battle of the bellies

Is it just me, or do I look kinda like a raptor in that second picture? A pregnant raptor? A very short, pregnant raptor?

Wait... why did I decide to post this picture of myself?

PS- The lovely, non-raptor-like pregnant lady bumping bellies with me is Emily, the brain behind Sweet Tea and Strollers as well as author of her own blog, The Daily Duncan. We were lucky enough to be guests-of-honor (along with our husbands) at a Babies and Beer couples shower thrown by our husbands classmates in the University of GA MBA program.

sweet tea and strollers

My friend Emily sent me an email recently asking if I would like to join her on a new blogging project along with 3 of her other pregnant friends. The idea is that the 5 of us will all contribute to one blog about anticipating, preparing for, and then experiencing first time motherhood. Of course I agreed, and I am excited to introduce you all to Sweet Tea and Strollers! All of us are due within the next few months, so the first entries are just introducing ourselves, our spouses, our relationship to Emily (since she is he founder and the one who knows all of us), and sharing how we are feeling as our due dates rapidly approach. Join us as we blog our way through pregnancy woes and joys, birth stories, baby pictures, and all of the anxieties and thrills of having a newborn!

nunya

(As in: "nunya" business.)

Today I am one month away from my due date. (Which means that I could technically go into labor at any point starting next week and still be considered "full term", fyi. Due dates are so over-rated.) There have been many things that have surprised me about pregnancy, especially in my last trimester. How I can press on the top of my foot and it leaves a little indentation (Mom says its called "pitting edema" or something like that. I think it's called "fat feet disease"). How time can fly by and drag all within one day. How I can still teach my classes and feel confident that my students are learning, even with less than stellar demonstration from me. How much I miss lying on my stomach. How much STUFF a baby needs. But I think the thing that I has surprised me the most is how entitled people feel to comment on my pregnancy. Strange people. In grocery stores and fast food restaurants and parking lots.

Now, people warned me about this. Or at least mentioned that strangers would come up and touch me without being invited to do so. But it's not the touching that bothers me (and really, not many people have tried to "pet the baby" without asking me first, so it hasn't been as much of an issue). It's the unsolicited commentary and the endless repeated questions. I think I'm going to start wearing a sandwich board (with a hole cut out in the front, of course) that says:

DUE: November (the date is not important, people, but it is the 14th since you all need to mark it on your personal calendars).
GENDER: Unknown (Yes, on purpose.)
TWINS: No. It is one baby. Just one. In my massive stomach, there is but one child. Hard to believe?

That should cover the questions. As for the comments about how huge I am and how there have GOT to be at least 8 babies in there that were actually due last week. When people widen their eyes and say "November? A whole MONTH to go?" or (one of my favorite phrases) "you are about to POP, aren't you?". Or exhale loudly through their mouths in a way that seems to say "good luck with that" in a very insincere and obnoxious way. For them I will turn around to show the back of my sandwich board with a giant middle finger on it.

boo!

So I don't know if any of you guys noticed this, but it is, in fact, October. No, you heard me right.

October. As in one month before November.

October. The month of candy corn pumpkins (there is no comma there on purpose... the pumpkin shaped candy corns are the BEST), apple cider, corn mazes, costume parties, and cooler weather- yes, even in Georgia!

There are only a handful of weeks left before the end of 2009 will be upon us, finding my little family, larger by one, sitting at the beach house and opening a time capsule full of memories from the New Year's that might have been the end of the world. (But wasn't... whew!). While part of me wants to race ahead- baby! holidays! time capsule!- part of me wants to stop time for a moment and take a deep breath. So much to look forward to often also means there is a lot to look back on. After October I will no longer be just a wife, daughter, sister... but a mother. My husband, my crazy friend from so many years back who asked the most ridiculous questions in history and ate all of the food out of my family's refrigerator and walked to my house in the mornings and threw rocks at the window to wake me up, is going to be a father. And of course once the baby comes time won't stop there... the baby will grow up and be an older sibling to more babies and many Octobers will come and go and more time capsules will be filled and opened and filled again for many more New Year's celebrations at the beach. So for now I am taking a moment to sit on my couch (forgetting for now that I am looking forward to the day when we replace it) in our new-ish apartment (forgetting for now that we will probably only be here for a few years before we move on again) and take a deep breath, looking back at not just 2009, but 2008 and 2007 and so on... (forgetting for now that eventually I will be taking a breath to look back to right now).