Baby Boy Update

Went for my big check-up this morning. This baby and I are 36 weeks along now, so this was the visit with the internal exam and all that fun stuff. It does look like we could potentially have an early arrival on our hands, as both Dave and I have suspected all along. But we're not counting on it. After all, you never know until you know.

The stats: I'm 2 cm. dilated and about 70% effaced. The midwife said that my cervix is "very soft" and predicted a short labor, since my body is already working through the stuff that early labor is meant to accomplish. Baby Boy has his head-down and is hanging out very, very low, almost between Mama's legs. This helps to explain why I find myself waddling from time to time--something I never did with Meg (and still try to fight against!). It also helps to explain why my back and groin have been causing me quite a bit of pain in the last week or so.

All of this new knowledge serves two purposes: 1) It gets me more excited about meeting our little feller, and 2) It reminds me to cherish these last few weeks (days??) of pregnancy. There's nothing like carrying a little life inside your own body. I know that, as much as I will enjoy having our son out and in plain sight to snuggle and hold and kiss and nurse, I will also miss the strange feeling of having him moving about within me.

I have a friend from care group who was scheduled to be induced this morning, so she is almost definitely in labor right now. We were talking last night at our women's meeting about how she was probably in her last few hours of pregnancy--ever! (This is her fourth baby, and she's about ready to call it quits.) God willing, I will get to enjoy another pregnancy or two (dare I hope for even more?) after this, because I know I am not ready to bid goodbye to this season of child-bearing, despite its discomforts and fatigues.

But I better just get ready to bid adieu to this particular pregnancy and welcome our first son. Because, ready or not, here he comes...