Overdue and Feeling Blue

Ok, so it's a bit of a lame heading, but anyone who's ever been overdue can surely appreciate where I'm coming from. Up until now I've prided myself on my positive attitude and my relaxed approach to labour, ok with bubba making her appearance "when she's good and ready". Today doesn't appear to be that day though, and for the first time It's actually getting me down. The crazy thing is there's no rational, logical reason for me to feel this way as my husband and I said from the start that we'd rather she came out late so her birthday wasn't too close to New Years Eve.

Now lets see if you picked up the crazy part of that last sentence? I tried to put 'rational' and 'logical' in a sentence desribing a hormonal, emotional pregnant woman... Bah ha ha ha haaaaa!!

Ok, now that I've wiped the laughter tears from my eyes and picked myself up off the floor at such a ridiculous concept of ration, I'll compose myself and continue. Ahem.

My main concern about going overdue is that the induction deadline looms in my not too distant future and I REALLY don't want to be induced. I would love for labour to start spontaneously as nature intended but my OB has other ideas. I have my final OB appointment tomorrow to determine my current status and make a decision on what the next step is and I have to say that I'm DREADING what he has to say. What if everything is sealed shut? He'll be pushing for a c-section which I'm dreading far more than being induced...

Oh well, I guess there's no point stressing about it. What will be will be and at the end of the day, whatever gets my baby out safely is the best way. Sigh. Just looking forward to having her cute little soft pink skin in my arms and giving her a cuddle!

Flying Solo for a Couple of Weeks

It's funny, when my husband's work originally planned this trip away for him, we decided that there was plenty of time between his return and my due date as I'd only be 35 weeks when he got back. Well now that we're here and he's actually gone, I keep reading stories of women who've gone into labour at week 33 or 34! Granted, these aren't the best stories to be focusing my energy on when I'm 7 weeks from due date with no husband or family around, but it is a scary reminder of what's possible!

Fortunately it doesn't appear that the baby has engaged yet and she's got a good 4 weeks of baking still to go before she's considered done, so I think we'll be fine for the minute.

The same can't be said of my good friend who is due 4 weeks ahead of me... At 37 weeks, she's now big, uncomfortable, with the baby's head feeling like it's jammed into her nether regions. All the way through the pregnancy I've enjoyed her adventures four weeks ahead of my own and the gap felt so small but now that she's drawing so close to labour day, my 7 weeks suddenly seems like an eternity compared to her 3!

Every mother I know says the last few weeks of pregnancy feel like they go on forever as you misinterpret every little thing your body does, wondering if 'this is it'. It's partially due to this, and also for my poor daughter's birthday for the rest of her life, that I'd like to place my order with the powers that be for her arrival at 37 weeks. She'll be offically baked by then and will pop out before the mayhem of Christmas and New Years can cloud her special day. It also means no clockwatching and constant wondering of... "is this it?"

Is the Hospital Bag Packed?

32 weeks and 3 days today... it's a funny time really because in some ways we're so close and anything could happen at any time, but realistically we're still two months away from our due date, which is still pretty long when you're in 'waiting' mode.

Hubby has left today for a 2 1/2 week work trip overseas, so we're counting on bub not making an early entrance to the world! Given that we live in a city with no family and we're new here so we don't have a good group of friends yet, we've located the emergency backup services of a Doula. in the highly unlikely event that I go into labour early (eeek!) this fabulous woman has offered to be called in at any hour of day or night to coach me through the birth.

At my pregnancy yoga class today, I spoke to a woman who was sure her baby was going to arrive early, only to still be waiting a week past her due date, with every hour feeling like a year! Just goes to show, you never can tell...

That said, I had a mild panic attack this last week that there was still so much to buy and do that I grabbed hubby, showed him my list (in an Excel spreadsheet - NERD ALERT!) and then proceeded to drag him all across town to baby shops and the like making sure we have everything we need ready to go.

We've now booked the car capsule in to be fitted, and last night after our final ante-natal class, I finally took that decisive major step that every pregnant woman must one day take... I packed my hospital bag (gasp!). It's done. I'm officially ready. Now there's just the waiting...

10 Weeks to Go

Well this weekend saw us hit the 30 week mark... which has a bigger impact on the psyche than one might think! All of a sudden, my lackadaisical attitude of "this is cruising along nicely, there's no rush, pregnancy is fun" has changed to "Eeeek! Only 10 weeks to go! We have to get organised, we have things to buy, things to wash, books to read!!".

