Productive Friday

Today felt like a very productive day for me, and I am grateful for it. Among the tasks I accomplished were cleaning the kitchen, organizing the hall closet, washing, folding, and putting away five loads of laundry, gathering the last of my birth supplies, cleaning out the kids' bathroom cabinets, putting clean sheets on Ashlee's bed, vacuuming the upstairs, and making dinner for the missionaries which consisted of crockpot pot roast, homemade french bread, oven roasted carrots and potatoes, and creamed spinach. After all that, I took a long cool bath with a glass of iced Mother's Tea. Oh, and seeing that today was going to be the warmest day of the week, I took time to tan the belly. =)
Every day is so different from the one before it. Just when I think I'm on top of my game my energy can go as quickly as it came and I am down for a few days. My body feels great for being 9 months pregnant, but I do feel myself slowing down a little. My uterus is also gearing up for what lies ahead, and every night now I will routinely get increasingly intense Braxton-Hicks contractions, some that wake me out of my sleep. It's kind of fun to analyze the wisdom of the body and to witness an auto-response to the challenge of labor it must instinctively know is on the horizon. Forrest and I were joking that if every muscle were as smart as the uterus, we could just say, "Okay body, we're going to run a marathon in a few weeks, so start training." I always take Braxton-Hicks as a good sign that my body is gearing up for what it needs to do.

I am trying to keep my fears at bay, and it seems to be working. I spent so much time worrying about labor with my last pregnancy and after the birth promised myself I would never do that again. Like my midwife said the other night, when the time comes my courage hormones will kick in. Again, I love the hormone cocktail and wisdom of our bodies.

Here's to the last three weeks of pregnancy ever in my life.

(And the strength to keep up.)