This morning I find myself with nothing to do. There isn’t anything left. The nesting is over. The honey-do list is checked off. Norah is with my mom.
I’ve wandered the house admiring lovely baby things. Then, I grabbed some and took pictures. Because, what else do I have to do besides sit on my birth ball and drink red raspberry leaf tea?
The tye-die is a muslin swaddling cloth I ordered from an Etsy shop in Australia. Norah was a winter baby. Cedar will appreciate a lighter muslin fabric if she/he should fancy a swaddle. If not, it will make a nice blanket, play cloth, etc. The gift certificates are for acupuncture. Woo-hoo! A postpartum treat for me! The necklace is also for me. I will wear it in my birthing time. And that white diaper is a tiny bamboo bumgenius. So super soft!! I think I’ll wait for the meconium to pass before using that white perfection. The black is My Baby Nest–a wrap I didn’t have until Norah was bigger. It is one of the first baby carriers I’ll use with a newborn.
More diapers. Tiny newborn cloth diapers are irresistible. I still shake my head that I have enough cloth diapers to completely diaper a child from newborn to toddler. What a HUGE cost savings! The two pants are wool longies. Wool is the stuff when it comes to diapering. The tiny blue diaper is also wool. The heart diaper is the first one I plan to put on Cedar–lined with a fleece barrier to catch the dreaded meconium. That little gray onsie isn’t new but I remember Norah in it–the outline of her full rounded belly stretching the fabric. Sigh. I won’t be using the baltic amber teething necklace or wooden bowl/spoon for awhile. But I love admiring them! Norah still wears her teething necklace so there was no hope of sharing it with Cedar.
Pitiful, isn’t it? This wistful wandering today. I do have a massage with Natalie scheduled for this afternoon. Bliss.
In a final pregnancy update. All systems are go. My cervix is very nicely dilated and effaced–I’d call it at 3-4 cm. My pressure waves (it is a Hypnobabies thing) are pleasant and picking up in consistency. Honestly, as this baby keeps getting lower and lower. I wonder if maybe I’ll simply skip first stage labor and go straight to pushing? As I’m reading Hypnobabies birth stories, it seems like quite a few either go very quickly (birthing in cars and bathrooms) or miss/ignore first stage because they are so relaxed. I feel relaxed. I feel ready. I feel birthy.
We’ll see.
For my Blessingway, guests were instructed to bring a small plant that would become part of my birth garden. Each guest wrote a word or phrase to include with their plant; words like “center” or “relax.” The plants are meant to surround me physically during my birthing time. 
Unabashedly, I present a proud Norah moment.
