I was due sometime between Wednesday and Saturday, depending on whose system you use for such things. I am inclined to believe Saturday, but still. Saturday was my last day at work, so now I have LOTS of time to sit at home and ponder whether the contraction I just had was a "real" one or another step in several weeks of "prelabor." I swim every day. I walk the dog a lot. I just spent a half an hour reorganizing Rini's Fuzzi Bunz collection.
My mother calls me several times a day to "check on me." If I don't answer, she panics and calls me again, and again. I know she's excited, but sometimes I really am just taking a nap. Or walking the dog. Which is to say, not in active labor.
Know what else doesn't help? Being told you don't "look" 9 months pregnant by random people at the pool, in the office or when you're just trying to buy Christmas presents at Target. I suppose they mean this as a compliment, but I walk away wondering if this means I will be pregnant for 2 more months. I know that's not going to happen, but that doesn't stop the thought from running through my mind.
Only one person knows when this kiddo is really coming out, and she ain't talking.
mary [email] said at 10:08 AM 11-28-2006: Yep. And since she's now going to be a Sag instead of a Scorpio, she will probably like dad (a Leo) better than me. I'm doomed.
marcia [email] said at 12:31 PM 11-28-2006: My sister was a bit late with her pregnancy--by a week or so. The doctor told her that having sex would help. She gave birth the next day.
marcia [email] said at 8:00 PM 11-28-2006: It's not really being speechless. Imagine me staring at you and not smiling. Maybe that would just be one period, not three...?
cecil [email] said at 6:16 PM 11-28-2006: I'm currently waiting for my manager to have her baby too, which was due on the 20th. I wish she'd hurry up because it's a pain in the ass dealing with my job plus hers.
Mary, are you going back to office work anytime soon? How much time do you think you'll take off? I can't imagine anyone wanting to put their newborn in child care.
julie [email] said at 8:08 PM 11-28-2006: btw, I agree that you don't look "that" pregnant. You are not as big as a house, like some of those pregnant women get. Heidi Klum was ginormous before she popped hers out. You look very normal sized to me.
julie [email] said at 9:18 PM 11-28-2006: Well, I read the gossip blogs. But I don't have cable and I've never seen Project Runway. I just see paparazzi pictures- sooo flattering.
myriam [email] said at 12:12 PM 11-30-2006: Not to discourage you, but my mother's first child was 3 weeks late. That same little girl baby, now almost 30, still lives at home with my mom. Maybe this kid just loves you too much!
mary [email] said at 12:33 PM 11-30-2006: We've been having long talks with her about how much more interesting the world outside is compared with what's going on in there. I even got her a Christmas tree already! Not sure if she's impressed, though.
If she isn't out on her own by Dec. 9, I risk out of the birth center and have to have her in the hospital, via an induction. Which I *really* don't want for her sake or mine, no matter how impatient I am to meet her. If I had been seeing an OB, though, they would have been pushing me for an induction TODAY. Thank god for midwives.
myriam [email] said at 1:35 PM 11-30-2006: Wow, that's pretty early for an induction. Hmm. They do seem to be doing lots more inductions these days. Back in the 70s they never induced my mom with my sister, even after 3 weeks. (Although maybe they didn't have induction back then?)
mary [email] said at 2:00 PM 11-30-2006: Doctors are just more induction-happy now. It makes scheduling patients easier, and they've decided 41 weeks is the magic number. There is a medical reason to become concerned after 42 weeks (the placenta can start to degrade and stillborns are slightly more likely at that point), but there's nothing physiologically noteworthy about the 41 week mark.
Doctors have had the tools to induce for a while, but they've gotten bolder about using them in the U.S. since we were all born. The trouble is, an induced labor is more likely to stall or fail than one that starts spontaneously -- which means C-section. Induced labor also hurts a heck of a lot more than a natural one, increasing the need for pain meds, which come with their own set of risks for mom and baby.
First babies, left to their own devices, tend to run late by a week or so. Mom's body needs more of a warm up, which makes sense to me.
myriam [email] said at 2:46 PM 12-01-2006: yeah, do some good old-fashioned back breaking labor. Maybe go out in the fields for awhile and pick strawberries.
julie [email] said at 3:56 PM 12-01-2006: Good luck! But try to enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts--- you won't have a chance again for about two years.
amy [email] said at 1:41 PM 12-04-2006: I guess this is what I get for being incommunicado for so long. Mary, you've probly even had the little booger by now, and I just found out. I guess randon killogging is better than no killogging. I'm going to NYC in March and damn it I'm coming to see you too. If you haven't birthed yet, I'm gonna call you.
