Still here.

40 weeks and 4 days pregnant...wow. At 37 weeks when the baby's head was "soo low and already engaged in the pelvis" I spent every night thinking- oooh this could be it. Installed the car seats, packed the hospital bag and faxed in pre-registration to Mercy. Now I have kind of settled into the fact that the baby is comfy and stubborn so I'll be meeting him next Friday at his induction. It's impossible to describe until you actually are overdue. You are so pumped up and excited but then so disappointed every day. Last night we went out to dinner and all of the "babies" were there (Our nieces/nephew). I rubbed baby Reese and baby Rory on my bump for good "mojo" as Linda calls it. I'm not stupid- it's not that I literally think that baby will never come, it just feels that way some days.

Like watching grass grow...

Ok, so the minutes are ticking by veeeery slowly as I wait for this baby. Today there is a "Thankful Thursday" post on our nestie board and I thought it was such a great idea! I could have posted 800 things to be thankful for but I try to keep it short. I do feel very thankful (well, probably just hormonal and emotional) today. I really have had a fantastic pregnancy. Even at 2 days overdue I'm honestly not in any discomfort. I'm still up taking care of the housework, cooking and shopping like before, just a little slower. I still sleep great and I even painted my own toenails the other night. It's a gorgeous day, like 65 degrees and tomorrow is supposed to be 70! It's nice to have the time off to relax with Jody in our last few before-we-become-parents days. Usually we only have a few hours together after work. At first I regretted starting maternity leave at 39.5 weeks since the baby would be late. Now I wouldn't change it for the world. I'm so glad we planned (and saved, lol) to have this time together.

Optimistic!

"My original guess was 10/31 but for some reason the date 11/6 has been sticking out in my head. I think he's going to be fashionably late." <-- I blogged this on October 3rd. I think maybe I jinxed myself.

Honestly though, for some reason I feel very optimistic about tomorrow. I promised myself no crying today. I guess I should confess that I had a tad bit hysterical crying after the Dr's appt. I just felt so disappointed. Tomorrow is the most popular day of all in our baby pool. Tomorrow, we have an appt for the whirlpool guy to finish installing my new wall oven- FINALLY.(We have been waiting 5 weeks for parts but that's another story-ugh.) My "stretching procedure" yesterday gave me some pretty bad cramps but overall I feel okay. I bounced on that darn exercise ball until my thighs were on fire. C'mon kid, let's go!

Due

Well, today is my due date. I just got back from my 40 week appointment. Well, actually I got back about 1/2 an hour ago but I had to relax a little before I decided to blog. I can admit it, I was pretty upset. I thought for sure that I would get an induction appointment for this week. Nope. November 14th. You have got to be freaking kidding me! 10 days!?! I guess it's a good thing. I know that inductions can be high risk and they are typically more painful. My Dr said that she just does not see any medical reason to induce. The baby and I are perfectly healthy. I know that they baby could still come at any minute but 10 days seems forever away. I have an NST Monday afternoon. Basically, I will be hooked up to a monitor for about 45 mins to an hour to make sure the baby isn't it any stress by being past his due date. They will track his movement and heartbeat. If anything seems wrong they would move up the induction. Warning- gross info... My Dr did "stretch my cervix" aka "swept my membranes" today. Not to get too graphic but basically once you start to dilate the Dr can reach in and kind of swoop/stretch with their finger to loosen things up. It definitely was not the best feeling in the world but if it gets things going- it will be well worth it. Now I just sit and wait...and wait...and wait.

Considerate

What a considerate baby I have inside of me. He's obviously just waiting until his due date because he knows how much his mommy appreciates punctuality!
Tomorrow morning I have a Dr's appt at 9:45 where hopefully we will talk "The big I"...induction. It's not that I even really want to go through that process but it would just be nice to have an end date. My doctors claim that 80% of the time when they schedule an induction the baby ends up coming before the date. I am a very superstitious person so I hope they schedule away. I just have this horrible feeling that tomorrow I will go in and they will say, "well- why don't you come back at 41 weeks and we'll talk induction then". That's the problem with being the happy easy-going pregnant woman...seriously! Tomorrow I will be standing up for myself and what I want, darn it! The Drs keep calling me their "textbook" pregnancy and since I never have complaints my appts are like 2 minutes long. Well tomorrow I am going to put on a whiny face to make sure I get what I want- a threatening induction date for the baby. I know that they are already concerned about his size so I think that will work to my advantage. In the meantime, I think I will stay off of TheNest baby boards and just stick with my upstate board. These baby board girls are like 34 or 36 weeks pregnant making all caps posts like "I want my baby out NOW" and "I can't take this anymore". Oh please ladies- suck it up. The wait only gets worse. Well, I'm off for my daily morning walk. Ok, so it's only been like 3 days but that totally makes it qualify as daily now =)

T-minus 2 days

...until baby Justin's due date. I just wanted to point out that Saturday is over and I still don't have my baby. How will I spend that dollar my Dr. owes me from our bet? ha ha! Decisions, decisions...

Last night we went to a family Halloween party. I never bought a costume because I was so convinced I would be in the hospital for the party, lol. So I threw on some wings, a halo and some glitter with a white shirt and went as an angel. One of the little boys at the party asked, "Are you really pregnant or is that just a costume?" I thought that was just too cute =)

Roller Coaster

I felt so optimistic yesterday. Today as much as I hate to admit it, I feel really sad. I think it's just hormonal. I'm sure after this vent I'll feel much better. I see all these girls on TheNest baby boards or on BabyCenter with my due date (or earlier) who have already had their babies. I think I'm ready to admit it...I'm so insanely jealous. I couldn't even watch Baby Story on my sick days because I wished it was me so bad. Every night, with every cramp/twinge I secretly think, "oooh this could be it but I don't want to jinx it"- then nothing. The baby has been so big and so low that I would have bet a million bucks he was going to be early. My 1st day of maternity leave is Monday. Jody was going to start his leave Monday. Every day that the baby isn't here is one less day that we will have off- the 3 of us. I can already tell it's going to be so hard to see Jody go back to work after his paternity leave. Every one I see is asks "oh, no baby yet?" or "can't you just have the baby?". I know that they're excited and I LOVE LOVE that the baby is coming into a family already so excited/in love with him. I'm just frustrated because I'm excited too but I have to put on my "patient mom-to-be" face and I just don't feel patient any more. I want to hold my baby more than anyone, why won't he just come out? =(