39+ week update

[pen_grunt]

So. This is the home stretch, or something.

I feel huge. Derrick kindly tells me that I don't look that huge. That's his job, I suppose. He doesn't say what I'm being compared to. ;) No stretch marks yet (save right around my belly button...in a weird ring shape...and they've been there pretty much since 20w or so).

I kinda just want to be done. But it seems like one of those things that is not imminent. Part of that is just the general unbelievability that this will happen and happen soon. And then we'll have an infant. The other part is just not feeling it in my body. Though, to be fair, I'm not sure what it's supposed to feel like.

I'm effaced, but not dilated. Baby is head-down and "dropped" and engaged...even though I didn't really feel that relief of lung capacity with the dropping...or a change in position...or that bowling-ball-between-the-legs feeling that I've heard people describe. I have another appointment tomorrow morning. We'll see where I'm at then.

We've pretty much picked out our favorite boy name and girl name. So at least there's that. The nursery is put together (save for our super-cheap crib...still on-delivery...and the kid won't be sleeping in the crib at first anyway). The only issue with the nursery is that D now spends all his time in the glider-rocker that he got on craigslist for $15. It is a remarkable rocker, but a girl gets jealous. ;)

Also, I found a nursery use for some legitimately cool vintage fabric that my grandmother had. Do these 1960s giraffes want to be cute and cuddly and frolic with the baby? No, they want to go get a martini. Mommy can relate, giraffes. Mommy can relate.


My doctor was talking to me about signs of labor and how to recognize it and what to do. She suggested, when I first start feeling contractions, to bake cookies. Because it will likely take a while, it's good to keep my mind and body occupied with other things...and this way I'll have fresh cookies to take to the hospital.

Methinks she's angling for cookies. But I can't deny that the natural brilliance of that plan.

Comments

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

The cookie idea is pretty solid. It took us so much longer than I expected. On TV it's so quick!

[bertine.livejournal.com]

And we had help getting things going. It would have been nice to be at home for that first part where we had better TV.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

My mom likes to regale me about the ONE TIME she had a first time mom do only 2 hours of labor from first contraction to baby. (She was a maternity ward nurse for several years.)

But that was ONE time. My doc says the average is 18 hours. That's at least a little quality binge-watching time.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

On TV it's all: Water breaks...pain and swearing and dramatic hand-gripping...baby cries!
I'm told this is not how it is. ;)

[silverpoet01.livejournal.com]

Lookin' good! Feels like just yesterday that you announced you were pregnant on LJ. It flies.

Love the party giraffes. :)

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

It's one of those weird "seems-like-forever" and also "seems-like-two-seconds" things. :)

[newlifeinstpaul.livejournal.com]

Do these 1960s giraffes want to be cute and cuddly and frolic with the baby? No, they want to go get a martini.

Vintage 60s animals were always too cool for their room.
Wherever it was :D

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Those giraffes will whisper things like: "Go ahead...dip the pacifier in some bourbon and go get some sleep," to me in the middle of the teething nights.

[newlifeinstpaul.livejournal.com]

I wonder when they'll suggest you meet D at the door with a pair of slippers, his pipe and a jello mold dinner.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Probably right before they're burned in a fire. . . :D

Actually, I would do any of that for D just to be nice. But not because it was expected of me.

Except maybe the jello mold. Because that stuff is GROSS. (Tuna bits and pimento in lime jello, anyone?)

[smittenbyu]

you look beautiful!! Those giraffes are just cool!!

Snack, have some small snacks. All I remember of my labor was being famished! And they wouldn't let me eat!! ugh...

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Aw! Thank you!

We went snack shopping (it was my effort to appease Derrick after he thought we weren't doing enough to get "the hospital bag" ready). We're prepped with fruit snacks and jerky and granola bars and even a bit of chocolate. :)

[smittenbyu]

That's the most important! :)

Saw this in the Indian news and thought of you! :) Giraffes... in the garden. http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/in-chembur-dead-rain-tree-gets-new-life-with-giraffe-family/

[fontosaurus.livejournal.com]

"It'll take awhile."

Yeah, we heard that too.

First time, didn't even realize we were in labor. When we got to the hospital, she was 9 cm.

Second time, from the time her water broke to the actual completion of delivery was 2.5 hours. When we got to the hospital, she was 8.5 cm.

It went fast.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I don't have any particular expectations around this...except to say that I'm glad we're only a mile and a half from the hospital. And it's downhill.

I joke that if I need to, I could toboggan there.

Everyone's experience is just so different that doctors try to tell you what to expect, but they're really not that great at it.