The other element surprising me a little is that I'm suddenly very excited about meeting my daughter. That may sound a little callous to some of you, however my husband and I have been terrified of having children for as long as I can remember and even during this pregnancy, we haven't been in a rush to get to the end... easing ourselves in slowly is all good. Now that labour day is drawing near though, the excitement is kicking in and we can't wait to bring home our cute little soft, pink bundle and give her a cuddle!

I finally faced the nursery this weekend and started arranging furniture and washing clothes, sheets and towels. We have a little drying line outside with all bub's clothes hanging on it and it looks like a pink bomb went off!! And I thought my clothes were small and pink... ha!

When Did I Become So Insecure?

Ok, so this week I was faced with a brand new, just-as-fun-as-the-others, symptom of pregnancy... insecurity. I consider myself a pretty strong, fun-loving, independent woman with plenty of self-confidence, yet this week my husband went away for work - nothing unusual there - and my emotions went into overdrive!

Here's an example of just some of the crazy thoughts going through my head... "he's wrangled the trip from work to get away from his big, fat pregnant wife", "I can't reach him because he's turned his phone off as he's running from me", "what if he just decides he's happier away and doesn't want to come back?". You get the idea... CRAZY. Now I should actually set the REAL scene and tell you that my husband and I are each other's best friends, we hate being apart and absolutely adore each other! He's always super excited to see me, as I am him, and when he arrived home last night, he couldn't get in the door and hug and kiss me fast enough.

So the question remains... why the sudden surge of completely pointless and unfounded insecurity? I can only put it down to one of the many mysteries of pregnancy and the goodies that these mischief making hormones seem to offer. Pregnancy seems to turn a perfectly sane, happy, normal woman into a blithering emotional mess at the oddest times, whether it be watching the news, reading a story or sitting at home with too much time to think. :)

Fortunately, I'm pleased to say that our relationship is rock solid, we're in this together and we're so so so excited to meet this cute little, wriggly munchkin that's made herself quite at home (albeit upside-down) in my belly. Sigh.

Turn Baby Turn

Well I just had my 25 week check up at the Obstetrician this week and had my belly/uterus measured for size to week accuracy for the first time, and it would seem it's growing right on schedule. I also discovered that our little girl is in the 43rd percentile of baby size, making her right on average size too... all good so far. Then he did the scan and discovered she's upside-down!

So my beautiful, well behaved baby is being a cheeky monkey, sitting in the breech position. :) Fortunately it's early days and she still has 15 weeks to turn herself around, so it's nothing to be concerned about, but anyone who thinks this isn't something to worry about clearly hasn't met me. You see, I'm a bit of a control freak and if it's within my power to do something, I do tend to find a way to do it.

So I went to my pregnancy yoga class yesterday (which is heaven) and was shown some positions for encouraging breach bubbas to turn around and one of them is laying on the ground with my bum on a pillow and my feet up against the wall... well you can imagine my poor husband's face this morning when - in all my naked, big bellied glory - I wiggled myself around in bed, put a pillow under my butt and ran my feet up the wall. He looked at me like I'd finally officially lost it. Although, as my ever-enduring husband knows me so well now, his look of freaked out wonder finally passed and the old familiar "she's doing one of her usual crazy things again" look came back to his face as he asked no questions and just continued reading his book.

Ahhh... now if there was only an award for the world's most patient, understanding husband

Babymoon Here We Come!

There's nothing like nine months of pregnancy to remind you that the clock is ticking and there's only so much 'alone' time left for romantic getaways. Thus the 'babymoon' was formed, where gazillions of couples pregnant with their first child, make one last dash off on an adults only, romantic, retreat style holiday, making the most of their relaxed time together... before it all turns upside down.

Now, don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean for a moment we're all any less excited about our precious bundles making their grand entrance, but the reality is that sleepless nights and a large lifestyle adjustment are a certainty and that deadline looming is as motivating as it gets for a quick dash off... just the two of you.

I'm afraid my husband and I are no different and are planning our own getaway for next month... now granted, I won't be sipping cocktails by a pool bar this time, although I'm certain mocktails will be almost as enticing while lazing about in the sun with the pool boy bringing over my every hearts desire from the menu. Ahhh... I can almost feel the warmth on my face now.

Massages every day... facials... pedicures... dinner on the beach every night... reading my favourite book for hours guilt free, romantic strolls along the beach at sunset. No, we didn't just inherit a billion dollars from a long lost great uncle... we're heading to Thailand where one can live like a king for almost no financial outlay! With money going so far, warm weather, beaches, sunshine and arguably the world's warmest, friendliest locals... it's as close to heaven on earth as one can get. Sigh.