38 weeks and a couple of days

Busy people get more done. I've heard it a million times, but can personally attest to it now. I've been off work for a little more than two weeks now and although I have definitely accomplished many things, it's to a very different degree and generally just feels different. I actually feel very unaccomplished although I know growing a baby is a big job ;-). I've tried to maintain some sort of routine/schedule whereby I still wake up earlyish (around 7am) to get my day going, but if I dont have a definite plan for the day time just gets away .... I dont know how it happens. I dont have a definite plan for today so figured I'd update the blog. Updating the blog for instance used to be a task that I would squeeze in quickly in the middle of my work day or towards the end of the evening. If I wanted to have it updated I had limited time and had to get on the computer, get it done quickly and move on. Today, I could potentially spend hours updating the blog - I'll spare you! LOL

Okay, so what's going on with the baby/me? My belly is getting quite big. We had an appointment with our midwife, Alice, on Monday and she said she didn't think he was too big of a baby yet and I was excited, but I swear I've grown a lot since Monday ;-)! Sunday night I had some random pains going on, but they went away when I sat down so that's a sign they were nothing too serious. I also get random pains in my hips. I guess they are stretching out or something ... not quite sure. I feel like I may have felt the Braxton-Hicks contractions a few times, but nothing consistent. I have a hospital bag packed (just in case) and have all the stuff together for the home birth so we're physically ready to go when things start to happen, but everything I've heard about the first stage of labor is that it can last for 12 hours + so I feel like I will still have time to be getting things together if necessary. More than anything I am excited about the process. I've read, heard and seen so much about it via DVDs, classes and books and now I just feel ready to see how my own experience unfolds. We pray every single day that it goes beautifully for us, for the baby and for the midwives attending the birth. I dont guess there is anyway to know when he will arrive and that's fine for me. I've sort of wondered if I will get a feeling or anything like that, but I guess he will pick his own perfect time for arrival and we'll just have to get on board. And I guess that is how life with a baby is ... you have to be ready for anything! At this point, though, my guess is that it will not happen before this Sunday. I'm predicting the 17th, but that's just sort of a date I've pulled out of nowhere so I dont think we can put much weight behind it ;-). But it will be fun to predict dates even if I'm wrong!

Okay, I'm off to create a list of things I'd like to accomplish today so I can see the progress made. Not working is lovely and very restful despite my complaints ;-). I feel very fortunate to be able to take this time to slow my pace down so that once our little prince arrives it will not such a shock to my system.