39 weeks, 2 days

I woke up this morning after a good night's sleep and I feel like I have a new lease on life.

*tmi warning*

I had a really good pee after I got up. This is a significant event when you're pregnant. I usually have to pee every couple of hours and it feels like I drank 3 beers and a glass of water whenever I have to go, but then it ends up being barely a trickle. Having a good pee is probably one of the most satisfying things that can happen to me right now!

*tmi warning over*

Anyway, yes, I'm still pretty uncomfortable, and yes I really want this baby out. But today feels like a good day. I decided that as long as I still had at least two weeks to kill I would spend them doing things I didn't think I had time to do.

The first thing is more reading. I went to Powell's on Tuesday and picked up two fabulous books. The first is "Husband Coached Childbirth" written by Dr. Robert Bradley. He's the doctor that created the Bradley method of natural childbirth. This is one of the two most popular kinds of methods of natural birth, the second being hypnobirthing. You can take classes for either of these methods. I suck at meditation and I didn't want to put that much pressure on Paul to coach me so I just figured I'd stick to what we'd learned in our birth classes, but more learning never hurts right? I am so glad I got this book. Already I've learned a set of simple exercises that I can do that will help with the hip pain and swollen ankles I have already. It would have been nice if I'd been doing them weeks ago! I'm making Paul read it too. This is an absolute MUST if you are even considering an unmedicated birth.

The second book is "The Baby Book" by Dr William Sears and his wife Martha. This was sitting on the coffee table at the birth center before one of my appointments and I started thumbing through it and was sold. It has literally everything you ever wanted or needed to know about what to do with a baby. I was skimming through it yesterday when I read that you don't want to leave your baby swaddled tightly for long periods of time because it hinders the development of their hips since they can't kick their legs. I was prepared to be a swaddling pro since it's suppose to help with colic and had never heard this before. I'm really glad I read it now! Every time I pick it up I learn something new and significant.

By the end of the day today I'll probably get the last scarf finished. I've decided this is the thing that the baby's waiting for. She's considerate like that. I just have to wrap them and they'll be ready to go. I'm also going to spend some time on the baby book. I wrote a good amount of stuff in it when I bought it, but haven't really added much to it since. I'll probably put in the gift list from the shower and put in some pictures since I won't really want to do it later.

With all this stuff to preoccupy me, and because I'm having a good morning, I'm feeling pretty good about the wait ahead of me. Perhaps not being stressed about it is just the thing that my body needs to do its thing! *fingers crossed*