Okay I DO NOT KNOW how it is already July. I'm up to one appointment per week with my midwives. We finished the childbirth preparation class, the breastfeeding class, the newborn care class, and all the meetings with our doula. The car seat is here ("outgassing" in the backyard, gross). My midwife said "You're on notice, my dear. At this point if our baby friend decides to come say hello, no one's going to push it back up there". So, yeah. This is happening. I'm really trying hard to enjoy the last few weeks of quiet time. Sweet summer breezes (after the heat wave finally broke) are making that a lot easier.
Ben built a super excellent fire pit in the backyard, perfect for relaxing around. Come visit us!
Ben took this past week off to help finish up the last of the unpacking/house-getting-readying, so we finally have a room that will pass for a nursery if we end up needing one. I suspect that having the cradle in the master bedroom is going to be our solution for the first few months, meaning the "nursery" is more just a place to stack the eight million adorable onesies we have, but it's still nice to have the space all clean and airy and organized. Plus it has been WONDERFUL to have Ben around and all to myself for the whole week. I've heard there's not a lot of time for that in the first few months of babyland, so we are making sure to have lots of spontaneous picnics, walks around the neighborhood, quiet evening book time, etc.
Health-wise, on paper, I'm perfect. Ship-shape. Not a single complication or red flag of any kind. In practice, I'm really starting to feel like there's an entire person living inside my abdomen. There's been a horrible heat wave here since late June. Nothing like the 110/120 temps that some of the southwest has been dealing with, but it was approaching 95 every day for over a week, which is difficult without air conditioning. Ben set up a kiddie pool for me in the backyard and I've been spending a lot of time submerged in cool water. My least favorite symptom of all the disgusting, TMI symptoms (about which I could easily go into intricate, colorful detail, but I will spare you) so far has been hand stiffness/numbness. It's apparently very common, especially for summer pregnancies, to retain so much fluid in your hands that you basically develop acute onset, temporary carpal tunnel syndrome. It is quite unpleasant, and makes me drop things and mis-maneuver around the world even more than usual. I have an "Airplane"-style drinking problem.
I have some guesses about how this is all going to go down that I'm just going to record here, mainly for bragging rights if I'm correct about any of them.
Bug is small. I know there will be a fetal weight gain of about 1/2 pound per week this last month, but I would still be surprised if there's something bigger than 8 pounds in there at the end (unless I start pushing 41 or 42 weeks, in which case all bets are off).
Bug is either going to be early or late. I'm not sure which, but I don't see this kid being cooperative or punctual. I would be really surprised if the birthday is between July 21 and July 28 (although hearing that there's a full moon on July 22 makes me a little less sure of that). I would be much less surprised if this kiddo picks a really weird and unexpected date, like July 16, or August 4. Definitely not July 25 -- I don't know Bug very well yet, but I definitely already detect moderate to high levels of "stubborn" and "contrary".
Bug is a boy. This one isn't really a fair test of my intuition, because I have pretty much a straight 50/50 shot of being right, but it's been my hunch from the beginning. So, sorry if you're a girl bug, because I've definitely been calling you "he" this whole time.
Bug will take his sweet sweet time coming out. I'm imagining a natural childbirth that, when all is said and done, could be characterized as "peaceful", but I also predict that it will take at least 20 hours from start to finish, if not 30. Perhaps I won't be feeling quite so harmonious towards the end of that...
Bug has green eyes. This is really more of a hope than a hunch, but I have blue eyes and Ben has hazel/yellow/gold eyes, so let's just use our basic 1st grade color wheel knowledge to predict this one, because green eyes would be super cool.
It won't be long now. Everyone be on the lookout for a *really* exciting update.
Feeling optimistic and cheerful these days.
No comments:
Post a Comment