33 weeks

I'm 33 weeks now, and it seems so many discomforts I thought I'd avoided have suddenly come bounding 'round the corner at me. Driving a car and sitting at work all day have become extremely uncomfortable. The ankles swell up before 8 a.m. these days, and I think I'm getting tendonitis. If it didn't eat up half of my maternity leave, I'd go out of work early. If I didn't need the money/insurance, I'd stay out of work permanently (or at least until he's old enough to go to school). I want to be the one to raise this baby (with Michael, of course). I want to be there for every one of his milestones. It hurts my heart to know most of my days will have to be spent away from him, while he gets at least an 8 hour dose of someone else's agenda. I know it's not as sordid as all that, but it will make a difference, and I resent that fact.

Baby keeps alternating positions. Sometimes he's head-down, but most of the time he lies across my belly, with head to the right and feet to the left. While relaxing in this belly hammock, he does some extreme stretching and manages to wedge his feet very far into my side. Painful! I can feel very hard, defined little feet when I press them back to a more comfortable position. Michael is weirded out by my pressing on him, and is overly concerned about the baby's comfort while in the womb. He's convinced it must be terribly awkward in there for him, and every little interruption to his blissful, fluid-suspended existence must be highly traumatic.

It's interesting to watch Michael transform into a father. I know he will be a good [albeit overprotective] one. Even though he avoids feeling the baby move (fear of interference), he talks to him a lot, telling him all about what's going on out here. Baby will definitely know Michael's voice (but may also think we live in a war zone, from all of the video game noises and Michael's occasional frustrated yelling). I don't talk to the baby as much -- I'm not really sure what to say. I tell him 'good morning' and rub my belly, but we don't have many lengthy conversations. I'll save those for later.