baby in my tummy

We are a little bit obsessed with the baby in my tummy. And by "we", I mostly mean Butterfly. She is convinced there is a baby in her tummy too ("it's a little baby") and likes to announce this as often as possible--at church, the park, the store, etc. Fortunately she's 3 and no one takes her seriously. The other fun thing lately is that she feels the need to ask every woman we met if there is a baby in her tummy too. Usually she woman can glance at me and realize that the question is not a suggestion about her weight but is just innocent curiosity. But every once in awhile, I worry that she might have offended someone and am quick to explain our baby obsession. I suppose it's not all that different from when I was five and asked a black lady at the store why she was made of chocolate.

More and more, Ladybug loves the baby too and wants to cuddle the baby (meaning my belly) or kiss the baby. The problem is, she likes to pull my shirt up and out of the way before offering her kisses and that tends to get awkward in public. But I really love the way my girls are getting excited about the baby and press their hands to my belly. Butterfly occasionally asks if she can hold the baby and if the baby is ready to come out yet but accepts the explanation that the baby has to grow bigger first. She did ask once how the baby will get out. Since we are not near ready for THAT conversation, I told her that mommy will go to the hospital and the doctor helps the baby come out. Fortunately, she accepted that.

Baby is doing well. I feel her move more and more and she's starting to push on my ribs (bleh). The doc's office called yesterday with my official test results from last week to confirm that I did pass the glucose screening (yea!) and express concern that despite taking an iron supplement, I'm still testing anemic (boo) so I need to be more careful with my diet. I've been lucky this pregnancy though and have far less food aversions that with the previous two pregnancies. My other great downside that I have to admit is contractions. For some reason, my body insists on having these early contractions that aren't really painful, just uncomfortable. They are no threat to the baby at this point and don't necessarily mean anything, but they're certainly obnoxious. I was surprised they started so early this time and expressed concern to the doc. He gave some advice about monitoring and limiting my activity but assured me it's not too uncommon.