9 Months

I am officially knocking on the door of my May 26th due date, so I consider myself fully incubated at this point. She has made very little movement downward, so my new concern is that I will be pregnant forever and ever Amen. OK. That is not my real concern. I would prefer she come of her own volition, rather than me be drug-pumped into delivery, but I'm pretty sure that at 1 week late, it'll be time to pull the plug on Operation Orca.

Two of my friends who were due around the same time as me delivered their children this week. This was the second for both of them, so luckily, they seemed to have pretty quick and easy deliveries. I'm telling you, the anxiety from my end is palpable.

This month marked weekly visits to the doctor, uncomfortable examinations (OWW. How come no one tells you about the painful examinations???), and le fin of my first year in graduate school. A toast to that! It is really sweet that I have had some time to relax and be a psychotic cleaner in between the worlds of academia and motherhood. Andrew couldn't be happier to be at work during the day, completely segregated from the cleaning frenzy. As Andrew stated to me after a morning of scrubbing: "You don't just want it clean, you want it STERILE." To that I respond, what's the difference?

I called the church in which we were married to find out how to start the process of baptism. When I told the lady in charge how close I was to delivery, she literally laughed long and heartily into the phone. Apparently, people are signing up for baptism dates close to delivery dates at the moment of conception. We don't plan on scheduling it until the winter when some of my family is in town, so supposedly, we MIGHT be in the knick of time on this front. Note to all teenagers planning on having children in their 30's: SIGN UP FOR A BAPTISM DATE NOW. We also found out that the daycare that we are planning to use while I'm in school, has a waiting list on which infants were placed BEFORE they were conceived. I realize I should just get over this and accept it as a fact of life in this day, in this area. I think there are some ludicrous things I'm just going to have to accept. Question:
Should we start college applications now, or next week? Or are we too late?

I started reading the book Baby 411 (recommended by a friend), which has been SO MUCH MORE HELPFUL than the week-by-week variety. It is organized by topic instead of time frame, and so it serves as much more efficient and organized reference material. I would recommend this to anyone having jitters over how to care for an infant. Leave a copy with the grandparents while you're at it.

We chose a pediatrician, with whom I'm very comfortable. She is young, personable, and very customer service friendly thus far. This is another thing I didn't know anything about - interviewing pediatricians. Thankfully, med school/resident friends provided me with a list of questions to ask in addition to the standard Google search. Yeah for people who will be future doctors! The MD guys at school definitely took special interest in my pregnancy, which I found kind of endearing actually.

The most common advice I get is some what annoying: Enjoy your sleep now while you can! Ha. Ha. Ha. What are these people talking about?? I can not possibly sleep well when my hips/back/bladder are behaving this way. Sleep is not very enjoyable right now, but I do believe this is nature's boot camp preparation. See how well you can function on 3 hours of very light sleep? Now multiply that times a hundred, and you might survive the first month of parenthood. Maybe.

The room is basically done at this point; the curtains are in the process, and I need to hang some last prints (yeah for outsourcing!), but I'm happy with the overall effect. It's more eclectic than a standard baby-themed room, but it makes me happy to be in there, so I figure until she is old enough to have a decorating opinion, we will decorate how we like it. The glider is the only thing we are missing (turns out we ordered it a little late), but we have a rocker on loan until it completes the room. I will post photos then!

As the last month comes to a close, I wonder if I will be at all sad not to be pregnant any more. All things considered, I had a relatively easy and painless pregnancy. I have been very lucky and grateful for the hand I have been dealt through out this process so far. Either way, I can't wait to meet the little Raspberry. So Wombling, whenever you decide to make your grand entrance, and you decide to stop testing my patience, I will be the really happy and emotional one smiling at you.