He is officially one week late today. Besides the frustration of multiple bouts of "false" labor (regular painful contractions that last several hours and then eventually space out and become more mild - i.e. do not produce a baby in the end)... and having our midwife call everyday to check on us (because of said "false" labors)... and the regular pregnancy stuff I was already dealing with, it has actually been really nice having this time and spending it with Ray.
He is off work now since he had to transition all of his projects to other people and now there is not much they can give him when he may not be around the next day. That has been the best ever for me because he distracts me and keeps my spirits up and we have been having a lot of fun thinking of ways to fill our days (cleaning and other boring things we should be doing don't keep my spirits up so much). We drove up to St Helena the other day (wine country - where we went after our wedding) and just went to a good lunch spot and wandered around. Then another day we drove down the coast and got fish and chips and went back to where Ray proposed (see pics). We hung out with Ray's sister Lisa and the kids one day. We walked to one of our favorite breakfast spots. We went to our favorite dinner spot. We have watched movies. Just basically enjoying these last few days we have where it is just the two of us and we can take off at a moment's notice without packing the car/stroller full of diapers and wipes and blankets and snacks and toys and changes of clothes.
We saw our midwife yesterday and the baby still looks happy as a clam in there. They will let us go until January 2 before they evict him by force, so hopefully he does it on his own before then. We do have to go in to the hospital on Sunday for a non-stress test to monitor the contractions and the baby to check on his movement and variability of heart rate. Just to make sure the placenta is still working well and he is getting enough oxygen. I think they will also check the amniotic fluid levels. I am not that concerned because he still moves like crazy and his heart rate looked great yesterday at our appointment.
I don't know how big he is, but I am pretty sure he is still growing because I just had a growth spurt since I hit 40 weeks and I am hungry all the time. He can now pinch the nerve in my right hip, push his head against my cervix, jab his foot out of my left side and stick his butt up in my ribs all at the same time. And that is just with a little wiggle. I think I might miss the entertainment of him moving all of the time once he joins us on the outside. And yes, my belly is still growing. I told Ray yesterday when we were walking that he feels so low and heavy that I really feel like he could fall out of the front, under my belly button where my giant belly is precariously hanging over my pants. Of course Ray got some pics of said huge belly (and these were taken last week!) Obviously the choice to wear an orange shirt only made it look more like I was smuggling a giant pumpkin under there.
The window seat:
