Encouraging the Baby

Two doctor's appointments ago, the receptionist informed us that we needed to start making payments (which we had been waiting to do until closer to the end of the pregnancy) because, she said, "You're 34 weeks along. You could have the baby any time now." It was a bit of a shock to realize how close we are. Now, several weeks later, the baby is due in less than a month. We now have one more prenatal class on Monday, in which we will learn about breastfeeding.

The last class was on the postpartum period. Before the class, I had a vision in my head of me hopping out of bed the next day and being set to go back to life as normal, so the class was a good reality check. I've asked my mom to come out for a while, hopefully including the birth. I asked her soon after we discovered we were pregnant and Patrick was both in shock and still in some denial. Once he had adjusted and become excited, I wasn't as worried about her coming to be here for the big event. However, he is still pretty anxious for her to be here because he's a little overwhelmed by the whole idea of giving birth, even though it's me doing it. And with the image I had in my head of me being all set with everything after the birth, I thought it would mostly be nice to have her here to help me figure out the whole "mom-thing." After the class, I realized there is just no telling how functional I'll be and it made me so grateful that she's coming for more reasons than just what I imagined. It is pretty amazing how much we've learned in the last couple months, things we might never have learned if we never had kids.

Our next doctor's appointment isn't until August 20. We're at the point where we're supposed to come in every week, except that our doctor will be out of town next week, so it will be two weeks until our next appointment. The appointment is the same day as Patrick has "scheduled" the baby to come. People keep telling us that "you can't plan when the baby comes" and "they have a mind of their own" and "they'll do what they want, no matter what your plans are." Even if we are first-time parents, we are pretty aware of that. Still, in the ideal world, the baby would come a little early so Patrick didn't have school to worry about.

This next week he has one day of class, one day of study, and two or three days for exams. After that, he has two weeks off from school until fall semester begins. This is lovely because, until now, he's been going to school straight from fall 2007 through summer 2008 with much shorter time between terms (except for Christmas). He's looking forward to the break and we're both inviting the baby to make his appearance during that period when Patrick will be more available.

Plus, besides the convenience in timing, this baby is big. They haven't told me that, but my stomach is quite big in any case. When I get out of bed, I have to put my hand under my stomach to pull it along with me or I feel like gravity is working against me. So, given the extra weight and the number of times I have to go to the bathroom (four times last night and during every commercial while we watched the opening cermonies for the Olympics), I am ready for his arrival too.

I'm grateful that I get to work until he comes. It isn't convenient in some ways because I am tired sometimes and when the variety of tasks to do is low, I have to struggle to stay focused. In other ways, though, it's a relief. As it is, I think I'm one of those pregnant women people might dread being around because I think about the baby all the time, so I think I talk about the baby all the time too. And, after awhile, there's only so much to think or say about the same topic, so I need a diversion in my life. Even as it is, we have a calendar on our freezer door that I am crossing off each day on, looking forward to THE DAY. So, while we know that we can't really plan his date of arrival, we have still set an earlier ETA for him, and we've let him know that we have a birthday party planned for him, so we are just hoping he'll abide by that.