Pregnancy Q&A take 2

I'm just going to jump right in:

1. How are you feeling?
I'm not sure anyone who asks a woman in her 9th month of pregnancy how she is feeling really wants to hear the answer. My generic answer is "uncomfortable." My main complaint is that my hands and feet hurt from the extra fluid and blood I'm carrying around. Did you know that a pregnant woman's blood volume increases by 50%? or that a pregnant woman has about 3-4 pounds of extra fluid, NOT amniotic fluid or anything associated with the baby ... just extra fluid ... just because. Thankfully the swelling is normal and not a sign of pre-eclampsia which is probably because Christopher has been forcing encouraging me to eat enough protein. Note to self: when you take your husband to pregnancy/birth classes, he's going to become an encyclopedia of pregnancy, labor and birth knowledge. (Lots of protein in a pregnant woman's diet is proven to drastically reduce the risk of per-eclampsia - and several other things, ask Christopher is you are interested.)

2. Are you ready? 
This is a loaded question since I don't have a real good idea of what life will be like with a baby. But the baby's room is all set up, we feel like we have an idea of what to expect during labor, we know who will take care of Loki and I have a bag half-packed on our bedroom floor.

But there is more to it than that. We'll leave the hospital with an infant - our infant - who can't do anything for him/herself.  Every so often one of us asks the other "how to you ____ (bathe a baby, for example)?" There's a lot about babies that we don't know and while we know we'll figure it out, we also know there will be a learning curve ... and that grandmas and the internet will be there to help. 

This question is usually followed up with the statement of "you'll be great parents" or something to that effect. The truth is, though, parenting probably wont come naturally. Like anything that involves self-sacrifice and another person, we will make mistakes and we will learn from those mistakes. In the same way that it takes work to have a good marriage, we are committed to do the work it takes to be good, responsible parents for our child.

3. When are you due? - or - You look like you've dropped. - or - Any day now, right?
Ugg. Baby's due date is Oct. 6th, next Sunday. And yes, I have dropped and yes, it should be any day now. But it may not be. It could be two weeks from today. And 14 days is a long time to think that you could have a baby today. Statistically, more first time moms go late than go early. As much as I'd love to have this baby TODAY, I keep reminding myself that I'll probably still be pregnant on my due date. We are in the midst of planning some fun things for the weekend so we don't just sit around and wait.

4. You still don't know the gender?
Nope, and yes, Christopher still does know the gender. =) Everyone (and I mean everyone - even my patients and people at the store) who sees me has an opinion ... boy/girl, low/high ... I don't really know how they make the determination. It makes more sense to me that the way one carries a baby has to do with the mother's body and if the baby is her first or subsequent and how the baby is positioned inside.  Almost all the unsolicited opinions say boy. I made a baby pool (you can go here to make guesses) and our family and friends lean very slightly towards the boy side too. I guess we'll all know soon.

in the nursery

Well, that's it. Either there will be a baby picture up soon or an update about the plan on how to encourage baby to come out!