Eight More Weeks

From here on out, the pregnancy is basically more of the same. Bagel is pretty much ready for action, and will spend the next eight weeks (hopefully less...) putting on enough weight to withstand the rigors of adjustment to life outside the womb. At this point he's about four pounds, and will gain about half a pound a week. In four weeks he will pass the six-pound threshold that offers the best chance for survival. Bagel seems to like only two things to eat: meat and sugar. Lots of meat, and lots of sugary foods. I try to eat whole-grain things to give him the carbs he wants, and dairy for the protein, but he doesn't seem to like those. He just keeps making me crave meat and sweets alternately.

The pain in my tailbone is really, really bad, so I'm going to set four weeks as a goal to get through. After that, if I need additional time, I'll set another two-week goal, etc. I realize that there's nothing I can do to make the time go faster, nor can I know or control when it will end (except that in ten weeks it will all be over, one way or another). But I can divide the time into manageable chunks to get through, one at a time. I only have to walk as far as the horizon.

Based on the patterns of my previous pregnancies, I predict that Bagel will come early and quickly. The two previous pregnancies went to 37 and 38 weeks, and the labors were 8 hours and 4 hours. The 8 hour labor (Tiny Princess) would have been only 5 hours if they hadn't turned up my epidural so high that I spent three hours pushing. So I predict this labor will be three hours or less. At the rate I'm going, I may end up having this baby in the bathtub at home.