38 weeks, 6 days: Waiting!

Greetings, all ye in bloggerland!

This week I find myself in an odd circumstance - that of (mentally, at least) sitting around and waiting for labor to start. Weird! Last time I didn't really even think about it - labor took me by surprise. But this time, I find myself doing a bit of clock-watching. Not that I'm anxious for this pregnancy to end, but I am curious about labor and excited to meet baby - and it will be nice to be able to walk comfortably again!

A week ago this past Sunday, three separate people told me, "Oh, you've dropped!" I hadn't noticed anything (didn't notice last time either), but the fact that non-first-time moms aren't supposed to drop until labor has already started put me into a frenzy of baby preparation - a frenzy which, though unfounded, proved extremely useful in that it helped me to finally pound through the last main items on my pre-baby to-do list. Hurray!

So as of this past weekend, our birth supplies are finally ready, our baby things are cleaned and set up, and I'm pretty much ready to go. The house isn't completely unpacked, cleaned, or organized, but it's not bad - and I've given up on any idea of EVER having the house cleaned to my level of perfect satisfaction - at least until all the kids are out of the house, LOL! For me, at least, "perfect" baby preparation was possible only for baby #1 (when there wasn't another ex-baby running about making messes as I cleaned!). But considering that all of my baby preparation from last time went down the tubes as soon as baby was born (i.e. the perfectly clean house, etc.), I don't mind too much!

I have been having minor pre-labor symptoms for the past 5 days or so (upset tummy, mild menstrual-type cramps), and that again convinced me that labor was imminent - but upon research, I discovered that these types of things can mean that labor is either hours away - or weeks away! So we may have a post-due-date baby after all.

Anyhow, having everything at least semi-ready has meant that I can relax a bit and get some much needed sleep - what a relief! So I've been indulging in super-long naps and trying to get some extra rest - anything to build up a buffer for when little one arrives and destroys any semblance of long sleep-stretches!

A quick note - Upon randomly surfing one of my blogs a while ago, I discovered that I have been receiving email notification of only some blog comments. Some are emailed to me, and some are not! I have no idea why - but I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm not receiving all blog comments, though I do my best to review entries manually to find the lost comments.

And to close (as starving hubbie is home and wanting dinner), I wanted to share this fun video! (Facebook friends have already seen this... sorry for the repetition.) This is purely personal - nothing to do with HG, pregnancy, birth, etc. - this is my sister-in-law (she's the dark-haired one) doing a commercial with Fred Willard, and it's fun! My SIL has been working with Mr. Willard for several years now, but being that we haven't been able to make it out to California for their shows, this is the first time we've gotten to see them act together. So fun!!



Love to all!