Due on Saturday

[newtonj]

Hi All,
New to the boards and wanted to say hello. I'm due on Saturday with my first, a boy. Lately I'm just hanging around waiting for the little one to arrive so you'll probably be seeing a lot of me here! Would love any suggestions on how to fill your time/keep busy while you're waiting...all this not knowing is driving me crazy!! I can't wait! And since I don't know what to expect every day I'm wondering "is this the day? is THIS the day?"

Erica

[citymama]

Congrats! All the best with waiting - it is TOUGH! My DD was 13 days late, o I had a whole lot of waiting to do (which drove me nuts) but it was entirely worth the wait! Go to the movies and have a nice dinner out with your DH/partner this week - at least once if not more!

[SnuggleBuggles]

Welcome!

My first ds was 2 weeks late and my second was 10 days late. My best advice for this final stretch is to not sit around waiting for labor to start nor analyzing every twinge to see if it means labor is imminent. It is emotionally exhausting to do that! I started timing braxton hicks every night starting around 38 weeks with ds1...and as you can imagine that got to be pretty frustrating when nothing happened! Finally at 41 weeks I gave up and just stopped paying attention to the prelabor stuff. I shopped, I went to the movies, I went swimming...I just lived life. Then, one night, I went into labor. I was so certain I would have to be induced at 42w2d that I was so happily surprised to go into labor naturally! It was totally worth the wait, btw.

The best piece of advice I had gotten during that pregnancy was to ignore due dates or, even better, mentally set your due date back 2 weeks so that you have a realistic goal in mind. I did that with ds2 as well and I also didn't tell people my real EDD with him so it was nice at the end with no one calling and asking ,"is today the day??".

I just remembered that I wrote and saved this from back in the day when I hosted a labor board. It's all about making the most of being past your due date (or even just those final weeks when you are playing the waiting game!):

went to 42 weeks. It really wasn't the end of the world and now I have my little guy here all the time. I guess my mindset helped though. So long as I didn't have to be induced, I was cool with being pregnant. In fact, I loved it! I had an excuse to just take care of me. And my time was all mine. I could sleep, eat, shower, read, see a movie, go out to dinner, go shopping...all without having to plan it around a baby. I loved having that extra time for just me and my husband and I made the most of it. Stressing about something that is out of your control or staring at the clock is just a dreadful way to spend the last few days of pregnancy. I know because I did that for almost for my entire 40th week. But, for my 41 st week I adopted a very peaceful, zen like attitude about it. I knew that no one has been pregnant forever and everyone eventually goes into labor. (I don't believe at all that some women "can't" go into labor- I think they just weren't given enough time- I guess i do have a caveat about that...some babies that have developmental problems don't trigger labor but that is so, so rare).


Take this time for you and your family. You have the rest of your life for the baby to be here. Try and enjoy this and relish the simplicity of being pregnant. There is no crying, no trying to figure out feedings, no worrying about bedtime, naptime, tummy time or any of that. The baby will be here soon enough. Use this time to finish preparing for the best birth possible. Write a birth plan. Figure out how to breastfeed if you are planning to do that. Trying to master and learn about what is normal (like baby losing about 10% of their birth weight is normal and not cause to suppliment so long as baby is making good diapers) while you are emotional and sleep deprived is a recipe for disaster. Make time your ally. Finish up the logistics of postpartum life. And enjoy these baby kicks and all the fun of guessing what baby will look like and what they will be like. It will all be done too soon.


Beth