Counting the hours until we meet

Yes, I'm still pregnant. Thanks for asking. It's been a bit of an emotional day for me as I really didn't want to have to walk back into the doctor's office with a baby still on the inside versus outside of me. I had been given the approval to go to my due date (which is Tuesday officially, so I still have a few hours) but no one was quite sure if I'd be allowed to go past it.

I brought Rich with me for moral support. I'm not sure if I have a note in my chart now (WARNING: May burst into tears! Ixnay mentioning the ueday ateday!) or if bringing the 6'5" dude with me helped, but everyone there was super nice to me and treated me with kid gloves.

Baby boy has a great heart rate, plenty of amniotic fluid, good movements, lots of hiccups and a mommy with stellar blood pressure (seriously - 120/77). But he still hasn't made any motions to come out quite yet.

I'm still 80% effaced and 1cm dilated but not much more than that. The baby has dropped quite a bit, though, so all those squats have been helping. Dr. D did a bit more "encouraging" of my cervix to dilate so we'll see what happens.

My OB obviously has been rooting for me to go into labor on my own this past week. And she obviously is doing everything she can to give me the birth I want without chemicals or surgery. But the longer he stays in there, the larger he gets and the more concerned she gets.

I've been given the go ahead to stay pregnant for another week until my appointment next Monday. If at that point he hasn't dropped significantly more, I'm not more dilated and we still don't have a baby in our arms, we will cross the bridge on what to do next. I'm hoping that isn't the bridge to Cesarean Mountain without at least trying over the one to Induction Valley, but I'm trying not to think about that yet and focus on the seven days I have before then.

So light a candle, say a prayer, sacrifice a chicken, spit over your shoulder or do whatever else you can to convince our son he wants to come out this week. Rich and I are doing our parts as Operation Squat, Walk and Screw continues apace. Wish us all luck!

Living Out Loud volume 10: When I grow up

On Friday, Rich and I took my parents on a bit of a field trip to Richmond. As we were leaving the neighborhood, we passed a street sweeper and my father wistfully said, "maybe that's a job I could do." At 68, he's constantly looking for some sort of job that he could do that would keep him busy and bring in a few extra dollars. Sitting in the car, it made me wonder if he ever had his ideal job his whole life and if he even knows that that job would be. My mother and I believe that the jobs he claims he should have had when he was younger he would have hated. I also marveled that a job like driving the street sweeper is one of those jobs that would be great to tell little kids about. What 2nd grader wouldn't want that job?

Pondering the dreams of childhood (or adulthood) with the reality of earning a paycheck reminds me of the 1999 Monster.com commercial:

Which brings me to this month's Living Out Loud project. What did you want to be when you "grew up"? Did you get that job or become that person? Do you think that's rare or not? Has your idea of what you want to be when you "grow up" changed since you were a kid and how? Do you think you'll ever be that person? How important is it to you? How would you explain to a kid about choosing what to be when he or she grows up and attaining that goal?

Details include:

• Write something personal about yourself using the previous paragraphs as a guideline. Do not feel that you have to address each question above. The spirit of this project is to share something about yourself; I'm just throwing out ideas.

• Once you have completed your entry and posted it, please email me the link at genie [at] inabottle [dot] org.

• If you do not have a blog to host your story, you can email me the story directly and I will add it here as a guest post giving you credit. The more the merrier!

• The due date for entries is Sunday, November 1st (the first Sunday of the month) at 5pm Eastern.

• Once I have collected all the entries, I will post a wrap-up to list them all and announce a winner. The winner will receive some sort of prize to be determined but all participants will receive fame and glory and a link on our Living Out Loud blogroll.

I'm probably going to write my entry sooner rather than later since at some point between now and when this is due, I will have birthed a person (God willin' and the creek don't rise). Just remember to send me an email to your own entry, and we should be good to go.

Looking forward to reading them all!

Recap of 9th Living Out Loud project: Your theme music

This month's project was an interesting opportunity to combine the written word and melodies. So many songs I myself looked into either had the right kind of tune but not quite right lyrics or vice versa. I'm sure there's an analogy for life in there too. I'm pleasantly surprised by the number of participants this month, particularly since I myself found it much more daunting to complete than I originally thought. You all rock! Let's see what we've collected in these greatest hits.

Kim's Soundtrack Just for Now I had a feeling this project would be right up her alley, and I'm impressed that she managed to find several songs that speak to where she is right now. I had a hard time even finding one.

Gina's A Song by Any Other Name I'm pleased that now when I hear Happy Girl, I'll instantly think of her. Gina, you have become worlds more chipper since I've first known you and I'm glad this is your theme music.

Deb's The Soundtrack to Your Life This project did it's job in that most of the songs Deb listed are ones I would have never guessed were things she listened to or associated with. I just didn't know anything about her music tastes before this. And now I've listened to gems like Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

Karal's Learn to be Still I think I prefer the sentiment of her second Eagles song choice over the first one. Much less of a trapped feeling. And I love the song Brickhouse.

SuziCate's A Little Rain, A Little Peace This entry comes from Karal's friend SuziCate, renting space in her blog to share her thoughts. As a self-proclaimed "recovering control freak" I can relate to what she's talking about. All that wasted energy of worry is not easy to let go of, but I'm encouraged by her story that it's possible.

Megan's Me and my gypsy soul I admit that I've never really analyzed the lyrics of this song myself, but just know the song is inexplicably soothing. So when it comes to calming fears, perhaps that the most important aspect of music for many of us.

Laurie's Now's the Time the Time is Now I am so glad Laurie's writing more again. I thought about Closer to Fine as my own theme music as well, but I really enjoy the song she ended up choosing for a variety of reasons. Everyone should sing their song.

Nina's Theme Music ... I pondered this as well that there are so many chapters of my life that are either Before or After X (or perhaps briefly During X). Hearing about life after Z made me smile.

Rich's Let me play you a song I don't associate Rich as being very "rascally", but I do think of him when I hear this song.

Grace's Theme music Grace snuck this in after the deadline, but I'm wise to her and added her to our list of participants. :) As I told her, boating is a nice analogy for life.

And my own Letting the sun shine through: finding my theme music

As always it was hard to pick just one winner, but for this month, I'm choosing SuziCate. Her entry told a great story of how her life has changed over time and how that soundtrack changed as well. Congratulations on your first blog entry!

SuziCate will receive an iTunes gift certificate to help expand her music repertoire and find more songs that might speak to this current chapter of her life.

Thank you all again for playing along. This project continues to be a bright spot in my month. I promise to at least announce a theme for the upcoming month, unless this baby boy comes and screws up my writing schedule!