There are certain milestones that a pregnant woman finds herself relieved to have hit. Among them: the end of the first trimester (when the risk of miscarriage dramatically drops), the mark of viablility (when the baby, technically, could survive outside the womb), and then the 37-week mark (when the baby is considered full-term). I remember feeling particularly happy about reaching the first two, and now I’m in awe over the fact that I’ve hit the last! The baby, so to speak, is fully cooked – and it would seem there isn’t much to do but wait…

With that said, the shrinking countdown doesn’t mean I’m just sitting around like a cool cucumber. In fact, my head has been filled with lots of nagging questions/concerns these past weeks – and my worries seem to be lumped into three handy categories:

-Labor: What if I go into labor early? What if the pain is worse than last time? What if my platelets aren’t high enough, or I get to the hospital too late, for my (very necessary) epidural?

-Baby: What if something is wrong with the baby? What if I don’t love her as much as Zoe? (And: how can I possibly love her as much as Zoe?) What if she is colicky or unhappy all the time – i.e. the exact opposite of how Zoe was?

-Zoe: What if Zoe feels abandoned, unloved and/or sad after her sister’s arrival? What if I never get to spend quality time with her? What if I always feel a little guilty for disturbing our happy family of three?

I know these thoughts are so not unique, and I try to keep in mind that something good is about to happen. Besides, I also worried a lot (about labor, the baby, etc.) the first time around – and things turned out pretty well!!

-M

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under 34.Two and a half years. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.