The Rumors are True

Yes, our due date actually is tomorrow.

This ominous "May 27th" that has loomed in our distance since early September has finally arrived. And yet - no baby. He is still quite happy inside, growing at an alarming rate, and evidently unaware of what he's missing in the outside world. Wait, who am I kidding, the kid has constant access to warmth, food, and attention. Who would give that up?

But, I digress. I'm sure you are wondering when the big day will be and, believe me, so are we. For the past four weeks (yes, FOUR weeks, and I'm not even due yet) I've had the most unlikely of people ask me (to my face) "so, have you had that baby yet?" to which I would generally like to respond "does it look like it?". Other frequent and similarly stupid questions have included "when are you going to have that baby?" and "How far is your cervix dialated?" (a note about that last question: My midwife doesn't check my cervix. Why? because it's a completely irrelevent measure of progress until one is actually in active labor. One woman could walk around three centimeters dialated for 3 weeks while another could be zero centimeters dialated one day and have her baby the next - on a totally seperate note, our co-workers really souldn't be asking us how far dialated I am, I think it's a rather innappropriate question for them to ask. Then again, I'm very pregnant, uncomfortable, and SICK of people reminding me of those two things, so maybe this is my over-sensitivity speaking. You can't blame me, can you?)

But, I dirgress (wait, didn't I already do that?). If you happen to know a woman who is pregnant, regardless of how far along she is, let me give you the following tip. No matter how tempting it may be, please kindly resist the urge to remind her that she's "getting close!" or that it could happen "any day now!" because the reality of it all is that a due date is really just an estimate -it is not a gold standard. Let me remind you that the baby doesn't know a single thing about a calendar, or about time, and he certainly has no idea what a due date is. No, a due date means very little as only 5% of babies actually arrive on them (90% arrive within 7 days of their duedate, on either side, while the remaining 5% arrive well before or well after)

Take home message: I have no say in when this baby arrives. I am more anxious than you are to have him out, BELIEVE ME! So, if you find yourself just dying to know if we've made any "progress", rest assured, be it by blog, e-mail, phone, or facebook, you will be aprised of the details eventually and if we can be patient, so can you.

I welcome your encouragement, but I really need you to help me let the due-date anxiety go by focusing on other things for the time being. Thank you for your support!