Still Pregnant

Yes, blog-world, I am still pregnant!

I know I may have had you all a little concerned, getting all crazy and not posting for over a week

(that's like 5 years when it comes to the end of pregnancy). I apologize for the delay.

Tomorrow is my official due date. I'm not gonna lie, I had my hopes up for an early baby. This pregnancy being so much like my mom's first, I assumed Paige would come 6 days early just like I did. Obviously, that didn't happen. And to tell you the truth, it doesn't look like she'll even be "on time."

I had an appointment yesterday. If I had dilated any more (last week I was only about a half centimeter)

my midwife was going to go ahead and strip my membranes.

Strip my WHAT?!

Basically, if they run a finger between the bag of waters and the uterus, it separates the membranes that connect them and causes hormones to release. Those hormones could soften the cervix and cause contractions that could turn into true labor. It's a natural way of bringing on contractions and if your body is ready to go into labor, it probably will. Unfortunately, if you're still only a half to one centimeter dilated, it's extremely painful and most likely won't do much other than cause some contractions. She told me I was still only a centimeter dilated, so I said not to worry about doing any stripping business and we'll let nature take it's course a little longer. Good news: she has dropped, and my midwife guessed she'd be in the low eight-pound range.

I left the office feeling pretty discouraged and a little bit frustrated.

Doesn't my body know it's time? I have a due date! Come on!

Then I realized I was being an overly emotional, somewhat ridiculous, hormonal pregnant gal and stopped myself then and there.

Our baby will arrive when she's good and ready. My body will know what to do, just like it has throughout this entire pregnancy. Really, there's no official "due date." It's just a guess, an estimate. Yes, a very good estimate considering we know when we got pregnant, but still an estimate. It could be another week, or it could be another 4 hours. As hard as it is to be content with waiting, I'm going to do just that.

While I wait, I'm going to continue to walk, walk, walk!

I've taken walks on the beach,

I've walked the bumpy dirt hill by my house,

I've pounded on the treadmill at a crazy incline,

I've enjoyed the Bob Jones Trail and plan on another trail walk later today..

If anything I'll have a nice tan and some stronger calf muscles to show for all this walking! 

I took a picture way back in November (that just sounds crazy) when I was about 11 weeks along. I took another today, just one day shy of 40 weeks. Look at the difference! There's no denying there's a baby in there!

My hospital bag and Paige's diaper bag are packed and sitting in the back seat of the truck, all ready to go.

I've cleaned the house enough to not embarrass me if people were to show up.

Everything Paige will be using has been washed and put away.

The only thing I have left to do is grab her pink Lakers onsie,

just in case she decides to show up tonight while we're watching the Lakers beat the Celtics ;)