33 Weeks!

So I was a little late on this posting as I should have posted it at 32 weeks.  I'm actually at about 33.5 weeks today, so I have about 6.5 weeks left!  Crazy.  I didn't manage to get a new picture in the same shirt, but here is a picture in another outfit.  Ironically, I wore that t-shirt originally to point out the "big belly" that I had at 5 months.  It's not really necessary any more.

Here are some observations for month 8 of the pregnancy.

• It's really quite convenient having a nice little "shelf" any time I need it.  It's come in quite handy to store some snacks there while I do something else with my hands (typing on the computer for instance).
• I would have thought that it was a good idea to let the mother "store up" sleep in the months before the baby is born knowing what was coming soon thereafter.  God thought it better to prepare the mom for the new "sleep schedule" (or lack of it) in the months leading up to the birth.  Between never really getting comfortable in bed and needing to pee an extraordinary amount of times in one day, sleep is rather elusive.
• And speaking of peeing . . . the other night when I was feeling especially frustrated about the number of times I had to get up, I decided to make myself feel better by pretending that I had a superpower that I could pee more than anyone else in the world.  I gave myself the name "The Urinator" and looked at the toilet saying, "I'll be back," in my best Arnold accent as I left the bathroom.  Strangely enough, it did make me feel better.
• I can actually make out particular body parts of Gabriella at this point if I push around in my stomach just so.  Even though my brain has understood this for a while now, it still kind of weirds me out to realize there is a head inside of me.
• Over the last few days/weeks, I have caught myself doing 2 of the quintessential pregnancy characteristics: crying at the drop of a hat and "the waddle."  I always thought these were pregnancy jokes used on sitcoms, but they're pretty real.
• I have come to appreciate little things in life that are temporarily out of my realm of possibility, such as the ability to pick things up from the ground when I drop them.  Usually when this happens I spend about 5 seconds simply staring at the object, wondering how this occurred.  Then, I spend another 5-10 seconds, trying to think like Master Yoda and use the force to pick the object up.  This has yet to work.  So, I finally spend another 10 seconds or so acting like a primate, trying to pick up the object with my toes.  Thank God for opposable thumbs.
• Despite any of these minor "inconveniences" I really have been so thankful for this pregnancy and can't wait to meet Gabriella soon! :-) Thank you so much for all your prayers!