Week 40, Day 1 - and so we continue on...

Here we are, Black Friday! And I have officially reached my due date. It feels great, it feels like from here on out, because I am ALWAYS late, I can officially know that it could be "any time."

Weigh-in this morning was 158 which in retrospect, I can hardly believe...that still seems like such a low number to me! For full term pregnancy, I mean - I think once you lose a good amount of weight, sometimes that number still shocks you. Having gone through 5 pregnancies of mostly seeing the 190 number at the end of the pregnancy and having to work SUPER HARD for like 6 months to even SEE the 140-150's, it is very strange to be AT the 150's full term. And yet, here I am!

All my hard work has paid off, I suppose - I haven't eaten nearly as well with this pregnancy as I did the last 2, but I was more conscious of not overeating/lower calories (although not restricting or fasting) and I also did not eat meat hardly at all. So evidently, that worked! Probably also my craving oatmeal often in the past month has worked to my favor there too.

Total weight gain is 31 pounds.

We had a bit of excitement on Monday night - I was at our church and felt little squirts of liquid...hmmm...it was enough to soak my underwear but not volumes and loads of it. Knowing how quickly labor can kick in once your water breaks and with MY history of having my last baby on the freeway...we quickly gathered up the kids, raced home to pack, and RAN to the birthing center. My water has never broken before being in transition before so I had no idea what to expect or if that was even what had happened!

And in all fairness, contractions (though quite mild, normal braxton hicks-type) were coming steadily at 2-3 minutes apart for an hour.

Yet, everything stopped - we spent the night (blah - that's been my worry that we'd do THAT again and come home with no baby!) and in the morning, packed up and went home. It's obviously better to be safe than sorry, and we are SUPER thankful for Elmina, Lucy, and Rachel who all kicked in and were huge helps when we needed them.

I feel completely confident that I can birth the baby alone if I need to, and honestly if DH had rest & peace about it, I would 100% give birth in my own bedroom. I LOVE my room and it is like an oasis to me now, so so so beautiful and dreamy blue/white, serene and CLEAN. =)

It was determined that most likely it was just the outer sac of amniotic fluid that leaked a bit, and ever since then there has been no more leaking. My midwife thinks the baby's head is probably firmly corking the leak.

Right away we started getting concerned family members advising us to get induced due to infection worries - and not having ever had this happen to me before, I have been trying not to give in to fear about what could happen. After talking to my midwife at length I am okay with waiting - and also giving this baby to God and knowing that HE has been in control from the very beginning. It still doesn't help though to hear about babies dying from infection after the water breaks, and every time my baby moves I rejoice. Weird feeling, all around.

I have not been checked for cirvical dilation at all - I HATE that, and don't feel it's necessary unless it's well, necessary. I don't care to know if I'm dilated or not - what difference does it make? I could be dilated to 4 and walk around for weeks, so to me it just makes me anxious that not enough is happening. Also, the risk of infection goes up each time I am checked so that works in my favor too.

You know what's weird though? I was so relieved when I came home, to just get in my bed and SLEEP. To watch my favorite tv show. To have normal life again. I know when the baby comes I'll be glad and ready, but it's such a huge change...everything gets turned upside down and we just thrive on normal schedules in our home. I think that feeling of being out of control of my home is frustrating for me for the long first 2 months. To delay the birth just a few days was kind of nice.

DH has been so sweet and helpful, he has taken over so much already and lets me rest when I need to, puts the kids to bed and prays with them, supervises the kitchen cleanup after dinner. I feel really cared for. =)