I am up at midnight – typing instead of sleeping – waiting for my sister-in-law to wake up to tell me it’s time to go to the hospital.
This is the part of pregnancy, labor, and birth that I ALWAYS FORGET. The waiting is naturally eclipsed by labor, birth, and BABY. Once those things happen who remembers the days of anxious pacing and nervous nesting?
Today, February 13, 2013, is Olga’s  due date. She has been hoping for weeks that the baby will come early, because like any new mother, she is anxious to meet her baby girl – her first one ever. But there has been no sign of impeding baby – no contractions, no dilation, no nothing – in fact, we’ve spent the first four days of my visit, pounding the pavement of DC hoping to move things along. We were even starting to worry that the baby (Katherine Renata Lee?) might not choose to come before I leave on Feb 23.
But today. Today. We woke up to a bit of bloody show. And teeny tiny contractions in the morning that stopped.
We bustled about and decided to go ahead and drive to Virginia for lunch with my parents. We decided to cancel our afternoon cookie-baking plans with random people we don’t know (Songbae’s friends). We decided to pack our things in case we needed to go directly to the hospital. We started the day half believing that we would be in the hospital by night.
Now we are home. We had a very yummy lunch, courtesy my folks (Cobb salad with salmon, calamari, steamed mussels); we played at a great park in the drizzle; I filled the tank with gas; we drove by the hospital; six deer crossed our path; and then we came home. Contractions have been coming more frequently, but have been pretty minor, meaning, Olga was capable of making an amazingly delicious dinner of noodle soup and then going for a walk with Songbae.
By then her contractions were coming 10-15 minutes apart but still not too bad. Her disposition was good. We all showered, packed, and got into bed. I suppose everybody else is sleeping (I can hear deep breathing) but
I drank iced tea and coffee prematurely at lunch. And now here I am full of caffeine and anticipation.
Pity that when the action gets really exciting later on, I won’t be able to post like this.
