41 weeks

I don't know how to turn the counter off, but it should stop today at 41 weeks. I've been awake since 4.15. The alarm will go off at 5.45 to get us up so that we can start getting ready to go to the hospital. I need to be there at 7.30 to start the process. Luckily we can drop the kids off at daycare at 6.30 so we have plenty of time to make the drive up 395 to Alexandria.

It is still hard to believe that later today Maximilian will be here.

Yesterday was a really nice day. It was great to have a little extra time to spend with Mark. And we had a low key day of doing little things around the house. And then Mark took us all out to dinner at Red Robin to celebrate our last night as a Family of Four. After today, there will be 5 of us. It just doesn't seem real. But yet with Max kicking around, I know it must be true. :)

One last day...

I decided to start my maternity leave today. That gives me today to rest and nap. And also to try to finish nesting. There are things I would like to get done. But on the other hand, if all I do is nap then that will be good enough as well. Mark agreed to stay home with me today too. Which is nice, because I feel very emotionally needy at the moment and I didn't really want him to not be where I was. So today is our last day to be at home by ourselves. Tomorrow morning we will go to the hospital and Max will be born. It seems more than a little scary to know that such a big change is coming. I guess it says something about pregnancy that I can be almost 41 weeks pregnant and still in some sort of denial about a baby being the end result of all of this. :)

I'm glad to have this day of rest to get prepared.

Unless he decides to show up today. Which would be fine by me. :)

Questions kids ask...

I will try not to be disturbed by seeing that I am 40 weeks and 4 days pregnant... I know it it be true, but it isn't necessarily nice to see it in black and white...

Julian had some fun questions for me this morning:
This morning Julian said he is worried that it isn't safe for me to be home alone. Max might come and no one would be here. I told him Matt is home and lives nearby or I could call 911 or I could call Mark. He asked how far Mark's office was and I said 15-20 min and he said that wasn't bad.

He thinks Max will have hazel eyes like me and hopes Max will have dark hair like he does. He said he doesn't want to dye his hair. I said that was fine. He asked if people could have different color hair. We talked about Mark's hair being black and white but that mostly people have hair that is one color. I also told Julian that Max will most likely have blue eyes when he is born but they might change.

Julian also wanted to know if I would immediately be skinny again. I told him I would immediately be skinnier by the size of Max but that it would take a while for me to go back to my previous size. He seemed content with that answer. Funny enough he asked this question before I accidentally bumped into him with my belly during teethbrushing time.

There were some other general questions too. He asked about Max coming on Thursday. I said he would come on Thursday because the hospital would give me some medicine to help him come out. And that he needs to come out then because the placenta is what keeps Max healthy and it wouldn't necessarily do a good job after Thursday. He seemed content with that. And he asked if Max would come before then and I told him we didn't know. We just knew it would be no later than Thursday.

Still waiting...

The weekend was good. No contractions to speak of, but plenty of kicking from Max. We are making our plans with the assumption that Max will not arrive until Thursday. He might still surprize us. But we are planning for Thursday. My folks should be able to get the kids on Friday afternoon and watch them for us for the weekend until Max and I get discharged from the hospital. Mark will be staying with us the whole time.

Feeling sick...

Last Sunday I was really sick and we were hopeful that it was a sign Max was coming soon. It wasn't. Today I am feeling really sick again. And again hopeful that it is a sign that Max will arrive soon.

I am happy to report that I can now breathe through my nose sometimes. Not all the time. But sometimes. And that is a huge improvement.

I am feeling better about having a date for being induced. It is good to know that no matter what Max will be out by this time next week. And we are working on plans to deal with Nik and Julian over the weekend if Max comes early. If we make it to Monday without having Max then we are back to relying on kindercare and school to take care of the kids for the bulk of the day. That makes me feel much better, since I am worried about asking too much of my friends who are willing to take care of the kids while we are at the hospital.

I'm going to try to rest and relax as much as possible today to see if I can start feeling better. Being very still seems to help. I got the kids off to kindercare so there is no where else I need to go today. So there is no need to move off the couch unless I want to. I can sit here with my laptop on my lap and be productive.

Induction Scheduled

Max was given his eviction notice today. If he doesn't choose to make a move on his own, I will be induced at 7.30am on Thursday. The nice thing about 3/27 is that it is our 5 month wedding anniversary. The bad thing is that it is a week from now. And he has done absolutely nothing to try to move out on his own. He's happy where he is. His head isn't even fully engaged yet. No dilation. No effacement. Nothing. He is just not ready to move out.

Maybe Charlotte is right. He's enjoying the cheesey pie too much and knows he won't get to have any for a long time after he is born.

So hard to know...

It is so hard to know if the contraction-like sensations I am feeling are real or Braxton Hicks. They are happening more and more frequently and they are lasting for longer periods of time. So maybe I am starting to have Max. But then again, I have had other cramp-like contraction-like sensations over the past few weeks and they were all nothing. So I don't know. But it is possible that Max has decided to make an entrance tomorrow and he is gearing up now. I'd like to think that my son would inherit some of my traits. Although I perhaps didn't want obsessive schedule obedience to be the key trait. :) I assume that Max will look mostly like Mark, since Mark's first two kids look so much like him. But I won't know until I see Max. And even then his looks could change in the first few months. My white-haired nephew was born with black hair. I was born with very dark hair. My brother had black hair. And we all have light colored hair now (although mine is only "golden" because of M. David and the magic of boxes of hair dye).

So in summary, it is possible that I am actually feeling real contractions. Also possible that it is all fakery on the part of my body. Just tormenting me with my lack of control and lack of information. :)