40 weeks come and gone

One week ago the bags were packed and placed in a cranny by the door. All the lose ends with work were tied into a nice little final package. The house was spotless and my nails were done. Snickerdoodles were waiting for visiting family and the self-designed birth announcement sat on my desktop just waiting for a photo and stats to be dragged and dropped in.

“Prepared for delivery” would have been an understatement.

With a satisfied air, I grabbed a fresh pineapple, some raspberry leaf tea, hopped on the gym’s stair stepper and declared, “Ok son, you can come any time now.”

They say God laughs when you tell Him your plans.

It’s true.  After days of sweat and tears (no blood) and some comically sore thighs, I probably looked pretty ridiculous.

Based on the increased hiccups, I think our son is laughing it up from his comfy little spot in the womb too.

We’ve tried everything short of skydiving and roller coasters. Little man is taking his sweet time.

I could use this post to explore all the crazy thoughts that start taking over your mind when your child is suddenly “overdue.” But they are crazy. And I know I would look back on them and diagnose myself as temporarily nutso.

So where does that leave us? With just the facts.

• I am at 1.5 cm and 60%. Have been for two weeks.
• His little noggin is plunked down where it’s supposed to be.
• The doctor says my due date was Aug. 10. We originally calculated it as Aug. 17. We will see who is right.
• Over-zealous doses of Relaxin with bad aim are making my hip and knee feel like a knife is being wrenched in them. Other than that, I just feel like an achy whale.
• We can expect a call from the hospital sometime soon with the details for our … dun dun dun … induction. There is some flexibility with when they schedule it, but they want to aim for around the 21st.
• David takes the second biggest test of his med school career – the Step 2 CK on Aug. 23. Eight hours, in LA, no phones, high stakes. See the timing problem?

Anyone want a good slice of humble pie with a side of helplessness? We’ve got plenty of both around here these days. We have learned well that we can’t always control the circumstances, but we can control our thoughts about them.

So today while David continued to study, I put on my big girl pants, re-cleaned the house, re-packed the bags and re-did my grown out nails. I make no promises about replacement snickerdoodles.

After two weeks of stair stepping, fruit eating, bouncing squats, long walks and everything else under the sun it’s clear that this is out of my hands. Sorry family and friends. 🙁 I’m sure trying and I’ll sure keep trying. But somewhere in that trying I’m now going to sneak in a nice book and a few more naps.

Now if you will excuse me, I think the little neighborhood kids in the pool need their resident whale.