Have I mentioned before that I'm tired of being pregnant? Standing is uncomfortable, sitting is uncomfortable, lying down is uncomfortable, walking is uncomfortable--everything is uncomfortable. My hips ache, my feet hurt, I'm as swollen as an engorged tick, and I'm tired because I have to wake up at least three times a night to either flip over or use the bathroom.

But I went in to see the midwife today and she examined me and I'm only a centimeter dilated--the same as I was the last visit, two weeks ago. Total bummer. And I'm beginning to think that all these "natural" methods of trying to help speed things along are a load of crap. I did acupuncture, nothing. I've been using the oil of primrose, nada. I'm beginning to get really discouraged.

I talk to the baby everyday now on the way in to work. I tell him that it's time to come out and meet face to face. That I understand how nice and cozy it is in there where he is, but how great his room looks and how he's really going to like meeting everyone and would he please go ahead and make an appearance already.

And yeah, besides being physically miserable and exhausted, I am ready to finally meet this child. I just can't wait to lay eyes on him. To see who he looks like, what color eyes he has, whose hair he inherited, whose temperament he has ended up with. To hold him and smell him and rock him and nurse him and play with him and teach him things and just be with him. This stage--the pregnancy--has been fun, but now it's time to move on to the next event: having a baby.

So when will he come? I'm beginning to get this awful feeling that he's going to be like his brother and simply never want to come out. Should that happen they'll eventually send me to UNC hospital and induce me, which would be extremely disappointing because that is not the way I have planned to deliver. But I suppose at that point it really won't matter. By that time it would be close to the middle of October and if how I feel now gets steadily worse as the days progress, then by the time mid-October rolls around I'm betting that I'd be willing to do most anything just so long as the end result is having the baby and being unpregnant.

Urg.

Well, I really need to write some thank you notes, but I'm full of Mexican food and Baskin-Robbins ice cream and I'm just not feeling particularly industrious, so I believe that I'll go lie down and try to get as comfortable as I can and read a book.

Maybe next time I get a chance to post I'll have had the baby! A person can dream, anyway. . .