Probabilities, superstition, and squirmy tummies

As was my general prediction, no baby yet – I am hoping the baby comes soon, but so far have no signs of labor. We had an appointment with the obstetrician last Wednesday, and at that time it seemed like the baby was content to stay put for a bit, and we have another appointment tomorrow to see if anything has changed. Maybe, but my gut feeling is that things are pretty well the same. 

We found this handy calculator that gives probability of labor by date, given the due date. By these calculations, only half of first babies are born by their due dates. I am hoping to wait not longer than a week or maybe nine days, because apparently at ten days past due date they start suggesting induction. From what I hear, induced labor can be quite a bit more painful than spontaneous labor, so I have my fingers crossed for spontaneous labor sometime in the next week. We shall see.

In the meantime, our freezer is completely full (we count thirty-three nights worth of pre-made frozen dinners for me and Jeff, including potato-chard-cheddar pockets with potatoes and Swiss chard from the garden, homemade mac & cheese, enchiladas, calzone, lasagna, chili, lentil soup, lentil sweet potato curry, and a second kind of lentil soup with Swiss chard from the garden, plus over fifty chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, forty-seven muffins, and forty-five energy balls). From the perspective of having food ready, I don't think we could be more prepared. I have read multiple books related to sleep, breast-feeding, and what to expect in the first little bit after baby comes home. The only other bits of possible preparation include putting up some hooks to hold a laundry bag in the baby's room, and finishing knitting a little cardigan sweater I started for the baby. 

I am not usually particularly superstitious, but at the moment I feel like the baby will not come until I finish this sweater (and then who knows, the sweater may never actually fit). I am getting reasonably close, but still have hours worth of work to do on it. I was planning to spend a good deal of time knitting this weekend, but I can only do so much at one time without getting some pain in my right arm – I always have to be careful about how much I use my right arm, for everything from writing to mousing to knitting, because overuse can seriously exacerbate my neuropathic pain. So knitting on this sweater is a bit slow, and my superstitious side is telling me that means the baby isn't ready yet either.

I feel like my ability to function is getting to be less and less, and my stamina is lower and lower by the day. Last week I went to my prenatal aqua fit class twice, and that was fabulous– being in the water takes a lot of pressure off of joints and such. I am also still using the exercise bike and stretching on days when I don't go to aqua fit, and trying to get some kind of exercise in every day. Yesterday Jeff and I went for a bike ride on real bikes outside, and I think that might have been overdoing it for me. Today I woke up not feeling great and was on the verge of a migraine for a good part of the day. I feel a bit better now, but still not 100% of my already compromised energy level. So I think I have to really watch it and pay close attention to how I'm feeling so as not to overdo it again! I need all the energy I have for labor, whenever it happens to come.

It is becoming clear that the baby is becoming increasingly cramped for space in my belly. As big as my belly is (and it is quite big – most of my maternity shirts are now too small to cover my whole belly, even though they used to seem like it would be impossible to ever fill them completely) it is not really cutting it size-wise for this baby anymore. I am getting near constant pokes and jabs and waves of movement. I tried to take a video, and of course as soon as I started filming the baby quieted down, but if you look closely the first couple of seconds of this video show some good squirming:

You may have to watch it a few times to actually notice, but the squirming is more at the top. It just doesn't do justice to the weird movements that I feel and see all the time, where suddenly the left side of my belly will be sticking out, or it will be clear that there is a knee/leg poking out. It is now possible to tell by feel where the baby's back is, versus arms and legs. It's such a strange thing to think of a real baby squished into my belly, and I have taken to telling the baby that there doesn't seem to be enough room in there, and it needs to come out to where there is plenty of space to move around :-)