So apparently my womb is a pretty comfy place.

   Jocelyn decided to stay in there three days past her due date, which really isn't much at all, but with your first child you start thinking "Is baby coming yet? It could be today!!"  from like, 36 weeks on.  Ha.

   And then Charlotte infamously snuggled in for a long winter's nap and was ousted via induction a week past her due date, because the fluid in my placenta was getting dangerously low.  I am trying to avoid the whole fluid thing again by guzzling raspberry/nettle/alfalfa tea by the quart-full and feeling very "crunchy granola" while I'm at it, but we shall see if it all pays off in the end or not.

   So of course I shouldn't have expected baby boy to break any trends, but it being my first son, you just never know! Things might be different! But....my due date came and went, as did the next day, and the day after that, and the feeling of deja vu just continues to wash over me day after day.

But!  Not all is merely waiting and torment.

   We were able to go with Randy's family to a reunion at Drift Creek Camp over the weekend, and I am so glad we didn't let "waiting on baby" keep us home.  YES, it was over my due date.  YES, it was at a camp down winding, gravel, forest service roads that stretched on for mile after mile.  YES, there was no cell phone service.  And so I guess yes, it was a little bit crazy.  But it all worked out!  And baby boy stayed comfortably settled inside for the entire time, and we returned home safe and sound, and still very much great with child.


   While the waiting is not easy by any s-t-r-e-t-c-h of the imagination, it has given me the opportunity to finish up a lot of nesting projects, of which I am very grateful for.  Crocheting a baby blanket, making freezer meals, decorating the nursery, and whipping up batches of baby lotion and diaper cream with essential oils in them, and feeling once again, very domestic and crunchy.

  And perhaps the best perk of being overdue of all time??!  People start to feel sorry for you and offer to come over and clean your house and walk through the door bearing gifts of Black Rock iced coffee and lunch.  Or at least if you're lucky enough to have sisters-in-law like mine.

I. Am. So. Blessed.


   Today, which was shaping up to be a real hum-dinger, what with being pregnant still and all, and two very grumpy girlies, turned out to be one of the best days I've had in a long time.  Jessi, Amy and Kayla worked their cleaning wonders on my home, and seriously gave me the most encouraging shot in the arm I've had in a long time.  And this office??  Well.  Let's just say I definitely always kept the doors closed.  I wanted to cover my eyes every time I walked by it.  Various projects, empty baskets, boxes of various things and items ranging from sewing items, scrapbooking supplies, picture frames, paperwork, and electronics littered the floor.  It was getting dangerously close to qualifying for a prime feature on a episode of Hoarders.

   But they didn't let it deter them, and they rolled up their sleeves and I choked down my pride, and we tackled the room.  Now I just want to find excuses to walk into it and look around at the neat, tidy, blank spaces and clear surfaces.  I mean, I even found the energy to blog!!  Probably because the thought of sitting in this room for longer than 2.3 minutes didn't make me want to scratch out my eyeballs anymore.

   So, I think it's safe to say that if you bring me iced coffee and clean my house and organize my absolute worst, scary, dungeon, go-in-there-and-you-might-not-come-out-alive room in my house, I will be your friend for life.  Or maybe even servant for life?  In any case, you will MAKE my life.  Seriously.

   Speaking of those eyes that I want to scratch out sometimes, this is what they look like these days:


 I just have to post this because I don't want to forget this time.  That strangely awful/beautiful time of nearing the very, VERY end of your pregnancy and a sort of animalistic haunting comes over your eyes, tinging them with sadness and weariness while somehow at the very same moment, brimming with hope.

   There is something so unique about the eyes of a woman nearing labor.  I was at my appointment on Monday which ended up being super long and complicated and we won't go into all of that, but I passed a woman in labor in the hall, and I just wanted to stare into her eyes.  I felt such a kinship, such a bond, such a, "I know exactly what you are feeling right now".  Her eyes ached with fatigue and the strain of contractions, but there was a quiet peace to her.  A focus.  A determination to see through this pain and meet her baby.

That is the goal.  That is the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow we call pregnancy.

And my eyes are on the prize.

Come soon, sweet son.