More waiting...

Tyson and I have recently learned that although the birth center employs midwives, they do not seem to follow the midwifery model of care. Midwives supposedly believe that pregnancy and childbirth are natural, healthy events to be celebrated, not medical problems to be "fixed." It turns out, a woman "risks out" of the birth center at 41 weeks, and has to deliver at the hospital, TMC. Although it's nice that the midwife still attends the birth, considering the fact that the average length of a first pregnancy is 41 weeks and 1 day, not allowing the woman to remain at the birth center seems excessive. On Friday, at my 41st week, I learned that not only am I unwelcome to deliver at the birth center, but that they condone induction that early, and actually require it at 41.5 weeks. So much for trusting Mother Nature. But I'll spare you from my rant.

Over the past 6 days, I've tried combinations of acupuncture, moxibustion, evening primrose oil, raspberry leaf tea, blue cohash, black cohosh, membrane stripping, and even the fabulous castor oil/orange juice/ice cream shake. Clearly, Godot is not interested in vacating the premises just yet. And so we wait.

But we had a wonderfully productive weekend. The house is clean, Tyson's truck is washed and waxed, we sold a bunch of stuff we don't need anymore, the guest room almost has room for a guest in it now...and today we worked on the nursery.

Tyson worked some more on the palm tree:

We also prepped all the cloth diapers. More work, but less cost, and much better for the environment, plus they come in all these fun colors!

The changing table's ready to go:

Tyson anchored the closetdrawers and shelves to the wall. I finished organizing the closet and we set up the bookshelf and toychest, which Paula found for us.

Maybe a finished nursery is what Godot's been waiting for...

Still no indications that anything's about to happen from my perspective. But some people believe animals can sense an impending birth. Today when we returned from buying paint, this is what we found:

Vader clawed at the doorways at both the master bedroom and the bedroom closest to the street. He didn't damage the doors or flooring, but this couldn't have felt good, and while he always has some neurotic tendencies (following me around the house, or licking the glass door if he's outside and can't see me) he's not done anything like this in the past 5 years. Maybe he can sense that I'll go into labor soon? I've heard of seizure dogs, and cancer dogs, maybe, just maybe, Vader's a labor dog. At any rate, although we're keeping busy, still we're waiting for Godot, and we hope he or she comes soon!