As week 38 winds down, preparations for the baby's arrival are ramping up. On the doorstep a few days ago were two large boxes. In the first, from my Brother, was little Billy's cradle. We spent the night putting it together and then rearranging the entire bedroom in order to properly accommodate where Antoinette would like to have it setup in relationship to the bed, the bathroom, and the windows and doors. This cradle has been used for seven of little Billy's cousins dating back to 2004 or 2005. Each baby that has used the cradle has his/her name and birth date written on the bottom, with the latest being my Brother's newborn baby girl, Krystal, who was born this past December. The next occupant will be little Billy. We expect another 3-5 little ones to use it after little Billy, so it will certainly gets its fair share of use. Possibly as many as twelve cousins will have used this family cradle.
In the second box, my Sister Christine was kind enough to mail us a huge assortment of books, videos, DVD's, and CD's for kids. Between that and the other boxes of books that she sent, we have enough reading material to read the little guy a story every night for the first three years of his life without rereading a single story. Christine and her husband Mark have been lifesavers, sending us literally boxes and boxes of clothing, toys, books, and misc. baby stuff that we can use for Billy. She has probably saved us close to a thousand dollars. She has been very generous. I guess it worked out very well that she had three little boys already, all under the age of six!!!
With just sixteen days remaining until the due date, we have begun putting the finishing touches on our preparation. We have begun working out the details of the dog's care when we are gone to the hospital, have purchased the final few items needed for the baby once we bring him home, have finalized the flight times for Antoinette's Mother soon after Billy is due to arrive, have charged up his new baby monitor, assembled his new cradle, rearranged the living room furniture to allow for the best view of his swing from as many vantage points as possible, planned out the phone list of people to call, and Antoinette is cleaning everything she can get a dust rag on (the only way to stop her from doing this would be to tie her to her chair, but I think she would break the rope!!!). Much of this is probably overkill, but what the hell. We're first time parents. Its like going to a Bears game in November. Dress warm and remember, you can always take the extra clothes off, but you can never put on the clothes you never brought.
So with sixteen days and counting, some of the final changes to Mom and baby are taking place. One of those changes is not necessarily the water breaking pre-labor. In only 10% of women does the water actually "break" on its own. Billy's weight and length can be all over the place, so we'll stick to the doctor's prediction and say that he's approaching his projected 22 inches in length and 7 and a half pound weight. His weight is now being added at the rate of an ounce per day, the circumference of his head and abdomen are now about the same, and his length and growth rate of his Mother's uterus have both come to nearly a grinding halt.
For 88% of women, delivery happens within two weeks of the due date. On Tuesday, we enter that window and stay there for the next three weeks. That being said, its time to start looking for the signs and symptoms of the three phases of labor. The first is prelabor. This is the time in which the body begins preparing itself for actual labor. Antoinette is currently in this first phase. It consists of lightening, which we've discussed before and is the baby's head dropping into proper position for delivery which relieves pressure on the Mother, Braxton-Hicks Contractions, which are a relatively painless contracting of the abdominal walls as the body begins "practicing" for real contractions, an increased nesting instinct, which is in hyper drive with this one as she won't stop moving (broken rib or two and all), and some other basic physiological changes. The second phase of labor is False Labor, which may or may not occur in a given pregnancy. False Labor feels like the real thing with painful contractions, but those contractions are generally irregular and do not increase in intensity and frequency. They can also slow or stop if you were to walk around. And finally, there is Real Labor. When Real Labor contractions begin, you will find that you cannot walk or talk your way through them, they begin to increase in intensity and frequency, they will move from the top of her belly down to her pelvis, they can be accompanied by a lower back pain, and they can include the breaking of her water.
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