40+5

5 days past my due date now, just in case you haven't been keeping track. ... I have.

We headed off to the midwife's office this morning to have a quick check-up and mostly a Non-Stress Test. Everything's looking good. The Non-Stress Test looked beautiful - it even measured a few contractions, and baby's heartbeat always escalated normally with each movement and/or contraction. (speaking of which, there's one happening right now....)

I shared my worries about meconium as we go further past my due date, and my midwife was more than reassuring. She says that in the 4 years she run this practice, they've only had one birth with a large amount of meconium, and even the women who go as far as 42 weeks generally have clear amniotic fluid. I guess meconium staining is much more related to the stress of the mother than the dates of the pregnancy. She admitted that there hasn't been a study showing that, to her knowledge, but it's what she has witnessed over the years (including hospital work, working under a physician, and all that). And if there is meconium, they know how to deal with it. So I am feeling very much more at peace with that particular concern.

Unfortunately we were at the office for a whopping 1.5 hours today, because they got a little behind, and I had to wait for the machine, and all that jazz. The kids were bored out of their minds by the time we were finally out the door, and hungry, too. But wouldn't you know it, as soon as we got to the main road to get back on the freeway, a police car had zoomed past us, and suddenly the road ahead was blocked off. Drats. I was not familiar enough with the area to know an alternate route, but a whole lot of cars were heading for the mall just next to us, so I decided to follow them. It turned out to be fruitless, and I ended up back where I was when I started, after a good 15 minutes of gridlock traffic. I finally spied a McDonalds, and figured that maybe today might be a good day to break the non-McDonalds pattern I've been in for years, just so the kids and I could eat, and maybe the police would have the road cleared by the time we were done. I gave them my order and everything before I realized I had forgotten my wallet at home, for the first time in ages. No wallet = no way to pay for food. But I have my credit card number memorized, so I asked if they could take that. Big fat nope. I sheepishly told them I'd have to cancel, cause I'm a crazy forgetful overdue pregnant lady. Well, I left that part out, but I definitely felt sheepish. So I pulled into a parking spot and thought maybe we could just sit there until they cleared the road. But I was hungry. Melinda was hungry. Jacob had fallen asleep. My bladder was starting to feel strained. I just wanted to get home, you know?

But of course, if I didn't have my wallet, I obviously didn't have my cell phone either (which belongs in the outside pocket of my wallet when we leave the house). So I couldn't call Jesse and ask him to use Google Maps to help me get to the freeway, like I usually do when I get lost. But I couldn't stand just sitting there for who-knows-how-long, anymore, so I decided to bite the bullet and just start driving, hoping we could find a way to loop back to the freeway.

LUCKY ME, I was successful. Followed a couple roads for a mile or two, and eventually looped back to the main road on the right side of the traffic accident, and we were able to get on the freeway unobstructed! WOOHOO!!

Halfway home, Melinda fell asleep, too. And I started getting the most uncomfortable back ache ever. And my bladder felt like exploding. Thank goodness there wasn't any traffic on the freeway, I might have started crying! I finally pulled into our parking lot at home, an entire hour after leaving the midwife's office, left the sleeping kids locked in the van (which I was absolutely paranoid about), and walked as fast as I could manage (there was no way running was going to happen, no matter how badly I wanted to) inside to use the bathroom. And then grab my wallet and run back outside. Both kids still asleep, still safe in the van. Phew. Then we did go grab some fast food, because dangit, it was 2pm and I was starving.

So there's my adventure for the day. Hopefully mommy has learned her lesson about forgetting the wallet. Of course. On the one day I really could have used it!!! Could have used a phone to call Jesse. Could have used money to grab some lunch. Really could have used my license so I wouldn't feel paranoid in case of getting pulled over or into an accident or something. But it all worked out in the end.

And I'm still pregnant. ;)
Wanna put bets on an April Fool's baby, anyone??

A survey for LDS mothers

An LDS mom is doing a dissertation comparing breastfeeding rates among LDS
women to those of the national US public. If you're an LDS mother, will you please take just a couple minutes to go complete her survey? It's multiple choice, and even with entering several comments where optional, it really took less than 5 minutes for me to complete.

Short breastfeeding survey HERE.

I feel so uncomfortable...

... and this large belly just might be the reason why.


For an equally shocking picture, here's the bare belly: