Almost half way. Or — maybe more than half way! No one knows when labor actually will begin! There is a whole five-week period of normal birth. I read in Making Babies that scientists increasingly think the placenta itself is responsible for starting labor. Isn’t that interesting? A whole organ that is grown in nine months and will soon be discarded (like literally discarded as medical waste) is what sends the signal to begin pregnancy. Why not the adult’s or baby’s brain?

This is the first week I was sort-of noticeably pregnant. Very noticeable if I was ever bloated or after eating a meal but reasonably noticeable the rest of the time. I had my first pregnancy catcall (from a food truck coffee guy, “looking good, mama!”) and people I tell I’m pregnant respond with something like, “I noticed.”

I’ve been feeling physically pretty good. Still pushing myself at the gym, though the definition of what pushing myself looks like continuous to shift (aka a difficult workset of 135 deadlifts the other day…). But I feel proud I’ve been listening to my body around what it wants. At the same time, I feel sort of gross about how heavy I might be. I find this almost interesting…I am basically always starving but I probably eat 80% healthy food. But I’m like always eating. At this point, I’ve pretty much decided I won’t weigh myself at all and will just rely on the doctor to tell me if my weight gain in concerning.

And, I went to the physical therapist and it turns out I did, in fact, strain my groin. I thought I did because it started literally in the squat rack after I lost my balance a little bit one day, but my OB was convinced it was just a pregnancy symptom. So I’ve been doing some stretches for that which have been helping.

Emotionally, I’m sometimes very zen and sometimes very overwhelmed. Mostly, I try to stay in the present moment and not think too hard about what’s to come. Thinking about birth feels fine. Thinking about having a legit baby to feed and clothe for the rest of it’s life feels insane. Thinking about making a registry feels like jfalhfjkdf.