Friday, March 6, 2009

Ninth inning

Tomorrow, we officially mark our entry into being 36 weeks or 9 months along. I believe it's not until I hit 38 weeks that the baby is considered full term though. So I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for the fact that she could blow any day now. Granted, I highly doubt that is going to happen. I'm just saying it is within the realm of possibility though. I fully expect North to stay put till his due date of April 4---if not longer. I'd also like to point out that other recent dabbling I've done testing my psychic ability failed miserably.

Slowly but surely, we're preparing for the inevitable. We've found a pediatrician around the corner that we're happy with and we toured the hospital where our baby will emerge from places where the sun does not shine. The hospital was packed with expectant parents and I counted three different tours going on while we were there. The maternity ward and all of the delivery rooms were full (although I heard no screams and trust me, I was listening intently for them). I don't know what was going on nine months ago, but there are a lot of babies out there ready to be born. I have a hunch the hospital will be maxed to the gills in early April as well. I'm expecting pregnant ladies wrestling around on the ground fighting over room availability. Let's just say I've been practicing my figure four leg lock in anticipation of the strategy needed to get my own room.

The tour itself was rather hilarious in hindsight. First off, the tour guide is a volunteer and not actual paid medical staff per say. Yet, all of the expectant mothers were quizzing her about very medical topics that she couldn't answer. OK...OK, I didn't ask her anything remotely medical. I spent the majority of the tour trying to think up a brilliant question that would make the other expectant families on the tour step back in awe as to the awesomeness of my question. But I ended up asking about the hospital's policy on food for women in labor because my only concern is hamburgers apparently. Most of the husbands, meanwhile, were interrogating the tour guide about how many electronic gadgets they could have plugged in at one time, whether there was wi-fi, if she could go over the photo and video policy again, if they could bring in their Wii, etc. The whole experience was very Mars/Venus if you know what I mean.

Of course, I'm sharing very specific examples for comic effect. There were a couple of expectant fathers at both the pediatrician and the hospital tour with questions that were so informed and relevant, I couldn't control my emotion and wept at their feet. I'm hoping those fathers were actually doctors and just showing off to make the rest of us feel inadequate (good job guys!) Granted, I've been trying to read through as much material as I can, but I've gotten a bit sidetracked with sewing projects and preparing for the baby in other ways. But I have a feeling I'll be that lady in labor attempting to speed read "What to Expect When You're Expecting" up until North's head crowns. And Dave will be the guy that misses the birth of his baby because his wife has asked him to fetch her another burger from the cafeteria.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eat beforeyou get to the hospital! I was afriad to eat much before I left home in case they needed to give me an epidural right away- but then I got to the hospital and they wouldn't let me eat anything but ice chips. Ice chips! That;s not food! 12 hours later Noah was born and I was starving!!! I think I asked for a menu when Noah was about 15 minutes old and ordered everything that sounded good to me- chicken nuggets, pizza, cookies, etc!

Callie said...

LOL at the figure four leg lock. My brother put me in those whenever he got the opportunity growing up, so I can attest to their effectiveness!