defining that big

This phrase keeps following me and it plain won’t leave me alone.As you may know, “You’re just that big” was the eloquent and concise way in which Dan-o communicated last week that I do in fact look as large as I feel. Bless his candid little heart. I know he meant no harm, but the phrase has been coming to my mind often since then. When looking in the mirror, when buttoning (or not buttoning) my pants, when trying to get out of a tightly parked car, and especially when looking at my belly button (Seriously guys. Can we talk about where¬† my normal belly button went, and¬† why it’s been replaced by… by… whatever this is? What do you even call this!?).A couple days ago at the doctor’s office I was given a glimpse into why that phrase has been especially poignant lately. Background knowledge: at each prenatal doctor appointment, they measure how much of the length of my torso baby is taking up, called ‘fundal height’. Typically, it’s 1 cm for each week you are pregnant.Doctor, with a measuring tape on my abdomen: Wait, how many weeks are you again?Preggo lady: 24Doctor, moving the measuring tape to get another read: Huh. I show you measuring at 27 weeks.I’m sorry, whaaaaaaa? 3 weeks ahead!? That’s like… 12.5% of my pregnancy so far. That’s like skipping over 7.5% of gestation. That’s like 21 days of extra baby. That’s… that’s…::deep breath::After taking a few deep, relaxing, abdominal breaths like my birth instructors teach, I tried to swallow what had just been declared. What I do know is that Dr. J, whom I completely trust, didn’t think we needed to do any further testing at this point, and she also didn’t seem nearly as totally and completely freaked out as I was. By nearly I mean she didn’t even blink. After all, there are many completely innocuous causes of a high measurement: maybe nugget was practicing his handstand just then. Maybe our estimated due date is a little off, or, equally likely, maybe he’s just a big, healthy, baby boy. ::ahem:: A big, healthy, baby boy that I will need to expel in the next 3 to 4 months (let’s clarify the definition of innocuous, shall we?), but we’re not going to go there just yet, mmmk? Thanks.