The Final Countdown

As of today, I am officially more pregnant than I have ever been. We are now only 10 days from my due date. I had an appointment with my doctor this morning and found out that all my middle-of-the-night painful contractions have done nothing. I am still only dilated to 1 cm and the doctor remarked that Morsel "is not a little baby." We decided to wait one more week and if nothing is happening, then we will schedule an induction. When I was pregnant with Eddie, I don't remember being quite this miserable at the end. I have decided that is because I had prepared myself mentally to go past my due date with him, and going into labor was quite a surprise. This time, I have foolishly prepared myself for an early baby and have been disappointed day after day.

So over the past couple of weeks as I have anxiously awaited Morsel's arrival, I have had a lot of time to finish up every single tiny project I can think of. Here are some of the things I have been doing that have helped keep me sane:

1. Finding lavender crib sheets
Sure, we have white crib sheets. Sure, Morsel will be sleeping in a bassinet for at least the first few weeks. But for some reason, I felt that purple crib sheets were completely necessary in completing the nursery decor (not that the nursery decor is complete, but that's not my fault). Every time I entered a store that sells baby stuff, I always had to look to see if they had purple sheets. None of them did. You can get yellow or green or blue or pink or white (and even brown for crying out loud). Apparently purple is not a popular color. Last weekend, we finally took a trip over to Babies R Us with the specific purpose of buying purple sheets. After leaving the store, I told Dave "now we can have a baby." I was hoping that would inspire Morsel... but apparently it did not work.

2. Cleaning the entire house
The bad part about cleaning the entire house in preparation for the baby is that the house was clean... and the baby didn't come. So now I need to do it all over again. I even got so desperate that I cleaned the laundry room. So now I'll start the circuit again and if I make it back to the laundry room before Morsel is born, that might sever the last thread of my sanity.

3. Packing bags for the hospital
Not only did I pack my own bag, but I also packed Morsel's bag. I honestly do not remember what stuff we need to take for the baby, and really, since the hospital is approximately 2 miles from our house, I'm sure all this preparation is not entirely necessary. But, it has given me something to do. The only problem is that I packed a couple of options for Morsel's coming home outfit and they've sat in the bag so long that I'm tempted to change them out for something else. This is probably because of the next thing I have been doing...

4. Looking through all the baby stuff
I get bored and I stand in the nursery closet and look through all the baby clothes. I figure out which hair bows will go with which outfits. I organize and reorganize the bins on the shelf that hold the socks and tights and burp cloths and swaddle blankets. I unfold the blankets and look at them, then fold them up again. Hopefully if nothing else, this exercise will ensure that I know where everything is in there. But probably not.

5. Complaining about being pregnant
I'll be the first one to admit it: I am miserable. Waiting for Morsel is driving me completely crazy. That, in addition to the hormones, means that I'll have an occasional good day where I will get a lot done and many other not-so-good days where I won't even bother to get dressed and will let Eddie watch TV all day while I eat a large number of cookies.