Everyone loves a bump..

So here I am teetering on the dawn of motherhood and feeling reflective about the power of 'the bump'.

There is an amazing quality to a bump which makes normally eye contact-shy london folk start up the most intimate of conversations in public places. I have noticed this is also directly linked to the size of the bump; over the past few weeks interest has increased exponentially as my bump has grown. "Now that's a big one..", "can't be long now..", "is this your first?", "my wife's just had one of those"; all typical openers leading on to conversations normally reserved for those 7 minute chats in the doctor's surgery.

Of course bumps in themselves don't normally lead people to be quite so friendly - a bump on the head, back or, er..any other part of the body, especially a rapidly growing one, leads straight back to foot shuffling and eye avoidance. No, there has to be a small alien growing within the bump to stoke the interest of others and make you suddenly feel a bit 'special'.

Conversations typically range from the predictable to the surreal, leaving you questioning your/others' hormone levels/sanity. For example:

(John Lewis, Wednesday): Interested Other (male): "my wife swears by that swaddling blanket", Me: "Oh really? Oh good"; (10mins of baby talk later) Interested Other: "..so you really have to shove it on to the breast when it opens its mouth, much less painful", Me: "hmm, easy for you to say.."

(Black cab back from John Lewis, Wednesday) Interested Other: "So, do you know what it is?", Me: "um, I'm hoping a baby...but who knows, could be a giraffe, ha ha!"; Interested Other: "Ha, and what flavour, do you know?", Me: "er, strawberry??"; Interested other: "Ha Ha", Me: "Ha..er, keep the change".

Which brings me back to the teetering. Today I have reached the peak of my 40 week journey and in many ways feel I have 'arrived' - hoorah, job done, hard slog over, you did it!! And it does feel like an achievement - all those weeks of reading what to expect next with a mix of horror and excitement in books that would be better entitled 'The Freak in You', and attempting to manage the hormonal and physical assault course of a trainee mum-to-be.

However, as one trip to NCT will tell you, this is nothing compared with what comes next..which as hard as I try I just cannot imagine. For now it's still just me and Bump, Bump and me, (oh and hubbie too of course, and 'new boyf' pillow which has had more loving than husband over last couple of months), and the unsolicited bump-love of strangers.