to study / to learn

pregnancy, conception

skirt steak / belly meat

stem or continuative form of はらむ (haramu) [godan]

腹巻: a haramaki, a piece of armor worn over the torso by samurai infantry. / 腹巻き: a haramaki, a bellyband.

孕む: to become pregnant; to be filled with wind

(と〜) thinking that […] (with the next clause explaining that the truth is contrary to expectations)

to seem, to appear

in my opinion; I think; I guess; upon thought; upon reflection; upon contemplation / conceivably; presumably

as one wishes, in a way that one wants