Watermelon

T minus one week and counting. Yep, I'm at 39 weeks. The famous "Enough already, get this thing out of me!" stage. I have to say, overall, I think that I have had an easier pregnancy than most. I've experienced quite the range of pregnancy symptoms, but each one has been fairly short-lived, with long respites that have actually been pretty comfortable and enjoyable. More good than bad. These last few weeks, though... they're starting to wear on me. Yet another heat wave without air conditioning, this one reaching triple digits, has pushed me over the edge. Unbearable heat. Unbelievably swollen ankles and feet. Painfully swollen hands. No more than 3 consecutive hours of sleep in weeks. A remarkably squirmy baby who manages to get his little legs kicking at every major internal organ I own. I am ready to move on.

My unrelenting exhaustion means that I was much relieved to have been off from work this past week. Around short but frequent naps, I was able to knock off just about everything on my to-do list. (A few small things remain, but they're very small. "Buy stamps" kind of small.) By Friday, though, I was out of things to fill my days, which is making the waiting even harder. Time moves sooooo slowly when you're home alone in an overheated house with nothing fun or productive to do. (Bored? Might as well begin labor....) Besides, the hospital has air conditioning. And it would have pleased the punster in me to go into labor on Labor Day.

I am still (naively) hopeful that I will deliver before my due date next Tuesday. My own guess in our baby betting pool is this Thursday, September 4. But as hours and hours go by without so much as a single Braxton-Hicks contraction, that goal seems further and further away. On the bright side, Dr. M probably wouldn't let me go too far past 41 weeks without inducing me, given that baby Barack is consistently measuring on the large side, so I have ~17 days max yet to go. In the mean time, we've rented DVDs, gone out to see some movies ("Tropic Thunder" was only so-so. "Bottle Shock" was light and fun.), had lunches out with friends, and been generally trying to socialize as much as possible. The waiting continues.