Ready to go - Week 41, Due Date + 11

I'm reminded of the lyrics to John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane"

All my bags are packed,
I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here, outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye

But the dawn is breakin'
It's early morn
The taxi's waitin'
He's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome, I could die

So kiss me, and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go...

'Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go



Tomorrow, SAM and I go into the hospital whether or not little Petunia is ready. We've reached the end of the line of life as just the two of us, and whether or not she's ready, the doctors have decided that it's time for her to greet the world.

While I'm terribly excited to finally get to meet our new little child, something about knowing that tomorrow or the day after will be the flip of the switch that changes our lives forever puts me in a sentimental mood about what we are leaving behind.

Part of it is that I'm not sure what lies ahead in terms of my place in the world and how Sarah and my relationship will change. We've spent the past five years building a relationship that takes my breath away and in the next 24 to 48 hours, all will be reordered. It's something that, in the past few days, has really hit me. In a way, these past few days waiting for Petunia have given Sarah and I time to really get reacquainted, and now, knowing that we're likely to have to induce tomorrow makes seem like that much more of a dislocative switch that we're throwing. In some ways, I think that if Petunia had just come on her own in the surprising way that these things are oft to happen, that I'd actually be less pensive about her coming as I would have had less time to consider it.



Regardless (or is it, dis-irregardless?), she IS coming and that's an incredible thing to consider. All these nine months (indeed, five years) of waiting will come to something of a fore within the next forty eight hours.

And we're ready.

As you can see in the first photo, our bags are (re)packed (with some larger baby clothes) and we're ready to go. Tomorrow, we march boldly into parenthood with whatever trepidations we have and won't come home until we have had a baby. It's pretty incredible!

Actually, we're still holding out hope that things will happen naturally tonight. SAM has been taking the herbs that our acupuncturist recommended (Blue and Black Cohosh) and we had an appointment with our midwife today who did an exam, stripped her membranes and said that she feels "very positive" about this pregnancy progressing naturally.

We are encouraged by some additional signs that we have had since our appointment at 2:30 that include some cramping / contractions (?) in the afternoon and an actual, real life show. So progress.

And indeed, our hope is that we can go into the hospital tomorrow for our induction appointment in labor and not actually needing to be induced. How great would that be! That'd be pretty great, John!



Of course, our day itself, besides the appointment, has been incredibly active with a ton of walking and climbing up and down stairs. Before our appointment, we dropped some food off at our friend Lindsay's apartment and walked down to our midwife's office.

As it turns out, they were filming part of the new Batman movie next to our midwife's office and we hung out a bit after the appointment during which I got pictures of (I think), Christian Bale and (I'm pretty sure) the director Christopher Nolan.

After that, it was Star Ferry time for the two of us where we enjoyed each other's company over to Tsim Sha Tsui where we had ice cream on the promenade before taking the ferry back again.

Once back, we picked up my new business cards (Thanks everyone, especially Alicia!) which I love and had SAM's favorite dinner of Spicy Peanut Dan Dan Noodles which, we hope will also help push things along.

Now, we're home for some quiet, relaxing alone time. Perhaps the last hurrah of this stage of our relationship and a quiet prelude to the next.

We'll let you know how it goes.