40 Weeks!!!

Today I am 40 weeks pregnant.

What a journey it has been. Looking back, I can't believe the time has come for baby girl to make her appearance . . . but at the same time it has been a loong 9 months, too.

I have been so, so lucky during this pregnancy. Lucky to get pregnant at all. Lucky to not face any major complications along the way. Lucky to feel so good the entire time. Lucky to have such an amazing man by my side to pamper me and read to me and learn with me and dream with me. I cannot wait to make him a father in the newest, realest sense of the word. I cannot wait to see him hold his daughter in his arms.

Last weekend was our last weekend together as just a couple, as just us, a pair of high school sweethearts who, for the last 13 years, have only known what it's like to have each other. It was the ending of an era. A wonderful era. We definitely took full advantage of the occasion. We played Boggle like we used to (I won but only by 5 points . . . it's amazing how close we always are in that game!). We went and saw a movie (9 . . . amazing animation, but a bit darker than I was anticipating). We went out to dinner (Chuy's burrito topped with Boom-Boom sauce . . . delish!). We went for walks and talked and remembered our time together and looked forward with excitement to what this week would bring us. We went to bed on Sunday night, looking each other in the eyes and saying, "Can you believe we are going to have a BABY this week?!?!"

Our 40-week appointment was this morning, and it brought with it a new and fun experience: we got hooked up to the fetal monitors and got to actually see the contractions happen. I had been having contractions all weekend, but they weren't painful . . . just periods of tightness across my belly. In fact, at first I thought baby girl was just pushing OUT very forcefully. It took a while for me to realize my stomach was in fact pushing IN. The fetal monitor showed a visual of each contraction, making a pattern of small mountains across the printout. I think it really helped TH connect with the experience, since he can't really feel them come and go the way I can.

We found out I had made more great progress over the week, and the doctor gave me only a 5-10% chance of making it until Friday, my scheduled induction day. We picked Friday because he will only let me go one week overdue, and it seemed easier for family and friends to come visit over the weekend than if we induced on a Monday. I knew all about stories of progress only to have baby not come for weeks and weeks, so I wasn't really getting my hopes up too high . . . plus this doc had no idea how stubborn the women in my family (even if they're babies) can be! While I hoped baby girl would come on her own in the next few days, I also planned on Friday being the day.

I went to work. I think I made my boss thoroughly anxious by being there. I assured her I would not go into labor while at work, though the more constant contractions I started feeling all day made me wonder if something was, in fact, happening. TH and I went out to dinner on a "due date." We walked around our neighborhood. We packed our hospital bag. Though the contractions were becoming more uncomfortable and uniform, I managed to fall asleep to the sound of him reading our weekly chapter out of our Pregnancy Week by Week book.

I awoke to a contraction. Typically able to sleep through pain, I tried to relax. An hour later another. 20 minutes later another. TH heard me moan in my sleep and tried to make me comfortable. Eventually I just got up. 1:45 in the morning the day after my due date, I started timing contractions. Real contractions. And they were coming about every 3-4 minutes and lasting about a minute. And they've stayed consistent for more than an hour.

So here I am. I am excited. Anxious. Nervous to take this too seriously and have it be a false alarm. Scared to get my hopes up and have it not pan out just yet.

Hoping against hope that this IS it. That the time has come. That in only hours I will get to meet my daughter, get to hold her in my arms, get to kiss her cheek and marvel at her hair and cry at the miracle of it all.

40 weeks. What an amazing milestone. What an amazing day.