The due date comes... and goes?

So, yes, today is July 26th and it is the baby's due date. Except she's barely dropped (see top photo) and I'm barely having contractions. So I guess 40 weeks has come and may go with no baby. I've always felt that this due date was early, and I guess I'm right.

I've got loads of things to say but little motivation right now to write them down. I've been feeling very insular and withdrawn - not in a depressed sort of way but just in a can't be bothered with people if they're not family sort of way. I'm actually in a pretty bright and positive mood.

A couple of great gifts have come my way recently: a coworker gave me a really cute bib that says Eagle In Training on it - our employer's mascot is an eagle. My staff got together and bought me a glider chair for which I had registered. I am modeling both in the below picture.






Thank you everyone!

37 weeks pregnant belly photo

Though I expect the baby to be overdue, I thought I'd do a belly photo a week earlier than normal... Just in case I'm totally wrong about when she's showing up (just did one three weeks ago, and usually I've been posting them every four weeks). My belly button hasn't really popped out but it's getting very flat. Sleeping on my side with a belly this big requires that I find some support for the belly - either leaning over so that the belly is resting on the bed, or stuffing a bit of the body pillow underneath it.

I'm so glad that Frac suggested that I take, or rather have DH take, these belly photos. For starters, they're fun and a nice way to document what's happened, especially for the many friends and family far away. But also, I can look back at me at 14 weeks and think to myself wow I was svelte! Unfortunately, I've also noticed that my butt isn't what it used to be. I blame not walking up the Metro escalators - I've been taking it easy, but I'll get back to that asap.

Overall, I'm feeling good so far. The baby is still moving a lot - I think she's still head down, which is the position we want. The other night, her movements seemed weird, like she'd moved into a transverse (head to one side, bum on the other, horizontal rather than vertical orientation), as all of a sudden when she was pushing her feet against my side, they were really coming out from my side rather than below my ribs. I've been spending a lot of time on all fours, doing cat/cow (arching my back) which is supposed to help in positioning the baby, and I think she's back to head down. I'm crap at telling though - my midwives poke my belly for a second or two and say with all the confidence in the world yep, she's still head down. I'll be heading back to see them for a checkup Wednesday and I'll ask where they think she is.

She hasn't dropped into my pelvis yet, which usually happens between two to four weeks before birth (according to our friends at WTEWYE at any rate). I haven't had any other real signs of early labour yet either - though I noticed yesterday that I'm having round ligament pain again for the first time in a few months, which I suspect has something to do with either her funny movements or starting to drop.

I'm still enjoying being pregnant, but I'm getting close to understanding what other women say about really being ready to give birth near the end. The belly is so big, it kind of gets in the way of things (like bending over to pick something up from the ground!). I'm walking really slowly these days too. I'm beginning to look forward to being a bit more agile and fast again, not to mention meeting this new person - that's getting to be a more real idea these days.

34 weeks pregnant belly photo

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Originally uploaded by xxcaro

DH was kind enough to snap this last week but it's taken me this long to get my round tuit up and running to post the darn thing. Can you believe it? Ah well. I thought when I finished school, I'd have all this free time to relax, and blog, and read, and study the hypnobabies course. And I find myself flopping on the sofa when I get home from work and vegematating with my feet up.

And nesting. There's definitely some nesting going on: washing all the clothes and blankies we've been given, organizing space for it all, cleaning the apartment a little, etc.

Belly photos and a bit of love for The Parent's Journal

Here I am with my 30 weeks pregnant belly. It's still at a size which is fun, rather than too big... but I can see how it's going to get too big before it's over. I'm really enjoying the attention and enthusiasm from friends, family and strangers. The belly touching by strangers still hasn't manifested for the most part.

I have a feeling that I send a kind of standoffish vibe which only the most effusively affectionate are likely to overcome and decide they should touch me anyway. I don't intentionally cultivate this, it's just the way I roll. (Did I really say that? Funny thing is I just imagined my daughter reading this as a twelve year old, cringing at the old fashioned idioms I use(d). Sorry dear!)

I've been listening to some quality content on the iPod these days. I'll talk about hypnobabies another day - today is the day I want to give some love to The Parent's Journal. It's a radio show on NPR which on my affiliate is on at a crazy time on Saturday mornings... so I like to load their podcast onto my iPod and listen to it in the afternoons when I'm walking home from work. 

Each week, the host, Bobbi Conner, interviews a series of parents, pediatric or obstetric health practitioners and others with interest and expertise in child rearing. Her interviewees largely seem to have written books and I suspect the show is sort of a stop on the book tour for many. However, I really like what a lot of them have to say. 

Many seem to have a fairly relaxed view of parenting - often somewhat in line with Lenore Skenazy is trying to convey with her Free Range Kids movement. I listen to it all, topics ranging from raising resilient toddlers, to childbirth options, to being a good parent during divorce. Like a lot of other things, I take it all in, and spit out the stuff I think is hokum, such as the folks who say that eating peanuts during pregnancy will cause a peanut allergy in the child. 

The show covers a wide range of topics and I find each segment usually has something that might be worth filing away for the future.  Sometimes when Conner is interviewing someone over the phone, I find the audio frustrating to listen to on my headphones. Her voice ends up being a bit too loud and the interviewee's voice a bit too soft. But that's really my only complaint. It's a great source of ideas and things to think about. 

Of course, when it comes to applying these suggestions to reality, we'll see how it goes... 

Belly photo quickly...

Lots to say, so little time. The belly is really happening now, and it's getting rather hard to miss.

However, I'm also wrapping up the last few weeks of grad school, so 26 weeks pregnant or not, I must get back to it.

In other news, I'm getting class credit to write this blog, so if you're missing my wacky sense of humour, go check it out. And I get credit for tweeting. It's a pretty excellent class.

Graduation is 21 days away and I'm looking forward to having free time to write a (noncredit) blog post more than once a week!