Happy Due Date....Random Thoughts at 10 months Pregnant

-July 17, 2012.  I never thought this day would come.  Much less did I think I would still be pregnant, given all of the positive labor-signs over the last month.  Here we are....waiting for our little girl to arrive--staring at each other and my belly--waiting and waiting.  Most of my clothes don't really fit any more, and my days are spent trying homeopathic labor-inducers.  Today I was quite the sight walking around the neighborhood in my hot pink ruffle-tank top (my go-to shirt at the end of pregnancy) and my husband's Notre Dame basketball shorts (see second picture below), stopping to lean over through a contraction every few minutes.  I can only hope I entertained some on-lookers. 

Jamesie waiting for (and on) his sister.  His favorite position lately.  Its so cute, but difficult to navigate a contraction like this.

-I woke up Sean this morning and he said "Did you have the baby last night?"  No.  "Well, I thought you did because you are wearing your soccer shorts."  Hmmm.  The soccer shorts I was wearing are my purple Bloomfield Force Adidas shorts from 10th grade-- 1998.  The elastic broke in them a long time ago and they fit when I'm 10 months pregnant.

Due Date.  July 17, 2012.  The look on my face does not express my desperation. Perhaps my outfit does. 

-In my desperate walk around the neighborhood this afternoon I was listening to a long playlist of U2.  I'm not sure if Bono is aware of this, but many of his songs have sustained me through the end of a long and severely uncomfortable/painful pregnancy (Sissy and Jamesie) when hopelessness and depression are starting to set in.  If you ever find yourself in this position, try adding the following to your playlist:

In a Little While  (In a little while, surely you'll be mine...In a little while this hurt will hurt no more, I'll be home, Love! ... If I crawl, if I come crawling home, will you be there? ... That Girl!  That Girl!  She's mine, and I've known you since you were a little girl with spanish eyes...)

Stuck in a Moment (I never thought you were a fool, but darling look at you...you gotta stand up straight, carry your own weight (ironic?) these tears are going nowhere baby... you've got to get yourself together, you got stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it)

Walk On (I know it aches, and your heart it breaks, you can only take so much...Walk On.)

Hallelujah Here She Comes--self explanatory...hopefully.  soon. 

Moment of Surrender (At the moment of surrender, I'm fallen to my knees....) I am hoping for a moment of surrender during a birth experience very soon.

- I texted my friend Steph today, who is due this very day with her own bundle as well, "Might there be a condition in which you never actually go into real labor?  .... Its not in What to Expect, but i'm certain it exists." 

-I actually did wake up with consistent contractions this morning, and was very hopeful.  I downed a few cups of Raspberry-leaf tea and timed contractions through Jamesie's speech therapy session.  I think the therapist was more distracted with my contractions than I was.  They were 7-10 minutes apart, but after a mid-morning nap they pretty much subsided.  TMI warning:  I pulled out the breastpump (really uncomfortable if you're not actually breastfeeding yet), to try to jumpstart the contractions, but it just gave me a few sporadic ones.  I had more raspberry leaf tea, then went on above-mentioned walk around the neighborhood.   And here I sit at 4:30 p.m., the above-mentioned text warranted by the slow in my "labor."

-Today is my Uncle John's birthday.  It was fun to think of him and Sissy having the same birthday (Sean and cousin Pip have the same birthday), but in my head I never actually thought we would get to the 17th. 

-So, Cody just came home from work early, and he, my mom, the boys and I are going to go walk around Barnes and Nobel for a little bit then get something to eat out of the house to distract me a little bit. I might change my shorts. Here's to tomorrow shaping up differently than today!