More of the Same
I'm still stuck in a nasty little pre-labor holding pattern that is NO FUN! Brace yourself, I've got some whining to do.
But first, let me just say that despite being uncomfortable and crabby all day yesterday, the situation was made entirely bearable by Joe. He pulled an all-nighter Friday, had a long sleep-in on Saturday, and spent a few hours back at work Saturday night while I got the kid to bed and suffered through pre-labor symptoms, then he spent the day home on Sunday keeping Miss Julie out of my hair and letting me go get the pedicure promised to me as a birthday present AND a nice long nap in the late afternoon. There. You've had your bright side up front.
Now on to the delicious whine I deserve. I've been in early labor since oh, about Thursday. Losing plug, loose bowels, contractions as close as five minutes apart but tapering off to nothing and never as intense as they would need to be to really get things going. It's all very exciting because it feels like the big event could happen any minute. It's also very frustrating - I woke up Sunday morning really believing it was "the day" and even stuck all my toiletries and daily junk into the hospital bag out of confidence that I wouldn't need it again before we were at the hospital. Wrong.
Okay, I'm trying to remind myself that whatever work my body does in this easy on-again, off-again fashion is going to cut into the length and intensity of the actual labor. I'm trying to trust that my body knows what it's doing and will see me through this process just as bazillions of women's bodies have done throughout history. I'm trying not to think about the c-section potentially looming over the horizon. And, most importantly, I'm trying to focus on the light at the end of the tunnel...a beautiful new baby girl. Never mind that the light is attached to a freight train called impending motherhood to a toddler and an infant. We'll deal with that part when we get there.
Speaking of parenting a toddler. At the moment, our lovely toddler has a nasty little cold. We've been spoiled for about the last year since we figured out the food allergies, and Julie has been blessedly illness-free. It's downright remarkable how long she's gone without getting sick, especially considering how many times I dragged her into the ped's office during the first year and a half of her life. But now she has a runny nose and a cough that went from a little one at bedtime a week ago to sort of an all-day on-and-off rattly thing yesterday. And she's crabby. Crabby because of the cold, crabby because Daddy hasn't been around as much lately, crabby because Mama insists on taking a nap every afternoon and has much less energy to focus on her than she deserves.
I SO wish I had some reliable caregiver - someone who already knows her well and that she trusts, which limits the pool drastically - offering to take her off my hands for a couple of hours of fun. Even if there were such a person, I think I would feel bad about shuttling her off considering that she will be left with the grandparents for a day or two some time in (hopefully) the next week. That will be confusing enough I'm sure. If I don't go into labor tonight, hopefully we'll have our act together enough in the morning to go to ECFE, which she loves and which will serve to give her an hour or so of fun and teacher-attention that will take some of the pressure off of me. Boy-oh-boy will those parents be surprised to see us without a baby in tow!
But first, let me just say that despite being uncomfortable and crabby all day yesterday, the situation was made entirely bearable by Joe. He pulled an all-nighter Friday, had a long sleep-in on Saturday, and spent a few hours back at work Saturday night while I got the kid to bed and suffered through pre-labor symptoms, then he spent the day home on Sunday keeping Miss Julie out of my hair and letting me go get the pedicure promised to me as a birthday present AND a nice long nap in the late afternoon. There. You've had your bright side up front.
Now on to the delicious whine I deserve. I've been in early labor since oh, about Thursday. Losing plug, loose bowels, contractions as close as five minutes apart but tapering off to nothing and never as intense as they would need to be to really get things going. It's all very exciting because it feels like the big event could happen any minute. It's also very frustrating - I woke up Sunday morning really believing it was "the day" and even stuck all my toiletries and daily junk into the hospital bag out of confidence that I wouldn't need it again before we were at the hospital. Wrong.
Okay, I'm trying to remind myself that whatever work my body does in this easy on-again, off-again fashion is going to cut into the length and intensity of the actual labor. I'm trying to trust that my body knows what it's doing and will see me through this process just as bazillions of women's bodies have done throughout history. I'm trying not to think about the c-section potentially looming over the horizon. And, most importantly, I'm trying to focus on the light at the end of the tunnel...a beautiful new baby girl. Never mind that the light is attached to a freight train called impending motherhood to a toddler and an infant. We'll deal with that part when we get there.
Speaking of parenting a toddler. At the moment, our lovely toddler has a nasty little cold. We've been spoiled for about the last year since we figured out the food allergies, and Julie has been blessedly illness-free. It's downright remarkable how long she's gone without getting sick, especially considering how many times I dragged her into the ped's office during the first year and a half of her life. But now she has a runny nose and a cough that went from a little one at bedtime a week ago to sort of an all-day on-and-off rattly thing yesterday. And she's crabby. Crabby because of the cold, crabby because Daddy hasn't been around as much lately, crabby because Mama insists on taking a nap every afternoon and has much less energy to focus on her than she deserves.
I SO wish I had some reliable caregiver - someone who already knows her well and that she trusts, which limits the pool drastically - offering to take her off my hands for a couple of hours of fun. Even if there were such a person, I think I would feel bad about shuttling her off considering that she will be left with the grandparents for a day or two some time in (hopefully) the next week. That will be confusing enough I'm sure. If I don't go into labor tonight, hopefully we'll have our act together enough in the morning to go to ECFE, which she loves and which will serve to give her an hour or so of fun and teacher-attention that will take some of the pressure off of me. Boy-oh-boy will those parents be surprised to see us without a baby in tow!
posted by Shelly Kang at 3:17 PM
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