third trimester

 (somewhat blurry picture taken around 27 weeks)

It feels a bit like the home stretch.  This pregnancy has sometimes been long (that first trimester, really) and then suddenly I was left wondering where the time had gone.  (Still plenty of time to go, though, right?) Suddenly, I am huge, the end is sort of in sight, and the baby kicks hard enough that sometimes it wakes me up at night.  When I am talking to people, they sometimes start stroking my stomach, which will never not be a little odd to me, and every day I think October is so far away  and then (if he came a little early) I could have a baby in ten weeks... so. The third trimester, it is a little strange.

I know newborn clothes are supposed to look tiny, but I stare at them at them and wonder how I'll give birth to someone big enough to fit into such a giant babygro.  Then I remember that this baby is only a little over 2 pounds now, and become slightly horrified at all the growing I still have to do.  I mean, I am huge already...how exactly am I supposed to get any bigger?

Today I got to hear the baby's heartbeat again, and the midwife felt around and found his head, so he is nicely head down for the time being.  He likes to kick and sometimes startles us with how strong he is.  It'll be weird once he's born, maybe missing all those inner baby kicks and movements that are sort of just for you.  We cleared out a drawer just for him, and somehow putting things in small sizes away made it seem the tiniest bit more real... like maybe he really will join our family and wear those clothes eventually, and though I can't quite picture it now, I can't wait to meet him.