Bump on a Blog: Belly Rubs 

When I first got pregnant, people warned me that once my belly was big, I'd start getting unwanted looks, touches and comments from strangers. 

Now that I am sporting what is obviously a pregnant belly — not just a lumpy midriff leftover from lunch — I'm starting to understand what they meant. When you're creating another human life, everyone around you becomes interested.

People give you conspiratorial looks every time they catch you with food in your hands. They offer daily updates on the growth of your midsection. They ask you how you're sleeping. And yes, sometimes they touch you.

The thing is, I kind of like it. 

And I get why people do it. It's exciting to see a woman with a giant belly! Under what other circumstances do you get to watch a woman's life change before your eyes?

Women who've had babies — and the partners who supported them through those 40 weeks — get nostalgic when they look at you. They want to tell you what it was like for them. They want to induct you into the secret society of Women Who Know. 

And people who've never had a baby stare, too, because, let's face it: Pregnancy is insane. One day you're a normal-looking woman; before long you're bursting at the seams with a live human creature. 

Here's what I love about sporting a bump that seems to have become part of the public domain: