From the moment that the pregnancy test came up positive and I put my info into the due date calendar on babyfit.com, we have been staring at January 5, 2009, on the calendar. This has become one of those red letter days, against which every other date is compared. In our minds, January 5, 2009, was an important day.
It is now 5:39 on January 5, 2009, and the high point of today was my trip to Walmart.
We thought that the excitement was starting on Saturday night about midnight. I had regular contractions, and they continued through mid-afternoon on Sunday. We were stoked! And then, they just stopped. We were less stoked after that. And so now, we don't have a date that we're shooting for. There's no longer a deadline for having everything done. The clock really isn't ticking anymore. We're just.... waiting.
It's liberating, actually. The frenzied preparation of the past months is over. We've been able to slow down and look around at the things that we can do now that we may not be able to get to after she's born. Rob winterized the yard last week--not a huge project, but necessary and unlikely to be a priority with a new baby in the house. I've gotten some stuff around the house out of the way--things are clean that haven't been for a while. It's not the stereotypical pre-natal nesting instinct; we just finally had the time and the inclination to get some stuff done.
We've also had a great chance to relax with each other for longer than we'd anticipated. We're both sleeping better. We talk about what sort of parents we hope to be, beyond the previous "our kid will never do xyz" conversations. So while we're both excited for what is inevitably going to happen at some point in the next few days, we're not anxious about it.
So while I'm still going to have the conversation with my OB about maybe helping things along, it won't be because of a circled date on a calendar. She's not a library book that has a stamp in the inside cover (do they still do that?). Tomorrow's big highlight is lunch with the girls and maybe a trip to Home Depot for some weather stripping for the patio doors. Anything else that happens will be a bonus.
4 comments:
I'll be sending "baby come out....quickly and fairly painlessly" vibes your way.
Hugs.
Oh, good lord. Come on, kid. You're killing me. Auntie Monica
You know, my birthday is February 16th. There hasn't been any other family members born on that day. I'm gonna circle it! You've waited this long....what's another 6 weeks?
Helpful Aunt Janice
yes, some libraries still have cards and date stamps -- but at mine we don't charge overdue fees . . . Maybe the blog name is even more apt at this point, eh?
Christina, your librarian friend
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