Preg Week 40 - Due'd

Today is week 40 of this pregnancy. Day 280. To say I'm ready for this baby to be born is a slight understatement. I've had weeks of Braxton-Hicks contractions (basically my abdomen becomes a steel ball for anywhere from 5-10 minutes), all just my uterus getting ready. Last Wednesday, after a day-long off-site retreat for work, I rid myself of my "plug" which is a good indication that labor is imminent (for the uninitiated: the plug is the mucus that covers the opening of the cervix, and keeps it extra safe from bacteria and the like durning pregnancy). When P was born, I lost it on Sunday around dinner time at our friend's house; by 12:02 the next morning I was having regular contractions and she was born Monday morning at 11:18. Well, let's just say that the plug's been missing for 5 days, and there's no definitive signs of labor commencing any time soon.

My doctor's appointment on Friday was somewhat helpful, and entirely frustrating. Yes, my cervix is softening - meaning it's getting ready to open. Yes, it's "short" - meaning it's moving into the position that it needs to be in, to facilitate the baby moving down the birth canal. But.... they don't have any way of telling when it will happen. I'm still having the Braxton-Hicks contractions (I know they're not real contractions because they're not coming on any kind of regular basis), but aside from that, there hasn't been any signs of real labor. It's killing me because I know that it's going to be soon, I just don't know when. You know that Christmas is always on December 25th - there's no guess-work involved. It's just a matter of counting down to that day. You know what day your birthday is, or when you're going on vacation, or when you're getting married. Sure, there's a lot of anticipation, but you can cross off days on a calendar and count down the hours until the plane leaves or the Wedding March starts, down to the second. Having babies is more like hoodoo guru; you don't know when, exactly, it will happen. You get an arbitrary date according to your cycle, and all eyes focus on that date.... but if the date comes and goes, it's a shrug of the shoulders, and then everything that comes out of your body is suspect. Every internal move begs the question: "Is this it? Is this it?" It's a constant questioning of when, when, when???

Needless to say, for someone who is schedule-driven, as I am, this can be hugely frustrating.

So we're in the waiting pattern. We've been doing things around the house, which is great, like putting in the garden (very modest this year - mostly flowers and pumpkins and a couple of tomato plants), and laundry and yardwork. We've had an amazing holiday weekend, with beautiful weather, so we've been outdoors. We've been sleeping in. We've socialized on a limited basis (gas is, still, $3.89/gallon so we're not doing much driving around), but have had early nights. And we're waiting.

Here are some belly-shots taken last week at work. I'm done working in the office, there's a little too much question as to "when" and the last thing I want to do is go into labor at work. Since work is 40 miles and 60 minutes away from home, I'll be working from home until the kid is born.





So, here's to hoping there's no Preg Week 41 update, and instead an entry about our new child, what he's like, who he looks like, what his birth-stats were, and how awesome it is to hold a new baby again, for next week.