Not Yet

Okay, if you're checking by here to see if I'm in labor, no, I'm not. Today is my due date, and I seriously think that if this baby gets any lower she'll be hanging between my knees, but nothing yet. I thought I was starting labor between 5 & 7pm two evenings ago, but then it stopped.

The California contingent of my family is officially all out of state as of today - Mom and Dad flew out this morning to the East Coast for my oldest niece's high school graduation next Tuesday, and my sister and brother-in-law have already been there for nearly a week. They were all loathe to go knowing that I'll most likely have the baby while they're gone, but whaddaya gonna do. I think it was important for them all to go to my niece's graduation. She has always lived across the country from us so we haven't been able to watch her grow up, and I think that makes it especially important for them to go celebrate this milestone with her. Plus, she will remember them all being there for her special day, whereas the baby will not remember a single thing about her birth, much less who was around to come see her right after she was born.

We DO have some exciting news around our house today, though - we FINALLY got our big, cushy, soft, luscious, huge new bed delivered! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I am SO excited. I'm washing tons of bedding today so we can sleep on it tonight. It is a California King and we have never had anything bigger than a double, if you can believe that, until now. Which means that all of the sheets and stuff are new too. I washed one set a couple weeks ago but let the others sit because it didn't look like we were getting the bed anytime soon. So today I've washed the second set and they're in the dryer, and the kick-ass waterproof mattress pad is in the washer, and after that I just need to wash the light blanket, and then we can make up the bed. Since I'm pregnant we have to make it with waterproofing in case my water breaks while I'm in bed, and since we're doing a homebirth we're double making it with waterproof pads under each set of sheets so that if my water does actually break in bed, or if I do part of my labor in the bed and the top set of sheets gets dirty, after the baby's born and it's time for bed or if I just want to get into bed afterward, which I imagine I will, our birth attendants will be able to just strip off the top set of sheets/plastic and the bed will already be made with a fresh set.

Whee...

Anyway - Sweet Pea is absolutely thrilled with the new bed and that we now have a bed big enough for Daddy to sleep in with us too. So tonight all three of us will snuggle in there together. Yay! When the baby's born she will sleep in a co-sleeper snugged up to my side of the bed, like Sweet Pea did for her first 9 months of life.

Well, even though we have made it to my due date and finally gotten the big bedroom clean enough to have the new bed delivered, we still have a bunch of work to do. More boxing up of stuff in the big bedroom (the bed's in there with two computer desks and a book rack - doesn't exactly look or feel like a bedroom yet, and our bedroom furniture & all our clothes are still in the smaller room), even more gathering of birth supplies, and preparation of notes to family, etc. about how to operate the washer and dryer, what Sweet Pea likes to eat (not much!), and very important things like Sweet Pea's OCD yogurt smoothie ritual. Gotta let Grandma know about that in advance so we don't have a screaming Sweet Pea while I'm in labor. ha ha!

Just for kicks, here's how the yogurt smoothie ritual goes:

Adult opens refrigerator.
Sweet Pea selects yogurt smoothie from bottom shelf in fridge door.
Sweet Pea goes and kneels on bench at kitchen table.
Sweet Pea shakes yogurt smoothie.
Sweep Pea hands bottle to adult.
ADULT DOES NOT SHAKE YOGURT SMOOTHIE!
Adult unscrews bottle cap and removes foil cover from top of bottle, then lets go of bottle.
Sweet Pea picks up bottle and slowly and carefully, by herself, pours yogurt smoothie into cup (she's actually very good at this - I only had to tell her once that she had to pour it slowly and carefully so she didn't spill, and she hasn't spilled since).
Sweet Pea picks up lid and attempts to put it on cup.
Adult is usually permitted to hold cup while Sweet Pea is pouring smoothie, and to help put lid on cup if it is a snap-on type. Otherwise, if we're using a screw-on lid, she puts it on by herself.

This is her most OCD ritual so far, though other things do come up from time to time, and it has become really important to her to at least attempt doing most things by herself. I'm thrilled to have her doing stuff by herself and feeling so excited and proud about it. Very good timing. Now if she'll just decide it's time to potty train.