Some womens’ belly buttons “pop” (like a done turkey) when they’re pregnant. Mine, I hope, will not do this but it has become increasingly more shallow. Typically, I’d say it’s fairly deep so this frightens me, as it stretches and becomes flatter. Ugh. The joys of pregnancy.

We visited the Women’s Pavilion and not only was it informative but it was shockingly realistic in that “holy shit I’m going to actually do this” sort of way. In fact, it was a little too real and despite the fact that I have not really been scared this entire time, I was pretty terrified. I guess just seeing an actual room where I could give birth – one that doesn’t even feel like a cold, stark hospital – was so… weird. I can’t even explain it. But the cool thing is that your baby stays in the room with you almost the entire time. (Except when he’s whisked away to be circumcised). They don’t even have a nursery. Then when you move into the recovery room, the baby is there too and it’s like this whole family bonding atmosphere. Instead of bleak and sterile, they’ve finally come into this century. Heh heh.

Spoke with both my mother and an old friend today so I’ve mostly had the phone attached to my ear all morning. My mother has made it safely to Florence, where she was eating at a trattoria.  They went to the Vatican yesterday; the one place she never visited the last time she was in Italy, when she was 21. She recalls everything being a lot bigger back then and I guess it’s true: when you’re young and seeing a foreign country for the first time it is all so overwhelmingly huge. That’s how I felt about Paris and London in the Fall of 2001. As we get older, our world seems to shrink in around us. And then you start singing “It’s a small world afterall…” and it’s stuck in your head all… day… long.

Feeling pretty motivated today so I am off to work on my summer weekly plans for next week. Happy hump day, yo.