Home Stretch

Okay, maybe most people wouldn't consider this the home stretch but tomorrow I hit single digits in the "weeks leading up to due date" count down.  Yes, I know first babies are usually late.  Yes, I know it's more of a "due month" than a due date.  But there is something very psychological about dropping from 10 weeks to 9 weeks on a calendar.

Shame, Shame, I know your name!
Where's the baby supposed to go?

No.  The baby's room isn't cleaned out yet.

No.  We don't have a crib yet.

No.  I can't do a wall sit for five minutes.*

No.  I have no idea what it is going to be like to be in labor, push out a baby, hold it in my arms and all of a sudden be a mommy.

Yes.  I am looking forward to it.


The cleaning and stern conversations with my husband about what should and should not be in our son's room.  (Dead desktop and laptop?  No.  Crib?  Yes.)  The walks and wall sits and Kegels and breathing exercises and cat/cow yoga poses.  The contractions and pain and moaning and groaning followed by the joy that will come from finally getting to hold our little guy.

I am looking forward to all of it.

And Yes, I might be a little naive.

But you know what, I totally don't care if women look at me in my excitement and smile their secret smiles, nod and think to themselves, "This chick has NO clue what she's in for..."  I don't care if people think I'm crazy to want a natural, non-medicated child birth.  I don't care if people think I'm silly for growing out my hair so I can wear it in a pony tail for the hours and hours that I will be laboring to bring our child into the world.  "You won't even notice what you're hair is doing." they say.  (They're probably right, but I know that when I felt like dying of exhaustion on the volleyball court, I had to have my hair out of my face or else I was really cranky.)  I don't care if people want to know what we're naming our child ahead of time.  Life is hard, get used to disappointment.  I don't care if people think "baby wearing" is inconvenient.  Car seats are for cars and they're heavy(!) so I might as well save my shoulder and back some pain by figuring out the Moby Wrap.  I don't care if most women should only gain around 20-25 pounds over nine months and I've already hit the 30-pound mark with 9 weeks left to go.

I just don't care.

(Okay, sometimes I care about that last one.)

But you know what else?  I don't care that the things I want might not ever happen.  I might have to get an epidural or have a C-Section.  My hair might end up in my face and those other women are right - I probably won't notice it.  People might not like the name we bestow upon our son but I imagine he'll pick up a nickname at some point in his life and we can all just deal with it and be on our merry way.  My kid might not like being strapped in a sling - we'll figure something else out.  I might not ever lose the baby weight and I will just have to deal with it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some wall sits to do...

*apparently if you want to go the non-medicated route, you're most likely gonna use your quads like crazy during the last part of labor when/if you choose to use the bed to it's full potential by squatting on the end of it.  Seriously, the mind boggles at how many things those beds can do.

I thought all obstetrics beds looked like this:

Slightly terrifying and very Hollywood

The beds at Kaiser look like this:

Not as terrifying

The bar comes off if you don't need it. And if you do want the bar, it's not perfect but this is the closest/best picture I could find to show you how it works that didn't make me a little sick** - there's a reason my head is all the way up here and the action happens all the way down there.  I had no clue it was even an option to give birth in this position.

**Feel free to google some of this stuff to learn more.  But be warned - you're gonna see more of people than you EVER wanted to see.