8 months

That's more like it (see post below, if you haven't already read it). Here's the official 8-month belly pic. I thought it might be nice to take this month's photo in the same top I wore last month (that and my wardrobe's pretty limited these days). Sometimes I feel like I've expanded greatly in the past four weeks and other times not so much. Outside response is like that, too, with some people telling me I look "small" (I'm pretty sure they just mean in the belly region) for eight months and others warning me about the 9-pounder I'm surely carrying. Here's a close-up:


Notice in the top photo how I'm not wearing my ring? That's because although I can still usually get it on first thing in the morning, I can hardly get it off by the end of the day. I haven't experienced too much swelling, so I guess I shouldn't complain, but I couldn't help but notice how the skin around my ankles was ever so slightly bulging out over my socks last night. It wasn't full-on cankles but it was enough to make me cry just a little.

What else is new? Not much. Baby G seems to be back to the morning workouts, while he's a little less active in the evenings lately. Mixing it up, as usual. He seems to have the hiccups at some point almost every day, usually if I haven't eaten in awhile (i.e. more than 3 hours ago), although I'm not sure if this is related or just coincidence. Speaking of food, I keep forgetting that I can't eat as much in one sitting as I usually would, unless, of course, I want to feel miserably stuffed for the next several hours. I'm still craving sweets in a bad way. And breakfast foods. And ice cream. I could just alternate breakfast and dessert several times a day and be quite content.

I've been starting to fantasize a bit about life after pregnancy, which usually involves a margarita from this place. That and a good, sweaty workout of some sort. I haven't missed intense exercise as much as I thought I would (even if I wasn't losing weight because of it, I usually felt, pre-pregnancy, that I needed to work out at least every 3 days or so to relieve stress, if nothing else), but I am looking forward to dusting off my exercise step or going for a nice jog...eventually, of course. It's funny how you kind of forget you're not going to be pregnant forever. Unless, of course, you're married to Jim Bob.