35 wks 6 days

Is this the final countdown?

No way to know for sure but: the dog has been groomed back to fluffy whiteness, the house has been cleaned, the rug and couch have been shampooed, the diaper genie has been assembled, the world's strongest and most infuriating sticker has been gruelingly scraped from the side of the crib.

Oh and my cervix is 100% effaced. So there's that.

I told my doctor today that I wanted "just one more week" and she said, "I wouldn't count on it." But WHO KNOWS? Everything in this pregnancy has been unpredictable. Nothing has gone according to those books I wasted money and Kindle space on. I would be no more surprised if this baby comes out looking like a donkey than I would if she were born next month, or tomorrow, or whatever.

My latest exotic symptom is thirteen (13!) pounds of weight gain over the course of the past 8 days, all of it in my legs, face and fingers. I'm so swollen I could barely hold the pen to write my thank you cards yesterday (not an excuse I know, I know). This is of course a sign of preeclampsia, but when they tested my blood pressure today it was normal, and my doctor was so distracted by what she thought might be a threatened cord prolapse that she sort of brushed off my concern (while she mulled whether or not to schedule me for an immediate c-section).

(How much abnormal pregnancy action can you pack into one paragraph?)

I'm going back in on Monday, then on Wednesday, if I am still with child...

I'm hoping I can hold out on labor until at least my birthday, which is the 16th (and a full moon.) But is it a blessing or a curse to have a baby with the same birthday as you? Astrologically I mean of course...

Meanwhile I'm trying still to wrap my head around the fact that we may meet her very soon, but it's basically impossible to understand, so instead I am focusing on the concrete act of list making.

So here are some things we still have left to do before she arrives:

-Finish knitting this almost finished teddy bear
-Sew that confounded bassinet bumper
-Find a pediatrician
-Finish the thank you cards
-Oh and give the poor child a name

Some friends pointed out recently that if we wait until we see her face to name her, we'll be so emotional that we'll end up calling her Starshower Lovechild or something, so it's best to go in prepared. But holy Moses is it a tough call. Ideas welcome in the comments below...