For those of you who are not reading Melanie’s blog or following my Twitter feed, there’s nothing new to report on the baby Sophia front. Yesterday was Melanie’s due date, but apart from a few scattered contractions (no more than 1 or 2 an hour), nothing’s happening. Nevertheless, I’m sticking close by because these things can change quickly.
While Isabella was five days late, there’s no guarantee that Sophia will wait the same amount of time. Thankfully my mother-in-law has flown into town to be with us, so my concerns about caring for Bella during labor and delivery, as well as Melanie and the girls when I have to go back to work. She’s staying for several weeks, which is an awesome gift.
The waiting, as they say, is the hardest part. It’s an odd feeling in this hyper-scheduled, by-the-clock world we live in to be forced to wait an indeterminate period of time, unable to make commitments or to schedule anything else while we wait for a little child to decide our plans for us. And so we wait.
Meanwhile, our preparations continue apace. I’ve been fixing various broken bits around the house, carrying bassinet and swing from the basement, putting baby-carrier base into the minivan, and so on.
By the way, for those who don’t follow Twitter, on Friday I was sitting in an all-hands meeting at work when I felt the familiar buzz of my phone. Normally I would ignore it, but these days every call could be a call to action. When I saw Melanie’s number on the caller ID I sprang from my seat and out into the hall. Everyone in the meeting knew what that meant.
Heart leaping into my throat, I answered: “What’s up?”
“What kind of batteries does the baby swing take?”
I reminded Melanie that there are no casual calls from her on or after her due date. And I said told her I did not know which batteries the swing uses and that she should buy both C and D.
“You take it on faith, you take it to the heart. The waiting is the hardest part.”
Your phone call story about the batteries is perfect. When my wife was expecting one of our six, soon to be seven children a similar thing happened to me. She was about a month away from her due date. I was in church for the Easter Vigil and I had my phone on vibrate just in case. I’m sitting there and then buzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I tought for sure it must be something going on since she knew I was at Mass and couldn’t answer the phone. I went to back of the church, stepped outside and called. MY wife said she was just calling my voice mail to remind me to get bread on the way home after Mass. We had a discussion later about casual calls too.
There is something very blessed about this time right before your daughter’s birth.
As you say, we live in this highly-scheduled world where the clock, the computer, and cell phone seem to be in complete control of our lives. Your new arrival has absolutely no regard for the demands of such electronic devices!
Good luck, and God bless your little flock.