I'm 39 weeks pregnant. My back hurts. My front hurts. My underneath hurts. I want to see my baby. I want to fit into pants. I want to start this thing.
I enjoy the website Pregnant Chicken - she wrote an awesome blog that completely, accurately describes how my pregnancy has been (oh, stage 3, how I loved you!). I'm at Stage 5 right now.
Thank you for your kind and sweet texts, emails, and nice messages. I apologize - I must admit that 39 weeks of pregnancy has brought out a monster in me who is somewhat unable to respond to such kind and sweet messages because she is a very mean angry giant pregnant monster. Here are the answers to all of the collective sweet messages and questions I have been getting:
* No, I haven't had the baby yet.
* I'm due on Tuesday, January 11th, but because I'm kind of an impatient person I have been counting the weeks on Sundays because my initial ultrasound estimated my due date as Sunday, January 9th, but my doctor said that I could keep 1/11/11 as my due date because it is rad.
* We don't have a name yet. We have a few picked out that we like but we aren't married to anything, and we're kind of waiting to see how we feel when he is born.
* I'm doing fine. Just anxious, sore, and having increasing difficulty bending over, walking for long periods of time, sitting still for long periods of time, putting shoes on, et cetera barfy barf.
* Yes, we're ready. No, we're not ready. Yes, we've got a nursery. I guess I'll find out how ready it is.
* Yes, I have a bag packed.
* Yes, I've had some Braxton-Hicks contractions. One night last week I felt them about five minutes apart for an hour...and then some brief crampy pains and then it all went away. It felt very false to me at the time, but I still had hopes. So no, I haven't really experienced too many pre-labor symptoms yet. I still get B-H's and cramps but nothing with regularity.
* No, I haven't really been nesting. I have been very much into organizing and re-organizing and am for some reason obsessed with laundry and making sure that, well, there is none to be done, so that all of our clothes are clean when the time comes. But as for scrubbing and scouring floors - nope. I would love for that to happen, but it has not yet.
* No, I'm not nervous about the labor. I have worked very hard to inform myself about labor and prepare myself for a natural childbirth in the hospital. Part of this "work" involves positive thinking and refusing to be frightened or nervous. I read a lot of birth stories and talk to a lot of women who have given birth. I am not frightened, I am excited. I feel powerful. That said, I am also working toward being accepting of whatever does happen during my labor - expected or not. I want my birth experience to be personally rewarding and empowering, but not at the expense of my baby's health, so I will accept medically necessary interventions with grace. I have done a great deal of reading and research on labor and childbirth and I am informed about risks and potential complications. I have armed myself with a doula and an awesome doctor husband who are going to be there for me and help me make these decisions during the labor.
And finally,
* No, we don't know how Fela is going to react to a baby in the house. All I can say is that Matt and I adore Fela - we have had him for nearly a decade, and he adores us back, and he is an insanely smart cat who we hope will put two and two together and understand that this baby is a combination of the two people he loves more than anything else in the world (except olives) and be at peace with it.
One last thing: for some reason, I decided that I should go shoe shopping tonight. Of all of the ridiculous pregnancy brainfart moments I have had during the past nine months, this one was the dooziest of the doozies. Now, I've been pretty lucky, and haven't experienced any dramatic swelling, but I am indeed rocking some borderline cankles, and should in NO way be purchasing footwear during this time. The most ridiculous part of it is that I spent about two hours in various stores: DSW, Macy's, and three other stores in a different mall a few miles further down the road before it occurred to me that I should probably wait until AFTER I have the baby and AFTER the swelling goes down to commit myself to new shoes. RIDIC.
Pregnant monster out.
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