I am thrilled to say that I am 37 weeks pregnant today, which means Baby Girl is now full-term and welcome to come any time now!
Seriously. Baby Girl, you are really and truly welcome to come along now. The sooner the better, really.
No, really. I'm begging you. Come soon.
Can you tell that I'm eager to meet my baby? No? Huh - I was really trying to be clear about that.
In all seriousness, I am ready. I have loved - LOVED - being pregnant again. It hasn't been an easy pregnancy at times, and certainly not as easy as my pregnancy with Super Boy was, but it was all worth it, every single second of it. The extreme constipation. The bloody noses. The scary episodes of contractions including the hospitalization and medication to stop them a few weeks back. The passing out while driving. None of that is ideal or something a mom-to-be hopes to go through, but we survived it and both of us are still intact, so it's all okay in the end.
But I'm ready to meet my daughter. I've been ready to meet my daughter for over 5 years now, since we first started trying for another baby. And now, after 9 long months of pregnancy, I'm ready to be done being pregnant and to just enjoy life with my baby in the world and our family complete at long last.
The baby's room is all set-up, decorated and ready for her to settle into. We have all the gear we need for her at this point. Her car seat is installed in my Odyssey. Her nuks, snot-suckers and the few bottles I plan to use are sterilized and ready, as are the necessary parts of my breast pump. Her diaper bag is packed and my hospital bag is mostly ready. Super Boy is crazy-excited to meet his baby sister. Super Man is (mostly) ready to be a new daddy again at 45. We're ready and waiting.
I've had occasional contractions here and there over the past week, but nothing organized or consistent. Still, at my 36-week check-up last Friday, I was already dilated to 2cm, so I'm hopeful that if I get to my 37-week check-up this Friday I will be a little further along (ideally, enough so that they'll just send me next door to the hospital!). I've had a lot of pain on my cervix, though whether it's from cervical change or the baby tap-dancing on it, I can't be sure.
I'll tell you a little something though: I secretly think that the baby will either come this Friday, April 29th or next Tuesday, May 3rd. That might sound silly, I know, but I'll explain why I think that: It's all in the numbers of the rest of our birthdays. Mine is January 29th, Super Girl's is February 29th, Super Man's is March 13th and Super Boy's is May 23rd. Super Girl (my stepdaughter) and I were both born on the 29th days of our months, so maybe MY daughter will also come on the 29th of this month (and I may have mentioned this before, but I always hoped our last child would be an April baby so we'd have January/February/March/April/May covered). In addition to that, Super Boy's birthday was on a Friday and that worked out great, so it might be nice to have this baby on a Friday, too. On the other hand, Super Man and Super Boy both have birth dates ending in 3, and since this is my daughter with Super Man, maybe she's meant to be the final 3 in the bunch. I'll be really curious to see if I'm right about one of the two upcoming dates, that's all I can say! However, if the baby doesn't come on either of them, and she doesn't come before May 10th on her own, we have our C-section scheduled for the morning of May 11th.
Which would be totally fine - I know that it's only better for her the longer she stays inside and keeps growing. But I also think it would take off some of the pressure if she came a LITTLE sooner than May 11th, because as you might recall, Super Boy has his First Communion on Sunday, May 15th. If the baby were to come in the next week or two, that would buy me an extra week or two to recover and get into somewhat of a routine with the baby before Super Boy's big day, allowing us all to relax and enjoy it a bit more, you know? Regardless, it's out of our hands! We'll just have to roll with whatever happens whenever it happens.
Now, in the meantime, I need to get over the cold-from-hell that I came down with over the weekend before the baby comes so I don't get her sick, too! This stupid cold has been miserable: I can't breathe through my nose, so I'm perpetually mouth-breathing, which means I'm drinking TONS of liquid to keep my throat moist and to keep from getting dehydrated, and which also means that I'm peeing 10 times more frequently -- day AND night. I kid you not, I actually got up to pee FIVE TIMES the other night, not to mention all the times I woke up to blow my nose because despite the massive congestion, my nose was also running. I'm exhausted. Exhausted and congested and just sick of being sick!
Please keep us in your prayers that all goes well these next few weeks and that the baby makes a safe arrival into the world, healthy and well!
SW
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