birth contemplations

We have reached the two-week countdown! This is literally my favorite time of pregnancy. Yes, I feel like a whale. Yes, I waddle like a whale-ish penguin. Yes, I grunt and huff and ugh my way through getting out of bed and squatting to pick up toys and straining to reach the faucet when I'm doing the dishes. BUT. It is still my favorite time of being pregnant.

Two weeks feels like nothing, especially when I consider the "one week left" time period to be "this is THE week" time period [regardless of its accuracy (I have a 50% accuracy rate currently)]. All of the icky parts of pregnancy are theoretically done [no more pesky symptoms, no more needles, no more "am I going to fail this test" anxiety fests, etc]. All I have left is the last bit of waiting and then it's Hello, Sweet Baby time. Gah, it's the best. Come on, labor, let's do this thing!

For the past couple of months, one of my wind-down for sleep activities [besides going over our very ignored to-do list] is mentally walking through all of my past labors and deliveries. It is simultaneously exciting and calming. Each of the boys has slid into this world in a very different and yet also similar way/time frame and I am hopeful that this will remain the pattern for the fifth round. If I had to choose an ideal replica birth, I'd say I would pick... a Finley delivery. He came fast, didn't allow me a lot of angry mutter time during labor, and was a born-in-the-tub baby. Five stars, would do again. 

The one thing I would not prefer about a Finley delivery is the fact that he was a day late. I know in the grand scheme of things, one day late is still crazily punctual [the mere fact that you can possibly predict within a few days when something will happen 280-ish days before it happens is just miraculous in itself], but it still seems a bit rude. Lucas was a due date baby, Finley was one day late, Sebastian was two days early, and Eli was two days late. So, all we need now is a one day early baby to complete the pattern. Do you hear me, Boo? IT WOULD BE SO SATISFYING. Please and thank you. We shall see. 

Another baby related tidbit that entertains me is thinking about how long I have been either pregnant or breastfeeding or both. It is mind boggling.

• 2013 - pregnant [only for an extremely tiny portion of the year, to be fair, but still counts]
• 2014 - pregnant/breastfeeding
• 2015 - breastfeeding
• 2016 - pregnant/breastfeeding
• 2017 - pregnant/breastfeeding
• 2018 - pregnant/breastfeeding
• 2019 - pregnant/breastfeeding
• 2020 - pregnant/breastfeeding
• 2021 - pregnant/breastfeeding
• 2022 - pregnant/breastfeeding
• 2023 - pregnant/soon-will-be-breastfeeding

I am somehow approaching almost four years of actively growing a baby inside of me and almost seven full years of nursing said babies. That is such a huge chunk of my life, but hands down it has been such an excellent use of my time. It has been ever so busy and exhausting but also ever so fulfilling and grand. Even though it also seems like downright craziness. I might need a new hobby soon.

Apparently 37-to-38-ish weeks is when everyone in our neighborhood all agreed that it was finally safe to assume I am indeed pregnant. The possibility that the size of my stomach was just the result of indulging in too many tacos was no longer reasonable, though one neighbor did actually ask, "Do you know if it's a boy taco or a girl taco?" So... maybe I'm somehow still leaving them in doubt. The sudden influx of questions from the neighbors is most likely also due to the fact that the warm weather has allowed me to break out all the summer clothes, which makes this belly o'mine undeniably obvious when we go on walks. 

Speaking of walks, I suppose it's time for another resolution progress report.

• Kitchen sinks/counters completely empty of dishes every night: ✔️ There was one incident of the instant pot being left to soak for two nights... but it was eventually remedied. Jason has been coming to my rescue on this one a lot recently at dinner any time I just do not want to stand hunched/stretched over the sink one more time. I need longer arms when I'm pregnant... 
• Read through the Bible this year: ✔️ I somehow fell behind four entire days over the Easter weekend 😬🤦🏻‍♀️😬🤦🏻‍♀️ I KNOW HOW TERRIBLE THAT SOUNDS. But it's all good now. I am well into 1 Samuel now and back on track. 
• Walk 200 miles [in the same socks (don't ask)] before the baby arrives: ✔️ I am pretty stoked about this one as I am so close to finishing. I have a mere 14 miles to go which, like the last two weeks of pregnancy, is nothing compared to the 186 miles already accomplished. 🎉
• Don't reach an all-time-high weight by the end of this pregnancy: 🤔 It's going to be close, guys. Real close. BUT that's not actually a bad thing! I did not think this was actually an attainable goal [due to starting weight] and honestly I'm just pleased that, at the very least, I'm going to land oh so close to my Eli pregnancy max weight [instead of continuing my five-pounds-heavier-than-the-last-pregnancy trend]. I usually weigh myself at 39 weeks and then just call it done, since I say anything goes food and exercise wise the final week 😄🤷🏻‍♀️
• Read 75 books: ✔️ I'm at 17 books for the year so far. Definitely still a doable goal, though I may need to do some shorter, more reasonable reads through the summer to prep for the end of the year. I only have one more 1200+ page book on the docket, so that should help immensely. 
• Blog more: ✔️ I think this one deserves a checkmark for sure. The real test will obviously be the second half of the year, but still. ✔️✔️✔️

Will this be the last blog post before Boo arrives? 😬🤞🏼🎉 

[don't judge the September 2019 calendar that I'm using to track my miles in April 2023- THERE'S A REASON]