Still Waiting.

Paisley was due on Saturday.  The way things worked out, it would have been a great day for her to be born--Jeff and I just had a pretty relaxing day.  She wasn't born, though.

40 weeks + 1 day

On Friday I had an appointment with my midwife.  Things are progressing.  We did a nonstress test, which was kind of interesting--I relaxed on the couch for 20 minutes while the machine measured the baby's heartbeat and my contractions, and continuously printed them on a graph.  My midwife told me all about some of the different things that show up on the graph--like, the graph makes kind of a V shape with a shoulder when the baby bumps her cord.  She said the nonstress test is my "taste" of the hospital experience.

Then, after my appointment with my midwife, I went up to Salt Lake Prenatal Massage for, well, a prenatal massage.  Even though Paisley is not stressed, I have been (mainly because of work), so Jeff offered to buy me a massage.  (Nice.)  I decided to go with a "labor stimulating" massage, which I was allowed to choose since I was past 39 weeks.  In case you're wondering what the difference is, with a regular massage, (if you're pregnant) the massage therapist avoids touching certain spots, because certain accupressure spots can start labor.  In a labor stimulating massage, they incorporate those accupressure spots into the massage on purpose, and they use special essential oils that are also known to encourage labor.  So, that happened.

The therapist also put dots on me so I could keep pressing the right places after the massage; the more I do that, the more likely it is to work.  I got three dots: one on my hand, on the web-area between my thumb and index finger; another dot not quite centered beneath my ankle; and the final dot was four fingers up from my ankle, on my calf.  I asked her if she knew how likely it was to do anything.  She said she didn't know; they didn't keep any kind of statistics, and people usually don't call to report back.  She said she knew there were at least like 4 or 5 ladies who went into labor the evening of the massage, and a lot more within the next few days.  Here's the thing though: only 4 or 5?  For a place that specializes in prenatal massage?  These are ladies that are already at least within a week of their due dates--some of them are already overdue--so, I would expect a bunch of them to go into labor with or without massages!  But, whatever, it was still a massage, and I was grateful for it.

That was Friday. 

Saturday was pretty relaxing.  Jeff and I went up to the new City Creek mall that evening to go walking.  I had a bunch of contractions, which resulted in nothing.

Sunday I also had a bunch of contractions that resulted in nothing.

People are starting to come up with some really clever jokes for me:
1. "You may have to name her Paisley July!"  I probably would have though this was funny a month ago or something, but now it just isn't.  First of all, July 1st is past 42 weeks, so it is very unlikely that she would actually be born that late, and if she was, we wouldn't be able to have a home birth anymore.  Second of all, suggesting that I might have to stay this uncomfortable for that long is really not funny at all.  It's kind of mean; although, I'm sure the people who have made this joke really just thought they were being funny.
2. "When are the babies due?"  Get it?  My belly is so big that now I must be having twins.  I think these sorts of comments are just because most pregnant ladies are not at the very end of their pregnancies since pregnancy lasts so long.  So, compared to ladies that are 4-7 months pregnant, I look big.  There are probably some full-term ladies that are smaller than me, and some that are larger, but I suspect I'm pretty average.

I try to remember that people are taking an interest in me and my pregnancy, and I can appreciate that, even if their jokes kind of bother me.  (I'm just being moody.)

I am tired of being pregnant.  I keep having contractions and thinking THIS COULD BE IT.  So I wait to see whether they intensify, and they never really do.  It's kind of frustrating to keep being disappointed.  Also, it makes life kind of hard to schedule.  And, it makes me feel like I don't know my body at all, since I just never know what's going on.

Now that it is getting to be summer, I feel like a sausage.  Or a marshmallow.  Or a balloon animal.  I am very puffy and swollen all the time.  I can't wear shoes anymore, which makes me feel excessively casual at church (and when I do property management work).  I also get awesome cramps that cause me to basically double-over in pain when I walk around.  That's great.  At least now that the baby dropped the heartburn has mostly gone away--that's an improvement.  So, I think all of the contractions and cramps indicate that my body is getting ready to have a baby, even if it keeps not having one.

Want to see our semi-complete nursery?  It's as complete as it is going to get for now.

In the lower left corner (the red thing), that's her swing.  Then right above that (the black thing with a white thing on it) is the pile of birth supplies--the black thing is the birthing tub, and my birth kit is on top of it.  Then, there's her crib, which has blankets in the drawer beneath it.  Next to the crib is the hamper and her dresser (which has newborn-3 month size clothes in it).  The baby bathtub is between the dresser and the changing table.  The changing table is my Baby Stuff Storage Station: it has our burp cloths, receiving blankets, breastfeeding stuff, diapering stuff, etc.  On the right side of the picture, there's the wet/dry bag for cloth diapering (which we're not starting yet), the diaper genie (which we'll use for a few months), a boppy and the glider.  So much baby stuff!

So, that's how things are.  Eventually I'll probably put things on the walls, and finish her curtains.

For now, please think nice thoughts about us having a baby sometime soon.