The Waiting is the Hardest Part

So we're down to two weeks (or there abouts) with the whole baby thing. My actual due date is two days from tomorrow, but close enough. And all I can say is that these last few days have been the hardest in my pregnancy so far. I am a little uncomfortable, but that's not what is making this hard. It's hard because I've always struggled a lot with patience and I'm really ready for Cate to just be here. At this point, she's fully developed and would be considered full term if she was born (even if she came before her due date). Right now she's pretty much just putting some meat on herself and trying to get a little bigger.

Going back to teaching after two weeks off for Christmas was a nice distraction this week, but this morning is when it really started to hit me. It is a beautiful sunny January day (cold, but not too bad) outside. And I was bored out of my mind. If I weren't pregnant, I would've killed the boredom with a run or at least a long walk (with coffee in hand). Or maybe headed out to Perfect North to ski. Or taken my rock climbing gear over to Climb Time with Eric for a few hours (I'm dying to use it again since I only got to use it a handful of times before my waistline started expanding and climbing was temporarily out). Skiing and running are out right now for obvious reasons too and a long walk for me anymore is about a mile or so before I start to get pretty winded. And even then I'm going at a pretty slow pace.

Now I realize that once Cate gets here, I won't have time to do these things either. And while I'm in recovery mode after delivery, most activity is going to be pretty limited anyway. The difference is that Cate will actually be here. I'll have her to keep me busy. I'm so excited for her to be here and I hate being in this limbo period where there's not much I can do to occupy my time (trust me, I even already made the pages of a mini-scrapbook for her so all I have to do is fill it with pictures and captions once she gets here). Waiting for her to come, knowing labor could start in 2 hours, 2 days, or 2 weeks, is by far the worst part of the pregnancy thus far (although there weren't really many bad parts...I was lucky in that regard).

Next weekend we have at least a few more things (tentatively) planned. There's a huge TNT Alumni party on Friday night and we're getting together with some of the people Eric went to Tucson with on Saturday night. It might be enough to distract me. And the weekend after that is the weekend I'm due. There is definitely a part of me that wishes she would just come now and a part of me that understands I need to be patient and wait for her to come into the world on her own time. I've got the rest of my life to enjoy her and I need to be looking for the joy in these last few hours, days, or weeks, that it's just Eric and I at home. So I'm praying for patience (along with labor to not start while I'm teaching...so between 7am and 12:40 Monday through Friday). Cate will be here soon enough and I know my life will never be the same once she comes.

~Melody