The Third Trimester

Yesterday was *officially* the first day of my last trimester of pregnancy!

I wonder if my baby looks like the one in the picture yet. I'll probably find out at my next appointment whether or not he has flipped over to be head-down yet. Instead of being 4 weeks from my last appointment, this one is only 3 and 1/2 weeks later. Soon my appointments will probably be scheduled every two weeks or so.

Other than that, the baby is moving all the time now, and oftentimes, he moves so violently that you can see it from the outside, even through my clothes. One time, I had my arms crossed on my belly, and he was making my whole arms move! The most uncomfortable thing about him moving is when I'm laying on my side at night, and he starts kicking at the mattress...because it actually hurts when whatever he is kicking gets pushed against the bed. I imagine that he does it because he is being squished and wants more room.

People keep asking me when the baby is due, and when I tell them that it isn't until the end of June, they are usually surprised, and tell me that I'm going to have a really big baby. I don't know if that's true or not...I think some women get *really* big, but still have normal sized babies. I've only put on about 25 pounds (I'm at 140 now), but it's pretty much all baby belly-ness. I hope that means that it will be easier to lose afterwards.

Yesterday, in the elevator at work, a woman who works upstairs told me that I was the prettiest pregnant lady she had ever seen. She stared at my belly for a moment, and sighed, "It's just so beautiful." I thought she was going to cry! But, it made me feel good.

I get a weekly e-mail from BabyCenter.com with information about each week of pregnancy, and this week, it contained the following suggested activity:

This Week's Activity:
Prepare food to eat after your baby's born. If you cook, start doubling recipes and freezing half. You and your partner will be too exhausted to cook in the first weeks after you bring your baby home and you'll be thrilled to have healthy meals you can heat up fast. If you don't cook, go around your neighborhood and pick up all the takeout and delivery menus you can find. You'll be grateful for all the options at your fingertips.

I'm not sure that I'm ready to start freezing food to be eaten in late June and July. Since it is frozen, will it keep that long? I guess it would be a good thing to be prepared if I have the baby a little bit early, though. Does anyone have any thoughts on this matter? (You don't need to have pregnancy experience to have thoughts - I'm sure that we have all eaten frozen food before.)