Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Fake It 'Til You Make It

It's been a quiet few days here on the blog this week. I had some unexpected time and energy on Monday that I used to do a number of things around the apartment. If you had stopped by around 10:30 Monday morning you could have seen the comical sight of a very pregnant woman crouched in her tiny bathroom scrubbing a toilet. Or later on, making chicken and dumplings, wiping out her microwave and mini-fridge, cleaning her coffee maker, adding things to her hospital bag and, later, buying a carrycot that a friend found on a local Internet re-sale site so her baby will actually have his own place to sleep. There is actually a special name in Pregnancy World for this phenomenon: nesting.

So I'm worn out Monday night and head to bed. And then wake up around 2:30a having contractions. These peter on for a few hours - just strong enough and just often enough to prevent sleep. And I blearily made a made a couple of deals with God at various points in the night. How about these stop for now and then come back after I've had a good night's sleep? Please? Please please please?

And they did eventually stop. Though not before they had thoroughly convinced Michael that a taxi ride to the hospital was in our immediate future. And led to some frantic Man Nesting: filling out a Fulbright form with a 31st deadline, renewing library books and Mr. Cleaning our living room and kitchen. This is one of those times I'm really glad to be married to an academic and his flexible schedule.

I'm 39 weeks tomorrow.

2 comments:

Judit said...

Hi Rebekah!

You don't know me but we read some of the same blogs. My husband is also a Ph.D. student and we were so lucky that he could just take it easy for a couple of months after our baby was born last May. (Actually she was born a just few hours before his comprehensive exam!!! He took it, and passed. Phew. We got to have two celebrations at once.)
Happy birthing and enjoy your sweet new baby!

Judit

nikki said...

I'm still waiting for the nesting urge to kick in. Right now, for instance, my filthy microwave/kitchen floor/bathroom bother me not a whit.

Happy 39 weeks!