Juuuust Waiting...

Just sitting here, waiting for baby girl.  We're 1 week and 3 days out from our due date.  Although I've heard that only 2-5% of babies are actually born on their due dates.  I think it's harder this time around because with Leo, he came so early that we didn't have time to sit around and drum our fingers waiting.  This time we were totally ready at -3 weeks...and here I sit, getting bigger every day, watching new stretch marks bloom every day.  Yeah, I'm trying not to worry about that, but it is frustrating. 

We have our "go bags" in the car, we have our Leo plans and backup plans and backup to the backup plans.  We are ready.  It's not like I can even "catch up on sleep" now (which is a total myth, by the way) - being 9 months pregnant isn't the most comfortable thing.  The baby like to dance and stretch, particularly between 10pm and 6am.  That's why sleeping is so tough.  A couple nights ago, I swore she punched a hole straight through and was making her appearance from my ribs - it was the single biggest kick/punch/stretch I've ever felt!  I made Brad check that she hadn't actually broken through.  Don't worry, she hasn't.

What's she doing in there?  Just dancing and getting fatter.  Yes, I want a nice, squishy, fat baby - who doesn't?  That means that she's ready to be on the outside.  I also cringe to think - the fatter the baby, the tougher the delivery.  You know what I can do about it though?  Nothing.  That's what I keep reminding myself.  The baby will make her entrance when she (and my body) are ready.  Until then, I'll keep trying to figure out why kind of dances she's doing in there.  The kazatsky, the can-can, pirouettes, jumping jacks - I can only imagine.

My biggest thing was I didn't want to have a Christmas baby.  So starting December 23rd, I was counting down the hours until December 25th was over.  I kept thinking "if I go into labor now, how long would it have to last so that I made it to 12:01am on December 26th?".  In fact, I really wasn't sleeping the night of December 24th or 25th anyway (thanks, baby break dancing), so I was just calculating the hours until we were in the free and clear.  Well, we made iiiiit!!!  So now, despite the obvious tax benefits, my next countdown is until January.  I would LOVE to have the baby in January instead of December.  I feel like January is just a fresh start to the year.  I like the month of January much better than getting lost in the wash that is the end of December.  So as I write this, it's 8:30pm on December 30th.  Can we make it until January 1st?  There's 27.5 hours until we cross over into the new year.  We'll see! 

In the meantime, Leo is doing great!  I think he's starting to understand the fact that a baby is coming.  He loves to lift up my shirt (and the shirt under that, and the stretchy pants waistband under that until he gets to my belly) and point to my belly and say "baby, baby", and recently he's been kissing my belly.  How sweet is that!  He knows the room at our house is for the baby - there's a crib and a gliding chair which are both "baby" things.  Sometimes when he walks by he points to it and says "baby".  Last week he was hiding in there as I was trying to get him ready in the morning.  So at least he feels comfortable in there!

We've had a lovely, low-key weekend here.  We had family Shabbat on Friday - all of the vegetarians and carnivores were happy with real wings, "chicken" nuggets, jackfruit sliders and more.  You know what the unexpected winner was, especially with Leo and Riley?  Cauliflower tempura!   We've built and knocked over dozens of towers.  We got a brand new box of crayons which I'm super excited to use (I mean Leo - Leo is really excited to use).  Daddy came over to watch part of the Alabama game last night, we went to play at the mall today, and we've made two Target runs.  Here are Leo and I yesterday.  We hope everyone's had a nice weekend!