No baby yet

The question I get asked most frequently these days is some variation on, "No baby yet?" Frankly, I like the attention. Sarina, as obviously pregnant as she is, now gets comments from complete strangers. I'm glad that those who know we are expecting in the immediate future ask me for updates, even if it means saying "No, no baby yet" and "Sarina is doing fine but is uncomfortable" what sometimes seems like a dozen times a day.

So July 11th has come and gone, and no, no baby yet. One of our doctors told us at some point that 7 of 10 babies are born after their due date. The engineer in me chafes at this. If 7 of 10 are born after their due date, doesn't that mean that the prediction could be improved? I digress.

Sarina is doing fine, but is uncomfortable. We both want this baby to come. There's every indication that he is closer to coming than he was before (beyond the obvious passing of time which inevitably makes his arrival closer). Sarina is having more regular, and more intense contractions. She is also swelling more, and experiencing a variety of other minor symptoms that can be indicators that labor is looming in the near future.

But honestly, who knows?

On my way home yesterday, I ran into Jen Baily, another pregnant mother (with twins, due in a month or so) as she and her family were on the way to our church for Family Night Celebration. She asked if Sarina was tired of being pregnant. Yes, she is, I said. Jen then commented on how mentally difficult it is to wait. You don't know when the baby is coming, only that the baby is coming, and that you have no control over it whatsoever. For first-time parents, you also know that your life is going to be changed forever, but you have no idea how much. It is all a bit unnerving. And very trying, especially when no one bothers to explain all the different things that might happen to your mind and body along the way. The last weeks, in particular, seem to be weeks of intense change.

I don't want to make it seem like pregnancy is only hard. Pregnancy has been a blessing for us. It might be easier for me to say that because I'm not the one forced to continually carry our child without rest, but I can say that from a place of having sacrificed for the pregnancy. For me, this last trimester has been the most difficult, the most tiring. Sarina maintains that the first was the worst, because of the constant nausea, not to say that the third has been easy. We are both (all three of us?) ready to move on from our current, tired state, to a new, tired state. Bring on the baby!