One month to go

According to my countdown clock, we have 27 days.  According to my calendar, exactly 4 weeks from now I'll be a mom again.  What a relief to finally get within a month of this delivery!

So happy to have had an OB appointment without surprises.  No new diagnoses, no new "conditions" to worry about or weird symptoms.  Just a straight up: "you're super pregnant now so have fun with that."

And they're right.  I'm pregnant in multiple states at this point.  My AFI is still high (about 25), so I have the belly of a full term mom.  I can barely breath most of the time because there's just no room for air down there.  Getting shoes on and off is a joke and my XL pregnancy clothing no longer covers my bump.  I'm one big hot pregnant mess.

This weekend was a roller coaster ride, too.  Around 3:00 on Saturday I started contracting.  FOR REAL contracting.  As in, totally distorting my belly, clamping down, owowowow contracting.  We timed them for about 5 hours and they went from 5/hr to 8 to 10 to 8 and then down to nearly nothing.  THANK GOODNESS.  I was convinced we were going to the hospital.  Not that he was going to be born, just that I would be admitted and hooked up to an iv and poor Michael and Olivia would be along for the ride. 

Bullet dodged.

The likely culprit was dehydration.  That damned dehydration can seriously get you if you don't watch it!  But, at least it stopped on its own and I can be careful about fluid and rest.

Which brings up the fact that I have to finally bite the bullet about some things.  Like asking for working from home, something I've avoided for a while but really have to think about now.  I want to try one day/week at first and see if it helps break up how hard it is physically to get to campus and get around.  When Friday rolls around, I'm completely thrashed and it takes a full weekend to get back my strength.  I also need to cancel some things on my social calendar after all.  20th reunion is pretty much out of my reach, at least the evening parts of it.  Our play date with my friend Johanna?  Sadly not a good idea.  It's not the end of the world at all, just something I've avoided doing. 

In the mean time, I'm feeling a little more excitement for the impending birth and started actually feeling like things have a chance at going well.  It's been hard to think about him coming home or being a part of our family -- my head has been so stuck at the hospital for so many months.  Only recently have I really begun to see this as a possibility, instead of seeing only breathing tubes and incision scars.  I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm feeling peaceful about it, but I'm feeling less fear.  And that's a good thing.