Yep. So I am 31 weeks, and I have nine weeks to go.

Nine weeks???!! Say whhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Holy Freaking Jelly I cannot believe we are this far along. I mean, I have lived every second of this pregnancy so I am completely eyeballingly aware of where I am at realistically, but as every week ticks over I find myself completely shocked crapless all over again.

And the COMMENTS!! Holy Hamburger, I really thought that people would be used to me being pregnant and seeing a growing pregnant belly by now. But those comments just keep on a-coming. In fact, they have grown increasingly more intense.

YES! That’s fine, I love hearing that I have SUCH a big, big, huge belly. And YES! I understand that my belly is much much bigger than your daughters was when she reached this point in her pregnancy. And YES, I am sure that I DO look like I am about to give birth right now on the floor of our workplace.

But this is what a normal pregnant woman growing a human baby looks like. And I am not big. I am beautifully perfect. So shut it. You really don’t need to talk to me about how massive I am all of the time.

Oh gawd and I am getting emotional again. Bloody emotions. Who needs them?! So, when I do hear some of those comments I start experiencing mid stream levels of rage that make me sweat and I can’t control.

I am also starting to get freaking more tired as the weeks are going on. And this last week I have also been growing kinda uncomfortable. I don’t remember feeling quite like this in my first pregnancy. I DO remember struggling to walk up the steep hill near our house on our nightly walks from being so puffed out, because I had developed a small heart murmur just from all the extra blood whooshing around my body being pregnant. And that was fine weirdly enough, but I don’t remember the discomfort and huge heaviness in my body that I am feeling right now.

On Monday at work I didn’t have as many opportunities to get up and move about and by lunch time when I DID get up and go to the bathroom I was so uncomfortable and in a bit of pain to be honest that I had to limp to go to the toilets and back to my desk again afterwards.

I went for a walk that night when I got home with the dog and that seemed to help a bit, even though I am pretty sure that I terrified just about everyone in the neighbourhood as I waddled past their driveways. And now I make sure that I get up and walk around the block every two hours at work just to keep my body comfortable and flexible.

Or to prevent myself from crying hysterically behind the over-watered fern that has teeny tiny bugs all over it near my desk.

And it’s definitely helping.

My little lady’s movements are growing ever more intense as time goes on. She obviously has a heck of a sense of humour, because she seems to think that it is hilarious to hip and shoulder me 4,658,219 times a day right in the guts… Sometimes her fantastic gymnastics cause me to lose my breath, and for my eyes to open wide in shock. I have to ask her politely to not rip her way through my front as I push stray knee’s and elbow’s back in.

I get up every morning and stare at my body in the mirror in awe.

Regardless of what people say about it, I love my tummy. It is gorgeous and nurturing, and completely full of human.

Some stretch marks are starting to appear now. Well, at least I think they are. It could be the same marks that appeared in my first pregnancy just showing up now that I am stretched. I am just not sure… Coz I can only see them from a certain angle in a certain kinda light.

And weirdly it doesn’t matter as much this time around… With my son I was utterly shattered when stretch marks appeared on my stomach. I was so shocked by how quickly and completely my stomach grew and changed. I hated my stretch marks because I thought they were ugly.

And yet this time I kinda love them. I mean, I wont be wearing bikini’s any time soon, but that’s more because of my belly that has been stuffed full of way too much chocolate and ice cream than because of the stretch marks. This time I am truly proud of what they mean. What they represent. I am so incredibly proud of my body and for the first time in my life I love my body from my head to my toes.

Because I am a super human baby making machine. I am powerful beyond belief, and I want to high-five myself with my own strength and awesomeness. Go ME!

It’s weird how your mind-set can change so completely in such a relatively short space of time.

Oh yeah. I am 32 weeks now. And I had a scan this morning to check where my placenta is sitting, because it was previously low-lying.

I found out at 20 weeks that it was too low but I was told that in 90% of cases it would move up and get out-of-the-way of the exit route, so I was so hopeful and so excited before getting this 32 week scan.

But in the scan they advised that it was still a bit too low. By One. Stinking. Millimetre.

I was shattered when I left the centre thinking that my chances at attempting a VBAC (vaginal birth after Caesarian) were basically over. That everything I had hoped in terms of my impending labour, was disintegrating before my eyes. I struggled trying not to cry all the way home after that. I didn’t want my husband to think I was an idiot for caring about it so much.

As it turns out, he did. He thought I was a bit selfish for worrying more about how the baby was going to come out of my body as opposed to caring only that she will be healthy and happy and safe. He is kinda right, but still. I can’t help that I want to experience labour in all of its forms. Plus I don’t really want to go through the tough recovery period after a c-section if I can help it.

The obstetrician advised that my chances are pretty good that it will move in time, but there is still a little nagging worry in the back of my mind. What if it doesn’t? I guess I will have to cross that bridge when I come to it.

I am 33 weeks now, hooray! This kid is just hanging about in my pelvis. She is head down and ready to go. A little posterior, like her brother but there is still time for her to turn. Like there is still time for my placenta to move a bit more. I have another scan booked for 36 weeks, and I am feeling hopeful again that things will turn out the way that I want them to.

I am starting to waddle a bit – more so in the afternoons after a long day of gravity sucking the baby further down into my hoo-ha. And I am needing to wee more frequently now. And I am constantly rocking from side to side. Sitting, standing, kneeling. It doesn’t matter. I am rocking like a crazy person all of the time. I think from memory that my body is preparing me from all of the soothing rocking that I will need to do when the baby comes.

I cant wait to meet this baby (dubbed Captain Becky by her brother) already. To see her face. To kiss her cheeks. To hold her. To love her.

Bring on December 20 already. Mumma wants to meet you, sweet Captain Becky. xxx

Are you pregnant yourself? Tell me how you are feeling, I would love to hear all about it! xxx