was like in the womb.") Of course I do, Noah. Could you hear Mommy when you were in there?

Noah: Yeah.

Maki: What was Mommy doing?

Noah: Mommy was laughing.

Maki: So were you happy inside Mommy?

Noah: I was sad.

Maki: Why? (Feeling kind of shocked)

Noah: It was loud.

Maki: Could you hear Daddy's voice?

Noah: Yeah, Daddy was happy.

How ever many times I asked and whatever way I asked it, Noah kept on saying that he was sad when he was in the womb. While I always heard that the most important thing was for the mom to be happy during the pregnancy, it seems that it not good to be too happy!

Later, Noah also made comments about how it was dark and warm inside the womb. I asked a number of questions to check if he really understood what he was saying, and each time the answer was the same without hesitation.

(end of translation)

I do remember Maki laughing a lot, as she tends to do... but I was still a little skeptical about this little exchange.

After hearing about this, I (Mark) decided to do some of my own investigating. While we were taking a bath together I asked Noah some questions:

Mark: Noah, were you happy in Mommy's tummy?

Noah: No.

Mark: Do you want to go back into Mommy's tummy or do you want to stay here?

Noah: I want to stay here.

Mark: Why?

Noah: I was sad in Mommy.

Mark: Are you happy now?

Noah: Uh-huh.

I don't know what to say about all of this. Do you think he really remembers? Either way, I think we will be a little quieter the next time Maki is pregnant!