Author: Becky

No baby yet.

But that’s probably a good thing.

With another snowstorm forecast this week. (My mom’s flight today was cancelled due to the weather, so she will be flying in on Saturday.)

Despite my complete lack of enthusiasm for yet another snowstorm, there’s something infectious about the laughter of a 20-month-old boy looking out the window first thing in the morning, shout-giggling with delight, “‘NOOOO! [snow]”

And with both kids coming down with the stomach flu this week–well, that’s not exactly something you want to share with a newborn. So despite the ridiculous contractions and the shooting hip pains, I suppose it’s good to be almost 39 weeks pregnant.

I will spare you the flu-details, and just say: it has not been a fun week.

• LOTS of mopping (why did she think it would be a good idea to take off the diarrhea-underwear in her room and march naked and crying to the bathroom??)
• MANY loads of laundry (there was THAT much food in the little tummy?? and honey, why did you give her milk when she’s sick?)
• EXTRA baths for the kids (My poor poor poor children, it is so pitiful to see them in their beds with their hair covered with . . . well, you know!) . . .So it has been a busy week, though I haven’t felt like I’ve accomplished much outside of my clean-up duty.

Really, if extra activity were going to bring on labor, I should have delivered several times this week!

Mara’s after-dinner commentary tonight: “Throw up is made possible by consipations [contributions] to this PBS station by viewers like you.”

Thank you, viewers!

Does this say we’ve experienced too much stomach flu? or watched too much PBS kids?

Mara is convinced that my belly button (now an ‘outie’) is in actuality her baby sister’s nose. “What’s this?” she asked me one afternoon.

“It’s my belly button,” I told her. “It’s sticking out because my little girl keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

Mara countered, “Mayyyybe, it’s her nose!” Then she was suddenly convinced, declaring confidently, “It’s her nose!”

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Mara will randomly call out, “Heeeere comes another contraction!”

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When friends come over, she will inform them: “Mommy’s p’gesterone shots are all gone now!”

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Apparently, she overheard me talking about my due date buddy’s water breaking on the way to the hospital. But clearly she didn’t understand what we were talking about. At prayer time before bed tonight, Mara requested, “Let’s pray about Donna’s glass that broke.”

“Donna’s glass?” I asked.

“Yes! Her glass of water. That broke!”

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. . .

Mara is learning about money.

Her South Dakota grandparents sent her a little birthday money, and we gave her several options of things she could do with it. She decided to split it and get a pink frosted donut with sprinkles at Dunkin Donuts and one of the Polly-Pockets-sized Tinkerbell dolls at ToysRUs. We haven’t made it to ToysRUs yet, since I’ve been on bedrest. But Daniel took her to Dunkin Donuts to buy her donut, and being the big three-year-old that she is, she gave the money to the lady all by herself.

A couple nights ago, we ordered Chinese food, and Daniel took her with him to the ATM to get cash.

She’s learning that everything costs something. That paying money is how you make things happen.

But there are still things money can’t buy, and she hasn’t figured that out yet.

After work today, Daniel took the kids for a walk in the stroller. They went to Park with Benches, but the kids couldn’t really do anything because everything is still so cold and snowy.

When they came back, I asked her if she got to play at the park. She said no, they just rode in the stroller.

Then she added, “We need to pay money to get the winter closed up, so kids can run and play and not wear long sleeves.”

If that were possible, after nearly four feet of snow in the past couple of weeks, I’m sure most of our city would be willing to chip in!