the end is in sight ...

The end of the pregnancy, that is. Not the ends of my toes ... because I can't see them anymore when I look down. On Saturday, I sat on the toilet seat while Steve sat on the edge of the tub; he took each foot on his lap and clipped and filed my toenails, which had not been touched since I had a pedicure at the end of May.

Here's my 37-week e-mail update from BabyCenter.com:

Only three weeks to go! Your pregnancy is now considered full-term and your baby probably weighs a little over 6 pounds and is a tad over 19 inches long. You may notice end-of-pregnancy changes soon — like an increase in vaginal discharge or more frequent and intense Braxton Hicks contractions (preludes to the real thing). Worried your water will break in public? This statistic may ease your fears: Spontaneous rupture of membranes before labor happens in only 15 percent of pregnancies.

As always, you can see the gallery of past belly shots here (four weeks ago), here, here, here and here. At 33 weeks, I found it hard to believe I could get any bigger, but bigger I am. Truly.

I haven't felt too many Braxton Hicks contractions yet. But I do feel a lot of discomfort when I'm on my feet for too long. It's like an ache in my lower belly, as if all the downward pull is stretching me even more — combined with pressure on my bladder and some aching in my lower back. Tonight, Steve took me to Café Latté for a slice of chocolate-almond cake and some coffee. (Our power was out from an intense afternoon storm, and we didn't want to sit around the house in the dark, so we decided to venture out.) Just the block-and-a-half walk to the car and back was enough to cause me to hold onto the bottom of my belly with both hands and cradle it as if my arms were a sling. I walk very, very slowly now.

If being on my feet is challenging, sitting for long periods doesn't help either. Lying on my side with a pillow between my knees is good, but by morning, my hips and lower back ache. So really, all I can do is keep changing positions and do what comes to me. Lately, what comes to me is that it feels good to lean over a bed or a table or a desk and swing my hips back and forth. It loosens them up. It's a great position for labor ... and sex. It feels like one big, blatant mating call. So I refrain from doing it at work. ;-)