Down to the Wire

I can feel the inevitable is near. Am I ready? I think so. Am I impatient? No. I would have thought I might be impatient this time around just knowing how long I waited for Reese the last time. However, that’s not the case. I’m not uncomfortable. I know that we are about to be thrown into the thick of it again with little sleep and little social. I know that we still have the transition for Reese to help her adapt. And I know that my one-on-one time with my first born is slowing ticking away. It’s bittersweet. When it comes it will be great, but until then, I can wait.

Plus, there was a brief little scare this week when Bryan came down with a cough and achy feverish symptoms on Tuesday. The worst was playing through my head. What if he has Covid? Would he be allowed into the hospital? To hold the baby? To be with Reese? If its not Covid, how am I going to manage a newborn, Reese and a sick Bryan all at once? What if he’s too sick to enjoy the birth of the new one. Fortunately, it tested out not to be Covid and come Thursday morning he was feeling much, much better. He spent all of Wednesday resting and fortunately his work hasn’t been too busy lately that he was actually able to take time away from work to get better. I’m so relieved that I didn’t go into labor this week and that Bryan is on the mend.

I did have my 38 week appointment and the baby’s heart sounded good and strong and I have still been having plenty of movements. I walked Reese to school twice this week and walked to pick her up twice as well. I’m still moving and still feeling good. I don’t have the swelling of the ankles like I had last time and in general I’ve been feeling pretty great and with good energy. I was able to rake up the leaves in the yard one more time given that we had two and a half days of no rain. I finished the baby’s new mobile above the crib (Reese was a big fan) and finished and pressed and framed the last of the three cross stitch patterns for the nursery. To put that in perspective, I didn’t finish the last of the three for Reese until she was about 9 months old. Hoorah for working at work sometimes!

We got the house cleaned one last time on Thursday and I have started making some double batches of food to put leftovers in the freezer; beef enchilada bake, Indian chicken curry, chicken and dumplings. I have a few more ideas in mind next week to get some more in the freezer. We have the infant car seat installed in the car and the hospital bag is nearly finished.

This weekend is supposed to be rain free and I am ready for it. I don’t care if it is slightly cooler out, no rain is great in my opinion. We still don’t have much on the calendar between now and the due date. Reese has been asking to go swimming, she knows that her two good friends at school just started swim lessons, so we took her to a rec swim at one of the community centers in town this morning and she had a blast.

We finally got an offer from a friend to join them for Thanksgiving. I wasn’t really thrilled about spending the holiday alone and all of our friends now have family in town or are traveling to see family this year so our opportunities were slim. I’m hoping we make it through Thanksgiving before baby’s arrival, I’d be good with getting to our due date because then we could take Reese to the holiday lighting at Pike Market and get our Christmas tree. Whatever the date is it decides to arrive though we will be ready for it!

Chelsea