35 weeks 2 days

Hello, my poor little neglected blog. Let's see if I remember how this thing works.

First things first: I did not go into labor last night and I am not in labor this morning! Of this I am reasonably certain! Now, you ask, why are you even announcing this, since you are not due for weeks? Because. Last night, Matt and Suzannah and I went out to dinner with Kyanne and her husband, and the last time we made actual concrete plans to do this together, husbands in tow, we wound up having the following conversation late in the afternoon:

Me: Yeah, so, I'm feeling really tired and uncomfortable. Do you think we could maybe meet somewhere closer to home? I don't know if I can handle a car ride all the way to Tacoma.
Kyanne: Uh, do you want to maybe just not go?
Me: No, I can go, I think, I just don't think I want to be that far away from home.
Kyanne: Are you SURE? Maybe we can just go another time?
Me: Well...maybe.

And a few hours later I was on all fours in the hallway, in very active labor with Suzannah. For the record, her husband totally called that I would go into labor that night, and last night when I told Matt we'd be meeting them, he called on his way and said, "Oh, by the way? DON'T GO INTO LABOR YET."

And I didn't. I wasn't even unreasonably uncomfortable. We had a very pleasant evening at this wonderful little Greek restaurant in Kent, something I wanted to do while it's still relatively easy to hop in the car and go out for dinner if we feel like it...because I know those days are numbered. (And no, I'm not exactly planning to become a shut-in or anything, but right now all I have to do is say, "Okay, Zannah-pants, get your shoes on!" and we're gone. It's nice. And don't ask me why I call my daughter Zannah-pants, because I don't really know.)

Suzannah was an absolute ham all night. More than usual. She stayed up way too late, which meant that she slept in she woke us up about forty-five minutes before we normally have to haul her out of bed on weekdays. Charming how that works.

We've been asking her if she thinks we're having a baby girl or a baby boy, since everyone always says the siblings just intuitively know. Mostly, she announces that she wants a baby girl (is this the same thing as knowing we're having one, or is she just putting in her request?) but the other morning she switched it up and said, "Um...a baby boy." That afternoon, she flung her hands up in the air and said, "I don't know!"

Perhaps we're bugging her too much.

So anyway, things are going well. I have a nice stash of prefold diapers and covers washed up and ready to go, and this weekend my plan is to get some kind of storage for them. We haven't bought any of the pocket diapers I want yet, but I think the prefolds will last us nicely for the first several weeks at least (and really as long as we need or want them to). My other plan this weekend is to get everything packed for the birth center, since, as I recall, we hadn't packed a thing when I went into labor with Suzannah. Of course, that also means that I already know I don't need a lot of stuff, so this shouldn't be so difficult. (I always laughed at the "suggested" list of things to pack that you find in mainstream pregnancy books and magazines. Really? Reading material? Thank-you cards? Anyway, if all goes well, we'll only be at the birth center for a few hours after the birth, so I won't have to worry about killing time there.)

Matt has taken over all the vacuuming for the next couple of weeks; my midwife suggested that I take it easy at least until I hit full-term at 37 weeks. Which, incidentally, is twelve days from now, or Thanksgiving Day. I don't particularly feel that labor is imminent or anything, and I'm more than happy to be pregnant as long as this baby needs me to be, but Suzannah was born right around 37 weeks so I feel like I should at least try to prepare myself for that.

I'm going to go right ahead and admit that it's hard for me to relinquish control of the vacuuming. Matt told me I'd just have to lower my standards (yeah, that helped me relax), but he's actually been really wonderful about taking on far more than his share of the chores around here. Then again, he informed me that he doesn't envy me, being the one to carry and birth our baby, so I guess it all evens out in the end.