Week 24 update

Here we are at week 24 in the pregnancy. This is where the pregnancy math gets complicated. According to some sources, I started my 6th month last week. Others say that it starts next week. If we are going by the pregnancy = 40 weeks rule, I think that makes today the beginning of the sixth month.

This math (which has never been my forte anyway) is made easier when you outsource it to baby websites that volunteer to do it for you. Sites like Babycenter.com will send you a newsletter every week letting you know what's up with your uterus. They are the ones who tell me for example that this week the McNugget weighs "over a pound and is almost a foot long -- picture an ear of corn." I am not sure why I can't just picture a ruler, the universal symbol for "foot long" but I digress. So, in addition to giving me these fun food facts about the McNugget, it's the e-mails that remind me where I am in the pregnancy.

Some things I have learned this week:

• If you are wearing your pre-maternity clothing trying to "make it work" and you sense when you are getting ready in the morning that perhaps your dress is a tiny bit too short, you are right. It is definitely too short.
  
• There are a lot of pregnant women who live near me and all want to take the same prenatal yoga class on the weekends.
• People can get really competitive when talking about anything related to their pregnancies.
  

On that last point, I think most people get so competitive because, like me, they are probably really insecure about their choices. I have no idea whether I am going about pregnancy the right way but listening to other people talk (most of whom I don't even know) with such confidence and judgment about their plans and paths is difficult. The worst part is, I imagine this atmosphere of judgment won't end here and will follow me into the delivery room, onto the playground, etc. I realize there is judgment everywhere, I just never considered it in this arena before.

Another realization I had today: the McNugget won't be a baby forever. As you might know, despite the lack of posting on our other blog, we are in the middle of a big-time renovation to our house. Jonathan was talking to me about paint colors today and suggested we pick a color for our office that will work should it eventually turn into the McNugget's "big girl" room (the McNugget will, for the time being, be stored in the room that is now our guest room). This was the first time I ever considered the McNugget would become anything larger than, as Babycenter.com might put it, a small watermelon. I think I need to work on visualizing this all a bit more.

I of course picked my favorite color: orange.