Due date

Today is the due date in the doctor's file. They monitored her for a little while and she's doing just fine. There's no reason to think she won't come this weekend, but if she doesn't arrive this weekend, I'll go in Monday to decide the next step.

No baby yet

Waiting has been an emotional roller coaster. The extra hormones coursing through my body don't help.

I'm excited about this new life growing and all the possibility and joy that come with nurturing a new human being. I'm awestruck by the immenseness of that task. Then there's fear and anxiety that come with every transition that is an end as well as a beginning. There's the fear about the labor experience itself. It's unpredictable. Every single birth is a different experience. And there's the fear than comes with knowing that my life will never be the same and no amount of preparation will help to fully understand the implications of that.

The excitement outweighs the fear, and each day there's a thought in the back of my head, "maybe today will be the day I meet my daughter." Disappointment enters as the hope of "maybe today" fades, and I begin to think that I will wake up every morning too hungry to sleep anymore, roll over with the effort of a big belly, and wince as my sore feet touch the floor and the weight of the baby crushes my apparently full bladder.

But of course, hope returns in the fact that every day can only be another 7 at the most, and then we will have all the joys and hardships that come with this beautiful blessing.

A Test Run Down Memory Lane

Hi all, I'm making sure that I know how to do this so that when Hannah comes I can post pictures, etc. until Marie gets back from the hospital. We're just waiting at this point. Fortunately the weather has been cool this weekend so she isn't nine months pregnant and miserable from the heat. We are also fortunate to have a/c just in case it does get hot.

While we were in Sidney, OH a few weekends ago we made a side trip to the US Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB. This jet, 66-0177, was the last flying C-141 and was retired in May, 2006. At the end of the Viet Nam war it was the first jet to land in Hanoi to recover our POW's. As a reservist I actually got to work on this very jet. I know the faces to match the names stenciled on the side. I flew with it on a trip up to Thule AB, in Greenland. Now it's in a museum... Surreal.

Comments please

Hey all,

I changed the settings so that people don't have to register to post comments. I know what a pain it is to register when you're already a member of a different service or perhaps multiple different services. Thanks for those of you who made the effort. I'm hoping this makes it easier for everyone else.

Just waiting: Taking Bets

Now that my pregnancy is officially "full term" I'm getting pretty excited to meet our little Hannah. According to the doctor today, she is in head down position and has a lot of hair! She estimated my dilation at 2-3 cm. I think the only thing that really means is that my body is getting ready. It could be this week, or next week, or June 30th... Many people have special dates they are pulling for (that gut feeling, birthday, anniversary, etc.), so while we're waiting, we'd like to hear what our friends and family think. So, go ahead, claim your date! Post your claim on this board, or if you can't figure that out email me!

The Nursery

My goal this week was to get the "nursery" together. Well, folks, this is as close as it's going to come! For more pictures, try snapfish at: http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=165046490/a=48750074_48750074/t_=48750074

Let the waiting begin!

As of 6pm tonight, I am officially on maternity leave. I feel like I have to defend my decision to go on leave a month before my actual due date. I'm not sure I can come up with one solid reason. I'd like to say my doctor insisted that I not stress myself out, but that would be an outright lie. I have been blessed with a complication-free pregnancy and I have nothing more than the average aches and pains. I could perhaps come up with many less convincing to the wary public reasons like: I want everything to be wrapped up at work in case I go into labor early, I want to spend time with my husband before our lives are forever changed again, I have things that I want to get done around the house, and I want a vacation.

At the moment I have a list of "to-dos." I suppose at some point it will become mostly about waiting.