Today marks the last Sunday before the baby arrives, and as my husband Stephen and I sat at brunch, my plate full of blueberry oatcakes with almonds and maple syrup, I couldn’t help feeling like it was “the last supper.” I continue finding myself thinking of the countdown to the baby as an ending, some precious time that will soon be lost rather than as a new beginning.
My mind in the middle of the restless nights gets bogged down with thoughts of what I have yet to do before the baby’s arrival, the emails I need to send, chores I need to complete, miscellaneous tasks I believe will somehow make me feel fully prepared to bring a baby into the world. I know when it comes down to it, I won’t be totally ready anyway. And I surely know I should be focusing this final week on the abundance of simple pleasures to enjoy rather than on what else I can cram in like my chance is nearly forever over.
Things to Savor…
- The excitement in not knowing if the baby will be a boy or a girl
- The freedom of seeing my belly swollen with life rather than as a gut that needs to be sucked in and whittled into shape
- (Nearly) guilt-free extra breaks from work because I’m 9 months pregnant and feel I deserve it
- A leisurely, uninterrupted bubble bath and meditation
- Setting my freetime schedule rather than having it dictated by naps and nursing
- Feeling the baby kick, squirm, and stretch inside me
- Oatmeal chocolate chip cookie bars before I feel compelled to hop on the fitness wagon again
- Knowing the days of swollen hands and feet are numbered and that my shoes will all fit again very soon
- The extra foot and shoulder rubs Stephen offers to my pregnant, aching body
- Watching the first shoots of tulips and daffodils sprout out of the soft earth
- The loveliness of bringing a baby into the world in springtime when everything is renewed with new life and beauty
- Four more days to sip my coffee and journal in the morning in peace
- A pre-surgery day off work to do nothing but read and relax
- Rubbing my belly like a magic lamp that will soon release its own fantastic creature ripe for making wishes
- The curiosity of not knowing all the ways this new life will change us and all the potential for joy it can bring us. A fresh chapter in our life together.
So I will savor and wait.
Gabrielle Koontz 