Last week before baby!

Knowing your pregnancy is coming to an end holds a lot of emotions. Going into that last week of being pregnant I was thankful, joyful, scared, sad, and excited.

At my 38-week appointment we found out I was dilated to a 3. As a first-time mom this made me think baby was going to be coming asap! However, turns out that many women become dilated weeks before they end up giving birth. During that appointment I ended up scheduling an induction date at the 39-week and 2-day mark because I was measuring 2 weeks ahead already, I was dilated, and my doctor was going to be going on vacation when I would be reaching 40 weeks. Since we for sure had an “evacuation” date, everything started getting real!

I remember going home after that appointment and repacking my hospital bag just to make sure I had everything. That bag ended up being repacked 4 more times that week before giving birth LOL! I was so excited and nervous to meet the baby and to find out the gender of our baby finally that I couldn’t still.

I was also working full time still. I worked all the way up to the day I went in for the induction. So not only was I busy thinking about having a baby soon but I was also very busy making sure everything was in line and set to go for when I went on maternity leave.

Aside from being busy getting everything ready, I was also very thankful to have made it this far in my pregnancy journey. I know not everyone makes it this far. I would sit before going to bed, hold my tummy, feel those healthy kicks and just thank God for this miracle. Even though we were not ready at all to become parents the Lord does things in his timing not ours, so I made sure to thank him.

While I would sit there holding my stomach, I also would get waves of sadness. The fact that I wouldn’t be holding this baby inside my tummy anymore would make me sad because I have loved feeling the kicks and hiccups. I loved having my husband kiss the baby through my tummy and watching the baby react to his voice. Of course, I knew that getting to hold this baby would be AMAZING but for some reason I knew that those little kicks would be missed.

Then comes the thought of “we are going to have a baby…I’m going to have to push this baby out…this baby is going to have to come out of me!” You can take as many birth classes as you want to, but I think it’s safe to say that all soon to be moms get a little terrified at this thought. Like we are so ready to meet this precious baby but also, we know it’s going to be the most pain we have ever felt so mentally it takes a lot to get ready for.

One of the most memorable moments in this pregnancy was when it came the morning of delivery day. My husband and I woke up at 4am to get ready to leave the house at 5:30am in time to be at the hospital for the induction. When we were all loaded up in the truck, he looked over at me and asked how I was feeling. I told him I was scared; I was really scared actually because our lives were getting ready to change forever whether we were ready for it or not. Before he started the truck, we held hands and prayed. It was dark, still, and peaceful outside that morning and we sat there praying for the safety and health of the baby and myself. We prayed for Him to have his hand on all of us and all the hospital staff. Those couple minutes of my pregnancy were by far my favorite moment. Now let’s go have a baby!