When you’re nine months pregnant, it seems you could wear a shirt answering the same questions you hear day after day. How are you feeling? Have you had the baby yet? Are you ready? You’ve packed your bag, right? How much longer? GOOD GRIEF! I honestly wish I could “plan” when I was going to have my baby, but nature doesn’t quite work that way. We live in an “I want it now” society where it seems perfectly healthy woman opt to have planned C-sections and inductions like you were taking orders at a McDonalds. (No, I’m not talking about those who don’t have a choice.) Unfortunately, our babies may not be quite ready to make their appearance into this world exactly when we are ready for them to, and they risk problems breathing on their own, maintaining their body temperatures, or latching on while breastfeeding. So, I would rather my little man come when he was ready than force him into the world solely based upon my convenience.

I know we are all excited, but labor could happen two weeks before your due date, on your due date, or even two weeks after your due date. There is all of this crazy pressure that us pregnant women feel during the last month of our pregnancy from everyone’s excitement and persistent questions. Of course, we know you are just excited and want to share that with us. And you for sure don’t mean any harm to us. BUT stop and realize that although we’re excited too, life gets frustrating for us at this point in our pregnancy. We want the baby to come soon. However, combine all of the hormonal changes in our bodies that already make us more emotional, feeling excited about the baby coming, frustrated he hasn’t come yet, anxious to feel the next contraction, nervous about being a parent for the first-time and a little scared about all of that responsibility, on top of the endless, persistent questioning, with my typical day:

I wake up with hardly any sleep and a very achy body to the pitter-patter of the dogs pacing around the room, trying to tell me that they need to go outside. So, I sleepily wake myself up the best I can to let them out, feed them and put them up for the day. I attempt to still eat healthy with a good breakfast, while spending about an hour on the Web, chatting with Sean, and trying to convince myself that a shower is a good idea. Just the routine of getting ready is exhausting! So, I unwillingly head upstairs and start my morning routine. By the time I get out of the shower, my ankles have disappeared, my legs have swollen up, and I have somehow magically transformed my lower half into elephant trunks. WAHLAH! I get dressed in maternity clothes that no longer fit me AT ALL, and I sit down. I put on as little make-up as possible, and I sit down again. I half-dry my hair, and I LAY down before the hot flashes and cold sweats hit me!

Now comes the pep talk to not go back to sleep and find an errand to run to get out of the house. I usually make myself get out at this point for some fresh air and pick up some lunch while I’m out. On the way home, I’m starting to get very sleepy, my back is usually killing me and I feel like I just ran a marathon. So, I get home, let Sean know all is well, and I go take a nap. By this time, the dogs have had all the confinement they can handle, so they get to go outside and play for a little while and take all of their barking energy out on a nearby squirrel, bird or the neighbor’s dog. Sean should be getting home about now, and we spend time catching up on our days, playing around on the Internet for a little while, and will cook or go out for dinner. The way I have felt lately, Sean will probably be cooking or washing dishes for me (my belly is too big for me to reach the sink without spilling soap and water all in the floor), or else we just claim laziness as an excuse to go out somewhere. We won’t be doing much of that when the baby comes, so we are getting it out of our system during these last few weeks. Now the day is winding down. We catch a TV show and head off to bed.

This is where things get fun, and no, it’s not what you are thinking! I toss and turn for hours until I can get maybe 30-40 minutes of sleep at a time before my side, hip, leg and arm fall asleep and I wake up in excruciating pain. Then, just as I try to turn over, the baby shifts and my bladder cries for help. So, I lunge myself out of bed (not an easy task these days) and stumble to the bathroom. Then, I crawl back into bed and flop down on the other side that doesn’t hurt for another 30-40 minutes of sleep. REPEAT MANY TIMES!

We are just sleep-deprived, very uncomfortable women who are eager to meet our little ones but who also want them to come when they are completely healthy and ready to do so. We want our normal bodies back, we don’t want to hurt or be uncomfortable anymore, and we want to be able to shop somewhere without having to scope out the bathroom first! We want to have adult conversations with our family and friends that don’t solely center around the details of the baby’s arrival. At this point, it’s only natural to feel this way! We’ve almost been pregnant an entire year by the time we deliver our babies! A YEAR! And yes, they are worth it. Yes, we are more than thankful for them! But come on! You have to see some of the reasons why we just want to return to normalcy again. I don’t even remember what it was like to be a hyper-active chatter box. HA! Yes, I’m tired, quiet with not much to say at this point, grumpy and anxious. And that’s ok right now!

But don’t worry! I promise we will call you when “the time” is here. We’re not going to have a baby in secret without our family and friends knowing about it. In the meantime, help us with staying calm. It’s a day-by-day process at this point. And I’m going to go crazy, as well as drive Sean crazy, if I am constantly thinking about if today is the day. We hope it is for sure, but I can almost 100% promise you it won’t be today. There are no signs of contractions. I’m just my pregnant, tired, uncomfortable self today and will soon start my daily routine to try and not focus on how I feel. (I can’t wait to feel GOOD again!)