Less than a month to go; big as a house.

I am now at the point of pregnancy where I am undeniably, uncontrollably noticeable. My belly just sticks way out. People stare, they offer me a seat, they talk to me as if they know me.

The thing is that I am so used to being pregnant that I forget to notice, as evidenced by the following:

I often surprise myself when I walk up to a counter and can't truly be very close to it.  I always forget to stop short and first feel my belly hit and then look down in what must look like a bewildered expression of "huh? Oh, how did that get there?".  I am also having the problem of opening doors into myself, or more specifically, my belly. I constantly misjudge how much space to leave when I am opening a door towards myself and usually I end up opening the door into my belly.

Even though I am aware that I am pregnant: I am constantly reminded by the soreness, the tiredness, the yanking up and down on clothes that don't fit quite right, or by how out of breath I get doing simple things. I don't often spend much of the day thinking about it. While I am at work talking to different people, visiting different offices, meeting students, I am not focused on myself or what I look like but on what I am doing. The same thing goes for when I am out shopping or doing anything else in public.  I am just living my life - one that just happens to include a large stomach appendage at the moment.

Because of this, I am often caught off guard in public. I forget that I am walking around with a major physical 'condition'- kind of like having casts on both arms or a tattoo on my forehead. I completely forget it is there, even when I can feel the baby moving... (Doesn't everyone get kicked from something inside of them every few minutes or so?) When I see people watching me, I have to remember that they are just curious about my belly (the physics are pretty astounding, after all) or are surprised when they notice how much of me there is currently. 

However, what I have to get used to most recently, the real shocker, is how willing people are to make comments about my 'condition'. (Wow, I thought I lived in the the tight-lipped land of the North.) But no, just this last weekend I got several: "Any day now, huh?", "Oh, wow, you have a little one in there, but not for long", or the preferred, "When are you due?" from absolute strangers.

At first when this happens, I am really surprised. I find myself looking down at my belly as if I have a "helpful hints" card tapped to the top of my bump that will help me answer related questions, or better yet, as if I have to remember that I am pregnant before I can answer questions.

I wonder if people know that it is kind of embarrassing to stick out this far and it is not necessarily exciting to get random comments as you are walking around. But then I realize it is just people's way of acknowledging that they are looking at me, excited about a baby, or wanting to share in my (apparently absent) joy. I think people say something out of excitement more than anything, no matter how unneeded the comments are. (Plus, I am sure some mothers-to-be like all the attention).

The most wise response to me and my very obvious state at this point are mothers with babies or toddlers in strollers. They most often observe me by not staring at my belly, but looking at my face (they are not fascinated by the physics, they have experienced it) and giving me a small smile and a look that says, "good luck, I remember when I was in your shoes."

So next time you see someone who is as big as a house, you might take a moment to remember, there is no need to acknowledge their state. They are regular people, doing regular things, probably not even thinking about the very obvious thing that they live with 24/7, that is mind-blowing to you.