The Waiting Game: My Story of Labor & Delivery

From the minute you find out you are pregnant you can't wait to meet the little one growing inside you. You fantasize about what he or she will look like, the first time they will smile, crawl, walk and call you Mommy. Of course all this seems very far off in the future - 9-10 months to be exact. But while most of your pregnancy is spent planning for baby ¦¡ and really you need all the time you can get to make sure all the details are in place ¦¡ you never really think about those final days or weeks before the delivery. If you are like me, you don't really contemplate whether you will be late or early. And even though you know the odds of delivering on your due date are slim, you still have that number stamped in your mind. That is the day you will meet your child. But what if it isn't?

I was due to deliver August 11^th with my first child. We chose not to know the sex of the baby so the waiting was even more fraught with excitement as I had no idea who had been living inside me for the past 40 weeks. The nursery was ready, the pediatrician was selected (one for the hospital and one for afterwards), the names were finalized, the bag was packed, the phone list written and the transportation to the hospital was arranged. Now all we needed was the baby.

The visit to my doctor 3 days before my due date prepared me to deliver late. I was barely dilated - maybe half a centimeter and 70% effaced. But while it prepares you rationally, it does not prepare you emotionally. I chose to work up until the baby came out. Luckily I had a wonderfully easy-going pregnancy and knew that any days I took before the birth would come off my leave later. And of course I wanted to spend as much time with my baby as possible before returning to work. What I was not prepared for were the daily barrage of comments from co-workers "You still here?" and "No baby yet?" Friends would say "Just checking in to see if there's any news" and loved ones "What did the doctor say?" "How are you feeling?" "Nothing yet?"