"Me" Week

I can't believe it's Thursday night! The week goes by really fast when you're not at work, I guess. That, and I'm kind of surprised to have not gone into labor yet. Darn those doctors—I had been determined not to expect her to be at all early, and then they go getting my hopes up by saying I might barely make it to the 21st. Bugger.

So, here I am, having enjoyed four days of "me" time this week since starting my pre-baby maternity leave. Pretty much everything on my "To Do Before Baby" list is complete. I went straight to Build-a-Bear upon leaving work on Friday, since the most important thing on that to-do list was getting the sister gift from Claire to Kate. (I went with the pink bear in a different outfit, if you were wondering.) With that taken care of, I enjoyed the weekend like any other, with nice family time, including our visit to the pumpkin patch and the neighborhood Halloween party. After church on Sunday, people showered us with gifts at the church pot-luck (my co-workers gave me a little send-off on Friday too) and so by Sunday night, it felt like the nursery was all ready.

I started off Monday feeling free as a bird, giddy at the novelty of sitting in my kitchen at 10am, making a grocery list. The giddiness subsided briefly when I left the house and was pulled over at a notorious speed trap just a mile from home (45 in a 35), but I just got a warning. (whew!) I went and got a manicure and pedicure, and finished up Your Two-Year Old: Terrible or Tender over a latte at Starbucks, where a random man started telling me about his four grown children, in great detail, including which relatives they resembled and where they were in life now. Some people's obliviousness to social cues amazes me. I went to the grocery, picked up a new Jodi Picoult novel at the library (House Rules, about a young man with Asperger's syndrome, which I don't believe the man at Starbucks has, though it might sound like it), and came home for a nap. (Note: I would have linked both the books I mentioned in this paragraph, but my Amazon widget in Blogger doesn't seem to be working any more—anyone else having this problem?)

Tuesday, I ran a few errands and continued to devour my novel. (I'm really not a fiction reader, but really enjoy Picoult's books.) I went to Barnes & Noble to spend a gift card I had, and bought a baby book for Claire and—fittingly for "me week"—The Book of Me: A Do-It Yourself Memoir. I discovered this book by following a link on one of Jessica Turner's 31 Days of Memory-Keeping posts, and figured it was right up my alley, since I love get-to-know-you type questions and have an obsession with recording memories. (I was an obsessive journaler from about age 13-20.) This book is 200 pages of prompts about your childhood and adolescence, family, work, personality, etc., in detail, like "Who babysat you and what were they like?" and "When, if ever, did you spend money unwisely, bounce a check, miss something important because you overslept, or otherwise make unwise moves?" Obviously, some people would see this as a huge waste of time, not care, or not remember these things, but I'm crazy like that.

This was the night we ate spicy nachos and took a walk in hopes of prompting labor, but while the contractions continue and even seem a little more intense sometimes, there were no developments.

Yesterday was a long and crazy day. Matt and I went out for breakfast to fulfill a craving I'd been having, and at the end of the meal, I got sick. As in, suddenly nauseous, run for the bathroom, attentive waitress diverts me out the side door (much closer to our table than the bathroom) with a handful of napkins, and I lose it all in the grass, hopefully out of sight of any still-dining customers. The waitress actually said I was about the 20th pregnant woman they'd had in there since the day before. One woman was even in labor but refused to go to the hospital until she'd had her Reuben.

I then got my eyebrows waxed (something that fell by the wayside after Kate was born, so I'm trying to get back on the wagon) and arrived at my 11:00 OBGYN appointment at 10:40. (Score! I'm always late when I go from work.) So, we sat down to wait, content with my Picoult book. And we waited. And waited. And waited. At 12:20 (ten minutes before I was supposed to meet my friend Nancy for lunch twenty miles away) Matt spoke to someone at the desk and learned that our doctor had been delayed all morning because of a surgery that ran late, and had another surgery at 12:30. She'd tried to see everyone she could before then, but it wasn't going to happen, so they advised we reschedule, or at least go get lunch and come back in an hour. So, I let Nancy know and Matt and I grabbed lunch in the hospital cafeteria (and took a little walk around the maternity floors :) before returning and being told our doctor would be another hour, but we could see another doctor. So we did. Three hour wait. Three minute exam. Three to four centimeters dilated.

We left frustrated and exhausted. Last night was Trunk or Treat at church. I'll post about that separately, since it will be filled with cute Kate pics, not boring "what I did today" stuff like this one! Today, my only scheduled activity was my rescheduled lunch with Nancy, and otherwise I was just lazy. Did a scrapbook page. Read. Napped. I'm not bored yet, but definitely ready to get this party started. C'mon, Baby Claire!!