Right now…

…baby is head up.  I don’t think any of my babies have been head-down by this point, but it is nerve-wracking nonetheless.

…I waddle, even when I try hard not to.  Oh well.

…I have gained 50 lbs.  I don’t know why I ever hoped this pregnancy would be any different in the weight-gain category.

…I am nervous about labor.  The thought of it all happening at home makes me more worried in some ways, and less worried in others.  Really, I’m just trying to boil it all down to trusting in the fact that it is all in God’s hands, anyway.

…I have officially reached what I like to call the “beached whale” phase of pregnancy, where flipping from one side to the other while trying to sleep has become a monumental (and sometimes amusing) venture.

…my kiddos like to feel the baby’s head (since being head-up makes it very easy to locate).

…there’s heartburn.  Fun.

…many of my maternity shirts have become too short.  Thus is the plight of a long-torso-ed (?) pregnant lady.

…my stomach is usually upset throughout the mornings, so I sit a lot.

…my brain continues to be in a fog, so expecting me to remember anything or make sense of anything is a pretty big gamble.

…I sweat if the temperature is above 70 and I am doing anything.  And on really hot days, my body is convinced that I am going to dehydrate, so it hordes water as if I were preparing for a trek across the desert.

…I am debating my need for a new carseat for the baby.  The “official” answer Tim got from the “seatbelt expert” at the State Police was that there is no law concerning carseat expiration and that nobody checks anyway.  My thinking is that I have had the same one for all four kids and would like something different.  I’m just not sure boredom justifies the expense.

…I’m really kind of hoping this baby doesn’t come late.  Of course, hoping doesn’t really affect the actual outcome (or, at least, hasn’t so far).  Still, I get impatient by the end, so I occasionally indulge in wishful thinking.  Practically speaking, though, I should probably be hoping for as much time as possible to get things done before this little one arrives.  It’s possible that pregnancy makes me slightly less practical than usual, though.

And those are my musings with 5 weeks (+ or -) left to go.  While it may not necessarily seem like it, I am so excited to meet this little one.  I am thankful for the inconveniences of pregnancy that remind me of the life that is being formed, and assure me that his or her arrival is drawing ever nearer.  And when this baby is here, and I can’t imagine how we lived life before, most of the pregnancy woes will be, at most, a faded memory – shadowed by the joy of a perfect little life entrusted to us.