Growing Girth: 26 weeks

Last week I hit the 26 week mark (out of 40) and I had gained 26 pounds, which is a nice bit of symmetry in my life. I'm a fan of symmetry.

By the way, you may be among those who, like me, hear women mention being so many weeks along and think, "What is the deal with the weeks? I don't want to do math just to follow the conversation. Can't you just say how many months along you are?" An older woman said the same thing at a gathering last weekend.

"We didn't have all this "weeks" stuff in my day," she harrumphed. I'm with you sister. But it's a medical thing. As soon as you become pregnant, doctors and nurses start talking to you this way because they calculate how far along you based on when you got pregnant and a typical nine-month pregnancy averages out to 40 weeks, not 36 as you'd expect. Then all the tests must be done at specific weeks into your pregnancy, hence the pregnancy-by-the-week conspiracy, as I like to call it. :-)

So now I'm very obviously pregnant and carrying very high up. When people who haven't seen me in a while notice the change, I've been saying, "Yeah, I know it looks like I'm smuggling a basketball." Someone last week remarked, "Uh, it's a little more than a basketball." Gee thanks. Have you seen the door? From the other side?

I'm actually not sensitive about it, so we had a chuckle. But I figured it's time for updated shots of the burgeoning belly. Here they are. You'll note a pronounced "linea negra" as it's called - the dark belly line many pregnant women get which is especially noticable on women of color. Info about it here.

Apparently it usually fades after the birth, but sometimes it doesn't. Great. It's not like I would have gone into a tatoo parlor and said, "Hey can you give me a permanent reminder of my pregnancy up the front of my body? No, nothing cool, decorative or inspiring. How about a plain, not very well-centered or defined line, preferably several shades darker than my skin tone. It should look kind of like a drunken monkey with a brown Sharpie drew it on with one eye closed while balancing on a wheel of cheese. That'd be GREAT!"

Needless to say, despite my admittedly awesome and nearly trouble-free pregnancy, it's one of many not so lovely changes that pregnancy has wrought with my body. You moms know. You dads only know the parts your partner lets you know. Trust me on this.