39 weeks and waiting.....

Well, any day now......

The big question at the end of a surro pregnancy (other than when will the baby get here) is when should the parents come to town?

Our plan was for S&J to head to town last Monday, November 25th.  But then some things came up, and it turned out that they weren't going to have the time they were expecting to just hang out and wait for baby like we all thought they would.  This turn of events caused us to start playing the "when is the best time to come out" game....  Unfortunately, there is just no way to tell.  A lot of surros will schedule an elective induction to give their IPs an end date to the pregnancy.  Even though babies don't always follow best laid plans (Miss Mia.....), it at least gives a jumping off point for planning travel.  We decided not to do that this time; S&J want Baby Boy to come when he is ready, and not when we are ready for him.  Also, my doc went out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday- so scheduling an induction with an absent doc is a little tricky.  Every week at my appointments we tried to gauge if anything was happening in there.  And every week, it was a resounding NO! Little Mister seems perfectly content to hang out and be all cozy in my uterus.  And apparently, my uterus likes him there and is not interested in kicking him out. 

So, travel plans were changed.  I delivered two of our babies at 39.1 weeks; the longest I was ever pregnant.  My doc and I figured I would very likely go to that date, if not a little later.  Nov 25th put me at just over 38 weeks; not wanting S&J to have to hang around with no baby, we pushed back the travel date.  Seth and Johnny, and Seth's parents came in on Thanksgiving evening. 

What a fantastic Thanksgiving!  My parents were here for the holiday, so they were able to meet everyone.  We had a ton of food and good conversation.  The travel itself was a different story, though.  Well....  The travel was okay.  It was getting into town that was the kicker.  Someone in Phoenix, the connecting stop, fell down on the job that afternoon....  He or she neglected to load a whole bin of luggage onto the plane.  And, yep, that's right- all of our party's luggage was in that bin.  They had to wait until after 2pm the next day to get their things!!!  And to add insult to injury, when they arrived in our fair city, the rental car place was out of cars.  Oh yes, you read that right.  Totally out of cars.  Now I know we live in a smallish town, but seriously.......  Good thing Chris and I decided to surprise them at the airport!!!  Luckily, the reservation at the hotel was on file and they were able to check in without a hitch.  And as of now, they have their rental along with all their things. 

So now we wait.  I'm 39.1 weeks today.  The longest I've been pregnant.  Will Baby Boy choose to come sometime today?  I thought maybe so earlier.  Now I'm not so certain.  I had a night and early morning full of contractions, but now they've calmed down.  My luck, it will happen at 2am, when I have to wake a babysitter for the kids and drag them all out of bed.  Oh yeah, and my doctor is still out of town.  I guess statistically I was bound to have a call doctor sooner or later.  The first 4 babies were all delivered by my own doc, and that is a pretty rare thing.  My next appointment is Tuesday morning.  We may make it until then, who knows??? 

I just hope we don't have to wait on Little Mister too much longer.  We're all very excited to meet him!

                                                       38 weeks and counting in this pic.

Playing catch up

So I've been falling way behind on posting.  The time is going by so fast that I think of updating, then a week flies by and I realize I haven't written.....

I'm 36 weeks now, going to be 37 on Friday.  The baby is getting bigger, he moves all the time, and I am starting to get uncomfortable.  I'm in that weird in-between time- my body is getting tired and is about ready for kiddo to vacate; but I'm not ready for the pregnancy to be over yet either.  I love the time that I get to carry this baby, the time that our family has to care for him.  We are all super excited for his delivery, to see what he looks like, and to meet him "on the outside"- not to mention SO excited to see him with his family for the first time.  But all of those incredibly special things mean that our time with him are just about over.  Certainly a bittersweet transition. 

I wish I had a crystal ball that predicted labor, too.  It would be way easier to plan when to bring S&J to town and when to have things ready if we knew even the day....  But, as it has been with childbirth since the dawn of time, there is just no real way to know.  I'm contracting quite a bit, but it's sporadic.  Some days I contract all day on and off, and other days I don't have any contractions at all.  I'm not sleeping well- during the days between my work shifts especially, but that is pretty normal for me this close to the end.  Kiddo seems to be pretty low, but sometimes that doesn't mean anything.  I love feeling him rock and roll in there, and it's kind of cool (and sometimes a little Alien creepy) to see him move.  He has been getting the hiccups daily now, and can't decide if he wants to be head down or breech.  That has been our adventure of the last week......

Baby Boy has decided to give me some extra anxiety and a few sleepless moments.  He has spent much of the last week breech or transverse (sideways) in there.  Of course today, for the doc, he was firmly head down.  My doc assures me that he should stay that way from now on.  But none of the other kiddos I carried flipped out of vertex this late.  So I'm a little concerned that he will be in a "bad" position when I go into labor.  I'm not dying to experience a c/s; at all. 

I think his impending arrival has hit just about every one of us this last week.  From S&J trying to pinpoint a day to come out and getting their bags packed, to me and Chris arranging for midnight babysitters if needed and me thinking about getting a bag packed for the hospital....  We're all preparing for these final weeks and the imminent arrival of a new baby.  It's such a far off concept for so long- a baby is coming- to Boom!!!  a BABY is going to be here.  Soon. 

It's a little hard to wrap my head around that it's almost over. 

A little sneak peek of some pictures I had taken.  Me and Baby Boy are about 33 and a half weeks.