39 Weeks

Jasper would say that we are now at Defcon 4. I think that sounds a little extreme, but will acknowledge that we have reached a fairly high state of readiness. Now that I know (sort of...) what contractions are like, I realize that I am indeed having quite a few of them. Often five minutes apart, even! But they still aren’t intensifying or organizing themselves into a baby-eviction mission. So, we mostly wait.

I’m starting to suspect that this is much more boring for others than it is for me. I mean, I’m basically staycationing for the first time in my adult life. It’s pretty great. And I’ve started sleeping through the night more! So, I mean, maybe work was my problem all along? But I realize that for others, I am just still gigantically pregnant. BORING! DO SOMETHING NEW, WOMAN! I assure you, I would go into labor if I could. I’m an ENFJ, after all -- the compulsion to perform is strong.

The good news is that Baby H is a very impressive fruit this week. A mini-watermelon! How cute is that? This cute:

Meanwhile my belly is this... cute? Ahem, yeah.

That picture was taken after a lovely dinner date with my baby’s daddy. Because our dinner-date days are numbered! So we have to go now, while we have all this freedom! We also used our freedom this weekend to go on an adventure to Danville. There, we ate delicious pizza that Jasper wasn’t really all that excited about:

And also got some treats at the bakery. The driving force behind the adventure was my desire for an apple fritter. Apple fritters are my favorite baked good of all time, and I haven’t had one in years, because no one makes gluten-free apple fritters. I mean, obviously. But Miglets, in Danville, does. ALLEGEDLY. I really couldn’t say for sure, because they were all out of them when we arrived! I actually stood in a momentary state of shock when the bakery-guy told me. I don’t think he realized that he had pretty much ruined my adventure. I was really remarkably mature about it and ordered some other stuff. The bakery, which is now the target of my apple-fritter-deprived resentment:

Number of contractions I’ve had this week: lots, I think, now that I sort of know what I’m looking for
Number of painful contractions I’ve had this week: maybe six?

How imminent labor felt on Thursday: very!
How imminent labor feels right now: not at all
How Jasper feels about probably having to go to work tomorrow instead of having a baby: pretty cranky

Number of potentially labor-inspiring walks Jasper has taken me on this weekend: 2
Number of potentially labor-inspiring bowls of very spicy soup I have consumed: 1
Number of potentially labor-inspiring bathroom-scrubbings I have done: 2

Number of movies we have gone to, knowing that movie-going will soon be a more complicated (i.e. impossible) endeavor: 2
Number of buckets of popcorn we have consumed at these movies: 2
Interesting thing we learned about the popcorn: it is much tastier at matinee-showings

Number of pies I have baked and frozen in anticipation of having a tiny newborn on Thanksgiving, but also needing pie, because it’s fine to skip turkey and all the rest, but pie is non-negotiable: 1

Number of pages we have left in Cryptonomicon: zero! But that has been the case for nearly a week, so apparently finishing the book was not the key to going into labor


Watermelon photo: Baby Center