Week 39: Waiting

Nothing much to report here. Actually, week 39 starts tomorrow - Monday - but I'm impatient. It'd be great if the baby came early since Cristiano is working much less during this extended holiday period. There are about four or five Catholic holidays here between Dec. 24 and Jan. 6. Cristiano officially goes back to work on Jan. 7, which is my due date. If the baby arrives after that time, he will not have as much time to spend with us. Oh well. It's out of our hands. I had planned on overloading the system with raspberry tea, spicy foods and - if need be - castor oil in order to encourage the baby to come out, but I've been sick, so it's actually probably better that I haven't gone into labor. I had a nasty cold that turned into an ear infection, and I still have a bad cough after three weeks.

A midwife came last week to check me out and she told me that everything looks fine. The baby's head as of last week was "fully engaged," so I guess that's a good thing. I am starting to go a bit stir crazy in the house. It's bitterly cold outside, and I have a bad cough and can't do much of anything. I feel enormous and sedentary. I'd give anything to go to the gym or take a long power walk. Yet, all I can do is sit here and wait...It looks like baby will not make it for 2007. Happy New Year!

Week 37: Crampy

Hi, we are still here. I had my last gynecolgist visit on Friday. She said there's nothing more to be checked out so all we do now is sit pretty and wait. If I'm still here in this condition on January 7, daily fetal monitoring begins. And then induction follows soon after that. I hope it doesn't come to that. I would welcome the early arrival of the baby. I'm not good at sitting around and waiting. There's been too much sitting in this pregnancy. I feel like a human incubator/human Baby Bjorn. I need my body back and the baby needs to get here so he can try out his super cool top-of-the-line swing thing that I'm going to buy him for Christmas. It's time for he and I to be two separate entities, much as we love each other.

Not sure if this is TMI, but we are all friends here, so I think I can tell you that I've been feeling really crampy since Saturday. Crampy and with a backache. Something is happening "down there," and the one thing I'm sure of is that it's not my period that is coming! Even though that's how it feels. What does this mean?

Since I am going to have three weeks with no doctor's visit, I've opted to have a midwife come to the house next week for a pre-labor pep talk with Cristiano and I. She's Italian but worked in England for several years, and a friend recommended her as someone who is full of tips and useful information. She said that in England she went around doing house calls like this as there it is common practice for a woman to be treated by a midwife throughout pregnancy as opposed to a doctor. In any case, she will also check the baby's heartbeat, measure him and let me know what position he's in, etc. If the baby is still stubbornly hanging around in there next week, I'm going to go into full-on natural labor inducement mode. Raspberry tea, long walks, hot chili pepper on all my food. Whatever it takes. Well, I'll keep you updated. Keep checking your email...

Week 36: I don't embroider

But my neighbor is pretty handy with a needle. In fact, she gave us a bag cross-stitched with Dylan's name to take to the hospital for his clothing and things. I was supposed to embroider his first and last name in his clothes (they want four pairs of pajamas and four bodysuits) but I put it on with handwritten computer labels. Apparently the nurses keep his clothes and they are the ones who change him, so the whole labeling procedure is to avoid confusion. And there is also a problem with theft in Italian hospitals, so hopefully we will avoid any ugliness of that kind.Above are his computer-labeled clothing items.

They tell you to bring a "small bag" to the hospital but then they make you bring everything from your own toilet paper to towels to maxi-pads, nipple cream, diapers for the baby and much more. I still don't have half of what I need to bring and have no idea how I will fit all of this along with my pajamas and toiletries into a "small bag."

When we come home from the hospital, we will hang this outside our house on the front gate. Usually you just hang a pink or blue ribbon. But the above was also a gift from our cross-stitch happy neighbor. It says "Dylan was born."

Four more weeks. Maybe more. Hopefully less. I currently have some kind of nasty throat infection and a fever so this weekend would not be a good time for his arrival. I have my final visit for the epidural on Dec. 14 so any time after that would be perfect. We are ready to meet our bambino!