Tuesday, January 15, 2002 -- 1.5 weeks to go (I hope!!!!)

Well, we're getting down to the artificially chosen wire. We are within the 40 weeks +/- 2 weeks range. Tomorrow I have a doc appointment and I think I'll let her do an internal to see if anything is going on in there. I doubt it is. And even if it is, I could still have weeks to go. And even if it isn't, I could go into labor at any moment. But, I think my curiosity is getting the better of me.

We have the labor tub here. We'll do a test run of setting it up and filling it this weekend. I have finished getting all the birth supplies. Now I just have about 100 loads of laundry to do! All the baby clothes, bedding, blankets, carseat cover, the Boppy Pillow Lilly got for me :), the towels, wash cloths, and sheets for the birth, the quilt my MIL made :), and various other things.

I also have to charge the video camera and get tapes for it, get all my tax stuff together, shop for labor friendly food, finish cleaning up this house, and bunches of other stuff I'm sure I'll think of later.

As far as the 9th month of pregnancy goes...... Not nearly as fun as the other 8! In addition to my hip pain (which only keeps getting worse - I'm now sleeping on our Aero Bed with it slightly under-inflated with 5 comforters on top of it), there are these lovely symptoms...

• I can't get decent sleep. My routine is something like this... Get into bed at midnight. Get up to pee, have to flip over, stare at the ceiling, and/or pet sleepy and somewhat perturbed cat until 2am or so. Sleep until 5 or 6am or so (still getting up to pee or flip about once and hour). Stare at ceiling or pet cat until 7 or 8am when I finally decide to get out of bed. Naps are similar - a 4 hour nap gets me about 2.5 hours of actual sleep.

• There is about a 50/50 chance each time I stand up that my pelvis will feel like it's being split in two. This means I have to walk taking tiny tortured steps like my shoelaces were tied together. Usually sitting down for a few minutes fixes this.

• The pregnancy induced congestion has gotten worse. I sound like I have a cold, but I don't. I have a constant case of the sniffles and occasional sinus pain/pressure.

• It is nearly impossible for me to get my self up from a horizontal position without help or pulling everything pullable in my abdomen.

• My belly sticks to my thighs. So I'm baby powdering the area to death.

• I've once again given up wearing a bra. It's just too uncomfortable.

• I get out of breath from just getting up off the couch, never mind climbing stairs, doing laundry, doing anything. There's just not much room left for my lungs.

• And, last, but not least, between getting little sleep and lugging around 20 extra pounds (6+ of which is a growing baby that I need to support) I am exhausted. I feel rather useless. If I'm not sleeping, I'm lying on the couch. I get up, eat breakfast, do the dishes, and then it's time for a nap. Luckily, Pete keeps reminding me that my job right now is to grow the baby and it's a full time job, and I shouldn't worry about doing anything else!
  

But it's not all bad. We spent about 35 minutes tonight just watching the show in my belly. We talked to the baby, sang silly songs to the baby, stroked and poked at my belly, etc.. And in return we got quite a little performance. We saw a foot, a knee, an elbow, and the butt all moving around in there. We would touch something sticking out and it would move away. It's soooooooooo cool!!!! We just sat there, mesmorized and giggling our heads off. It was so much fun!

Anyway, it's getting harder and harder to wait, but it's also going really fast. I think it's the uncertainty that makes it so hard. We still have much to get done - hopefully before the baby comes, but we're getting impatient too. Oh well, it'll come when it comes.

And, for your enjoyment, a pic of Radley showing off her belly.

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