The End is Near

At nearly 38 weeks, I’m thankful to have officially reached a healthy ‘full-term’ pregnancy.  But since that ranges from 37-42 weeks and due dates are pretty arbitrary, it narrows down my expectations for baby to arrive somewhere between ‘any day now’ up to a month away!  That broad a timeline poses a challenge for control-freaks like myself, but in a way the element of surprise just adds more excitement to the whole experience.  Ivan & I have nested enough to feel generally prepared for a potential early arrival.  The bassinet is assembled, the homebirth supplies are organized, baby’s drawers are filled with plenty of hand-me-downs.  But if she decides to show up fashionably late, that’s okay with me too.  I’m just a few days away from mat leave and am working on the oh-so difficult goal of prioritizing rest and relaxation.  I had initially planned to keep Mariah home with me during my days before the next one arrives.  But then I remembered how extra tiring parenting can be when you’re pregnant.  Luckily Ivan has encouraged me to make the wise decision of continuing to drop Mariah to daycare on my days off so that they can be filled with pre-natal massages, reading, sleeping, or whatever it is I feel like doing.  Obviously, it didn’t take him long to convince me of that plan – but he did rid me of any guilt about losing final one-on-one moments with Mariah by assuring me that he would do the same thing if he were in my shoes.

The last few weeks of pregnancy have become a bit more achy and a bit less blissful.  As with my first pregnancy, my hip joints have gone a bit out of whack so I’ve been getting regular chiropractic adjustments, which really helps.  Although some kind-hearted women assure me that I still look great (while avoiding too much eye-contact), others who find it harder to lie remind me that I’m ‘huge’ or even ask the ever-hilarious joke of whether I’m having twins (yes mother, I’m publicly shaming you!).  I really can’t complain because I find it equally as hard to cover my double chin while I accept the compliments as I do with controlling my eye-rolling and sarcasm when anyone points out the obvious - that I’m as big as a house.  I swear I’m not a body-image victim who thinks I’m fat.  I do realize that gaining weight is normal and healthy during pregnancy.  But, it’s much easier to be comfortable with extra weight when it’s a cute round bump in the second trimester, than when it leaves you waddling and panting during the day and wishing you had a crane to help you roll at night in the third trimester!  Despite this vanity, or maybe because of it…I chose to do a pregnancy photo shoot recently and am actually pretty happy with the results – thanks to the almighty airbrush.  Since this might be my last pregnancy experience, and since motherhood has become such a big part of my identity, I thought it would be neat to capture the physical process with some proof.

 

As the time draws nearer, Mariah is helping to boost my faith in her as a capable big sister.  She’s become very interested in her ‘baby’ (a pink stuffed bear Ivan & I bought when we were dating and I was determined to have my first-born attach to!).  Mariah has started to say this word often and independently includes ‘baby’ in her play.  She sits it up carefully in her tiny chair and pushes it around the house, she brings it to her toys and tries to teach it to play, and yesterday when I jokingly stuffed baby’s feet into shoes, Mariah took it seriously and started walking her baby around.  I have a feeling Mariah will be greatly disappointed when she realizes her little sister will be almost as boring and passive as this bear for the first few months – but nonetheless, I’m sure Mariah will fall in love with her too.