Overdue: day 11

Here we are, the day before Christmas Eve, and I'm overdue: day 5 billion. Or at least that's sort of what it feels like! It's actually day 11, and oddly enough, I'm calming down about the whole thing. If he doesn't come today, which it seems very unlikely he will, then I'd rather him stay in for Christmas Eve and day. I hate to say that, as this little boy seems to enjoy doing the opposite of what I ask, but Christmas Eve night and Christmas day is what I've been looking forward to for months. If he wants to come Christmas night, I'm okay with that. The day after Christmas? Sure, might as well. But between tomorrow and the next day, I'd very much rather not be out of the house and separated from Katie.

Anyway, today was the second and last NST test. It showed that baby is still just fine in there, happily content but not happy to be woken. It also caught even less contractions than last time. That's right, not a single one! A week ago, I was having real contractions. Very painful, rough contractions. And now? They're all gone! I did have some on Saturday night that were timeable but not close enough together and not strong enough to get excited.

I'm also hoping that this pregnancy did not just give me a new terrible allergy. The other night, Bill made steaks and opened the bottle of wine that we had gotten to have for Christmas Eve (which now won't be happening, as baby is not here still!) Still, I decided that this wine, which is one of my favorites and I've had plenty of times, would pair amazingly with the steak. I had ONE SIP, just one, and ten minutes later my entire face, ears and down my throat was rashy and breaking out. My lips swelled. I never had an allergic reaction to anything like that! Especially to something I've had plenty of times before, the exact same company and the exact same kind. The only thing I can attribute it to is the pregnancy, that's the only thing that's different. If I'm suddenly allergic to red wine, I am going to be so very sad! I've been craving it like crazy this entire pregnancy. Back to the story though, I was luckily told by my midwife just last week that Tylenol PM is a combination of tylenol and benedryl, and since that's the closest thing I have to calming down allergies that I never have any other time, I quickly took two. Within a half hour, most of it was all gone. With Katie's pregnancy, I became quite allergic to wool, to the point where it was hard to breathe if I was around it and it gave me terrible headaches. I still have that allergy today, so I do hope this is unrelated! How terrible for my wine experience to be over when it's barely begun! What shall I drink with my Cracker Barrel cheese??

Today was a better day than some of the last few that I spent mostly crying because I'm just a giant hormonal mess lately. Today I spent 4 hours baking. FOUR HOURS straight of standing up, watching Kitchen Nightmares, rolling out and cutting shapes into sugar dough, then decorating them all with sprinkles and icing afterwards. Some of them came out very pretty, and I even made our family in ginger bread men figures to eat tomorrow on Christmas Eve (being nice, I even included one for baby - even though he refuses to be here for the event!) This is the conclusion to my cookie baking, as I spent a good three hours yesterday baking chocolate chip m&m cookies and chocolate peanut butter cookies in large batches. My midwife said last week that sometimes being on your feet just baking some cookies can help induce labor. Let me tell you, after seven hours of baking, it does NOT put me into labor! In fact, today has been one of the least contraction filled days yet. All it did was make me consume too many sugar goods and killed my feet. Plus the lovely large mess I made in the kitchen that's waiting for Bill to help tackle because the baking was a big enough job for me! At least this way, I contributed to the Christmas meal that's being put together by my inlaws. All I had before the cookies were a few packs of store bought rolls!

Well, it's a half hour until I start entering my 12th day overdue and one of the most anticipated days of my year. Stay put, little boy - I have big plans the next two days! (Why did this child just kick me like crazy while typing that? Fingers crossed he won't be terribly naughty for me!)