Well, my son is due this month. He's due the very end of the month, which means that if I'm like the average first time mom, he'll actually be born in the first week of July or so (I keep reading that the average gestation for first timers is 41 weeks, 1 day, which I think would put his debut on July 8th). But his due date is on the current calendar page, so it counts! And I'm allowed to be excited. :)
This week, I had my first exam where I was checked to see if I'm getting ready for labor, and without going into any gory details at all (you're welcome), I'll say that the doctor guesses I may not make it until my due date at all. This seems a little odd to me, because I haven't been plagued with the Braxton-Hicks contractions I keep hearing other mothers complain about...in fact, to my knowledge, I've only had one, and it was more of an, "oh so *that's* what they feel like!" experience than a "dear God in heaven, how will I live through 20+ hours of these?!?" one. I always just assumed that those contractions would be obvious, but I learned in labor and delivery class yesterday that many moms never feel them at all. I appear to be in the lucky not feeling them subgroup, and let me tell ya, I'm not complaining. Nope nope. ;)
The idea of possibly going early does have me a little freaked out, though, for a few reasons. One, I've got this magic 38 weeks number stuck in my head. At 38 weeks (June 16th or later), he's full term, should be fully developed, and should be completely ready for his debut. Right now I'm 36 weeks, 2 days. Little buddy needs at least 12 more days of cooking time, and if laying in traction for all that time would help that along, I'd do it!
Secondly, there are more days in June that it would be inconvenient for my family and friends for me to give birth than there are good days, and the bad days are clustered at the beginning of the month.
Let's see if I can figure this out. Well, first off, Matthew is in MBA school, which meets every Saturday, so all Saturdays in June are out. (5th, 12th, 19th, 26th). The 12th is out twice over, because I am supposed to be babysitting my 7 month old niece all day that day. On the 7th, my husband has his expectant fathers class to attend at the hospital. On the 8th I have the baby shower his workplace is throwing for me and another lady who is married to one of his colleagues. On the 9th, Matthew is helping teach a CLE credit (one of those classes that lawyers have to take to keep their licenses active). And I may as well throw today, the 6th, the 10th, and the 11th in there because the guy who is coming to stay with us after I give birth has work to finish in his lab before he can drive down for the big event.
Skipping to the next week, my brother and his wife are going to Las Vegas the 15th-18th, and on the 15th I have an appointment with the pediatrician I'd like to use for our son. The 19th-21st are bad, because my sister's new clinic (she's a nurse practitioner) is opening on the 21st, and she'll need the days running up to it to get everything ready. And anyway, the 20th is bad, because it's a) Father's Day, and b) my dad is holding a big family cookout at his house that day.
By my count that leaves me with the 13th, the 14th, the 22nd-25th, and the 27th-30th. Ten days out of 30.
I suspect that if Locke comes in June, he will be disobliging to at least one of his relatives, eh? ;)
There are days in the beginning of July that are likewise bad (a poker party and a 4th of July party to start with) but I'm not even going to think about those times unless I'm overdue. Screw July. ;)
Labor and delivery class was another good one. I expected a lot of gory videos, and while, yes, we did watch a video of a lady giving birth, I reacted to it differently than I expected. I thought I'd get a bit grossed out, to be honest...never been a big fan of the TMI ;). But actually watching it made me teary eyed. Pregnancy hormones are ever unpredictable, eh? All I could think about was giving birth to Locke, and how special that was going to be. So now I've had a sneak preview into what I'm going to be like, five seconds post partum...I'm gonna be a weeper. ;) Good thing Matthew was with me...he has been warned. ;)
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