Friday, April 2, 2010

Hurry Up and Wait

One of my least favorite parts of pregnancy is right here, right now. The waiting game. I should be ready to go into labor at any point now ... or 4 weeks from now. Not that I don't appreciate being prepared. I mean, the Coast Guard motto is Semper Paratus (always prepared). And that is generally how we run things in this household. But still. It definitely messes with your head.

Jon firmly believes #2 is going to be "post-dates", and I'm apt to agree. There's only one problem. I adamantly felt that Jack was going to be born after his due date ... and he came a week early. Which makes me feel that it is even more necessary for me to be ready to go before my time. And for the most part, we are. We made a lot of headway these past few weeks. Baby's clothes are all washed, folded and put in the drawers. All that lovely baby gear has been brought down from the attic, and the car seat base is officially installed. Jack has been having a great time reliving his early childhood. I wonder if he recognizes any of this stuff?





We are beyond prepared with diapers, and thanks to K-Mart's faux pas the other other week, I scored a ton of baby/mama accessories for cheap hours before they pulled the coupon! :) Oh yes, and if you didn't notice in that recent picture of my garage - we have our double stroller!! I finally committed to one, and so far I'm pretty happy with it. Then again I haven't had a chance to actually try it out yet. But I think it looks pretty cool!

And of course, one final preparation for the big day, I painted my toe nails because (a) it's nice to have something pretty to look at during those final moments before meeting the little guy and (b) I still can. Although it would have been pretty funny if I could have convinced my husband to do it!


I'm starting to feel very domestic. This same thing happened during the last weeks of my Jack-pregnancy. For some reason, the last few days before I give birth make me feel very "womanly" and that generally manifests itself in the kitchen. A few hours before my water broke with Jack, I scoured the floor and baked cookies. So I think my husband was a little wary the other morning he woke up to find bins of yard sale clothes ready to go down to the garage, homemade yogurt cooling in the crockpot, homemade granola drying in the oven, fruit deyhydrating in the laundry room, and pork and sauerkraut prepped for dinner. I went to bed the night before suddenly worried that this was IT. I was very relieved to wake the next morning still feeling very pregnant.

Speaking of nights, they've gotten interesting lately. I'm not that uncomfortable during the day, unless I'm going up and down the stairs or carrying Jack too much. But nights have taken a twist. Baby loves to play at night and tends to get the hiccups early in the morning. I literally sat up in bed last night after one very strong kick. It hurts! They may say he's little, but this kid is strong! And he's constantly stretching and pushing on his Mama. I'm also feeling lots of pressure on my left hip, which keeps me up at night. So once I'm awake then I start thinking about going into labor, and what else I have left to do, and how we're going to get everything around and Jack off to the sitter's in time. And that is how I've spent the last few nights. Sleep, get punched awake, lay there thinking, roll over to get baby off hip, sleep, get kicked awake, lay there thinking, roll back over, sleep, etc.

There just seems to be so much more to plan with the second one. Probably because there is one very large component that we didn't have to deal with last time - Jack himself. The plan is to send Jack to Jon's Aunt and Uncle's about an hour away. Not the most ideal distance, but if you've ever visited their house you'd know it's the perfect place for Jack to spend his first night away from Mommy (aside from the grandparents of course!). Of all the logistical events of this big day coming up, the thing I'm most worried about is leaving Jack. The longest we've been apart is 9 hours, and that was last August when my parents watched him while I had a girls' day out shopping. It's not that I'm afraid to leave him or that I don't think he'd do well overnight, I'm sure he's ready. I just hate that our first opportunity is when I'm in a hospital delivering his baby brother. I've already warned Jon that he will be the one handling the Jack aspect that day, I'm going to be a hormonal mess. And saying goodbye to my baby, who's going to be a big brother when I see him again, isn't going to help. The good news is that just this month the hospital lifted their H1N1 visitation policy ban on children under 18. So at least he can come visit me in the hospital, which is a huge relief!!


So my emotional self aside, I know Jack's going to be fine. Aunt Julie will have lots of good food to satisfy even his bottomless pit, Uncle Bob will help keep him in line, and all the cousins will make sure he's entertained and so distracted that he probably won't even miss us. I hope. But this all only works out if Baby waits until after April 10 to arrive. So that's what we're praying.

In fact, April 10 is just one of my many mini-milestones. First I wanted to get past our anniversary March 25 (sorry Baby but Mama doesn't like to share!), then I wanted to make it out of the month of March (in which we already have 2 family birthdays and our anniversary). I'd also hoped to avoid April Fool's Day (looks good so far). Anytime after April 10 is fair game, although that week is Jon's finals week. And I'd like to not get too far into the end of April because we have 4 family birthdays within the first two weeks of May. So yeah, I'm not picky or anything, but it can't hurt to have goals!

Regardless of my plans, Baby will come when he's good and ready, and hopefully we'll be good and ready too. On that note, I best go pack my bags!

2 comments:

megan douglass said...

i'm so glad they lifted the ban! hooray! i was really sad for you. don't tell me i can't see my kid! great post.. as always!

Offshorecpa said...

oh i'm getting so excited for your big day!

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