another lesson in waiting.

2: Nathan announced that I will be his high-school prom date {I’m perfectly happy with this decision. He made this prophetic statement when we were watching all of the high school kids take photos before prom at a park near our old house. Nathan asked why all the girls were wearing pretty dresses. Aunt Katie responded with, “someday, you’ll go to prom with a pretty girl wearing a pretty dress.” Nathan, in all of his 3-year-old brilliance, said, “mommy’s a pretty girl. I’ll go with her.” Well, then. It’s decided}…

3: Ben has officially moved out of nighttime pull-ups- hurray! {No more diapers/pull-ups! Oh, wait.}…

This was his amped-up sugar face from Easter morning. He has a very similar smile on dry mornings. I just don’t have a photo. Just trust me here.

4: and, lastly, I’ve been in what my doctor has called “latent labor” since Sunday.

The really strong contractions started on Sunday at Dave’s parents’ church. We were there for our niece’s first communion. I have heard that my exit during the Lord’s prayer quickly became the talk of the {for the most part, 80-and-above} crowd. I really thought this was “it”… we even had that movie-scene where Dave sped to the hospital. He nearly gave me a heart-attack with his driving.

After several hours of contractions and no progress with dilation, we were sent home. I was perfectly happy to keep her snug for another couple of weeks but my competitive side did kick in when I was told that I wasn’t progressing and I got really frustrated. I don’t know why I was wanting to get a move on. I really do want her to stay and grow for as long as possible. She is already ‘cooking’ for four weeks longer than the boys did and that is a huge relief.

After coming home from the hospital…happy to be home with Charlotte still “in the oven.”

I went back in on Tuesday because the contractions were getting worse and I had a couple of other “labor” signs {WebMD doesn’t lie, y’all…}. The doc on call sent me to Labor & Delivery at the hospital because I had a previous c-section and am attempting a VBAC and I’m high-risk {the vbac is possibility…nothing is set in stone. Well, except for drugs. That is not optional. I am still traumatized by the boys’ birth experience and will not even consider missing out on the epidural. The only person I vividly remember from the 48 hour nightmare of the boy’s birth was Neil, my anesthesiologist. Oh, Neil. You rock}.

After eight hours in a super comfy {I jest} hospital bed, I was sent back home.  I kept apologizing profusely to the hospital staff for being “that girl.” I know they were all talking about the fake-labor-chick in room 537 and placing bets on how many times I’ll be back in before the babe is actually born.

This morning was my weekly check-in with my OB and he was visibly sorry to tell me that I hadn’t progressed any further. He knew I was in pain and told me that, unfortuantely, there is not a walking-epidural option at this time. I asked to see Neil to verify this claim.

{I also told Dr. D about my vivid dream from last night – the one where Charlotte actually popped out and I didn’t even realize it. I showed up at my appointment and the nurse was freaked out by the fact that I had delivered a baby and didn’t know it. I asked if he thought that could happen. He just laughed and I suspect he wrote something in my chart. He thinks I’m a whacko}.

He explained that Charlotte’s head is very low {he stressed this several times… which only adds to my fear that she will fall out at any moment} and that is causing the contractions to be more painful. But, I could stay in this “latent labor” stage before progressing into “active labor” for several more hours or several more weeks. Hurray. That sounds fun.

So, we wait.

I’ve become fairly accustomed to waiting these past few years. It goes against my natural tendencies and drives me fairly crazy. I’m a Type-A planning machine. I like to know exactly when and where things will happen. I like to have a clear timeline so that I can mentally prepare for the days ahead.

A-hem.

Clearly, God has been working on that little detail of my personality. One would think I would have learned my lesson by now. Nope. I’m still hopelessly impatient.

So we will keep right on waiting anxiously to meet our newest love and I’ll keep you all posted. But not as often as I do in the group texts to my mom and sisters. We have an ongoing conversation about this labor process that has reached new proportions of hilarity. {Yet another reason I’m excited for S and C to have one another. There is nothing in this world like a sister. Nothing}.

In all honesty, I really love being pregnant and am going to soak up these final hours/days/weeks with her right here snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug. I love feeling her movements and marveling at the way God created our bodies to do such miraculous things. The fact that there is a little human being growing inside of me right now is truly unbelievable. I am also going to enjoy these last moments as a family of four. My sweet boys are about to have their world’s rocked and I’m just going to hold them close and let them be momma’s babies for a while longer.

Blessings to you all!