37, 38, 39...

Ready or not (actually, we are favouring the "ready"): today I am 39 weeks pregnant with our wee one.

Everywhere I go - truly, everywhere - someone strikes this conversation:
Person: "When are you due?"
Me: "October 24."
Person: "Oh, my! You're so small! I can't believe you're due so soon!"

Here are a few things to remember: a person who is due "so soon" does not, in fact, feel small. I do, rather, feel like an enormous hippopotamus. I think it takes me a full 5 minutes to rise from any seated/laying/non-standing position.

This is also not the time to inform me in detail of the anguish that you experience in having your child. Nor is it the time to regale me with the story of your terrible OB/GYN, hospital, nurse, etc. In a short while, these people will be assisting in bringing this little life into the world, and I'd like to have as much confidence in the profession as possible. 

Also, when we  (I say "we" because normally Nate is with me) see someone we know, the remark is often, "Wow! You still haven't had that baby yet?!?!"

No, but thanks for the reminder. I was starting to wonder about the large, basketball-sized squirming bundle of joy protruding out of the front of me. Thanks for clearing up that the baby has in fact not yet been born.

Now, I totally understand and appreciate that it's a just a way of starting conversation, and I get that. (In fact, I may even fall into that trap sometimes too because you want to say something, but you don't know what to say.) But when even your maternity pants are snug and the (few) maternity shirts you own are not quite covering the belly... any reminder that you have not had the baby (thus giving the baby more time to grow, and for you to grow out of your maternity clothes even more!) is really not the better road to walk. Instead, find a great glass of sweet tea and pass it my way. Or a Snickers bar. Or anything with peanut butter.