Welcome to the World, Anna Noel!

No, this is not our announcement.

This is not our little girl.

Just to be clear: No, I have not gone into labor!

In case there is any confusion: I’m STILL pregnant!!!

But my due date buddy, Donna, had her baby this morning! And I’m soooo happy for her.

Little Anna Noel was born at 38 weeks and weighed 5 lbs., 13 ozs, measuring 17.5 inches long. She entered the world at 12:50 AM, just 20 minutes after Mom arrived at the hospital, already dilated 9.5 cm! (This is the kind of situation Daniel envisions every day. I had to laugh when Donna told me! Amazing to cut it sooo close, and yet to still make it to the hospital!)

Like me, Donna was dilated just 2 cm at her last appointment, and like me, with very frequent contractions, she kept wondering what would be “the sign” she was in labor. Her oldest was born premature (31 weeks) and with two months of bedrest, her second made it exactly full-term: 37 weeks to the day. So this little girl made it longer than either of Donna’s previous pregnancies!

Donna never thought she would still be pregnant at this point. In fact, their insurance is changing at the end of the month, and if Anna had been born in March, they would have to pay everything out of pocket. They didn’t think it would be an issue, since keeping the baby inside had always been the challenge with the previous two pregnancies. Having been out of town twice before when his wife went into labor, Donna’s husband, a pilot, had taken off work the previous three weeks in anticipation of the baby having already arrived. By this point, he wasn’t really able to take much more time off.

And here she was, 38 weeks along–and still pregnant!–so yesterday she spent an hour working out and then she drank castor oil mixed with juice, in the hopes of delivering soon.

That did the trick! (I’m soooo tempted!!)

By 11 PM her contractions were quite strong. They called a friend to come stay with the boys, and then her contractions completely stopped for half an hour! Donna was frustrated, with someone on the way to watch the boys in practically the middle of the night. She asked her husband if they should just forget about going to the hospital, but he insisted.

Good thing he did! Donna’s water broke in the car on the way there–Donna screamed (her husband thought it was because of his driving! ha ha!) and they arrived at the hospital just 20 minutes before little Anna made her appearance.

So my due date buddy won! She beat me. And the best part is that both of us went full-term this time!

I’m trying to be content.

But I can’t wait. And I keep thinking, “Maybe that will be me later tonight–or this weekend. . .”

And then I hear the evil laughter of my other friend, Christina, saying, “Maybe you’ll be like me–and go two weeks overdue after all that bedrest! Ha ha ha!”

Yeah. Ha ha ha. . .