Waiting, Waiting

One week and six days to go until my scheduled c-section ... not that I'm counting or anything! At this point, I'm really not sure how it would be possible for me to be any more miserable (knock on wood).

Elsa is on her third cold in less than two months, and while I lucked out and avoided the previous two colds, this one has hit me hard, mainly in the form of a horrible cough. I've been having terrible coughing fits, mostly right after I eat—I guess pregnancy-induced reflux plus chest congestion equals hacking worthy of an emphysema patient. And I never really thought about it before, but coughing when your abdominal muscles are already paper-thin is not fun. At first it was only painful when I was actually coughing, but now after two days of this, I think I've strained every abdominal muscle I have and the pain is basically constant. I'm just trying not to think about what might happen if I go into labor and need my c-section early—because if there's anything worse than coughing when you're 37 weeks pregnant, I suppose it's coughing right after having your entire abdomen sewn up!

So, Elsa and I are just waiting. Waiting for our colds to end, waiting for this pregnancy to end, waiting, waiting. Elsa has a new obsession, the movie "Lady and the Tramp," so we've been watching that on a daily basis, wiping noses about 8,000 times a day, trying not to cough ourselves into herniation, and ... that's pretty much it. I feel like Mother of the Year: Elsa's face is constantly encrusted with snot, the playroom looks like a tornado hit it, she hasn't had a bath in almost a week, and we have no food in the house because I lack all motivation to go to the grocery store. It's delightful. Fortunately Bob has been less busy at work in the last week or so—he's been able to make dinner a few times, clean up around the house, and he usually puts Elsa to bed. This has been a huge help, and it's a significant improvement over the previous couple of weeks, when Elsa basically never saw him at all.

Now for the good news: I think we are actually honing in on a name, though no decisions yet! Also, I've had no swelling or other evidence of pre-eclampsia, and at my last doctor's appointment, I actually LOST a pound from last time! That was cause for celebration. When I was pregnant with Elsa, I gained three, four, or even five pounds a week in my last month (I'm now more sure than ever that it was probably all water weight due to the pre-eclampsia). Which led to the following realization: With Elsa, all my misery was concentrated directly after she was born. The pregnancy, for the most part, went just fine. For whatever reason, this pregnancy has been tougher—more morning sickness at the start, and more exhaustion and discomfort the last few months, along with the added physical demands of keeping up with a 2-year-old—so that must mean that with this one, all the misery is concentrated before the birth. It'll be smooth sailing once she finally comes out. Right? RIGHT? : )

P.S. There are no pictures with this post because Elsa's hair is a giant greaseball and I don't think we need any photographic evidence of my stellar mothering skills these days. So instead I tried adding a picture of Lady and the Tramp, but Blogger must be owned by Disney, because I've tried several different images pulled off the web and they all failed to upload due to "internal errors." Hmmm.