As the weeks counted down closer and closer to my due date, I was so eager to meet this little baby that I was getting restless. I cleaned, read books on parenting and birth, took photos of my now enormous belly, and washed baby clothes, breathing in the soft baby scent and marveling at how tiny everything was. How could a little foot be THAT small to fit in these booties? How could a little bum be THAT tiny to wear newborn diapers? I was convinced that I would go PAST my due date of July 27, and even told people the baby would come around my birthday of August 9th. Of course, I hoped it would be much sooner than that, especially since I was turning 30 and I wanted to be able to say I had a baby in my 20's, not 30's :)
At work, I had decided that I would be leaving my job to take on my new job of "mama" to this little dear one. We researched daycare costs in NYC and there was just no way we could justify paying THAT much to have a stranger raise our child. My job offered 6 weeks off for maternity leave (typical of the U.S.). I know, for those of you in Canada and other countries reading this, I'm sure you're as shocked as I was. My mum put it best when she said, "SIX WEEKS?! Why, you arent even allowed to take a PUPPY away from
It's mother at 6 weeks!!" I can't imagine leaving a newborn for 8 hours a day in daycare at 6 weeks old.
Day care costs in manhattan- oh boy, are you ready for this? The centers we looked at averaged about $2400/month! And a full day is considered from 9am-4pm, and our jobs both have a LOT more extended hours than that! So if I was to keep working, I would also have to ask my employer to allow me to come in an hour later and leave 2 1/2 hours earlier every day! Probably not gonna go over too well! Then, if the child is sick, I would have to take the day off, and I only had 10 vacation days a year ( again, welcome to America!).
We looked into getting a nanny, as most people do in Manhattan, since daycare is so expensive anyway. Nannies cost about $700-750/week, which would mean $3,000 month. It was clear that I desperately wanted to be with my baby instead of working just to be able to pay someone else to see those first smiles and first steps. As much as I miss my job and my colleagues, when I wake up to those big smiles and coos, and get to hold my sleeping baby in my arms, I know we made the right decision.
My last day of work was July 8th. By that point, I was feeling so exhausted by the end of the day and my feet were so swollen it made getting around difficult. Plus, I was feeling the pressure of the baby dropping (Aka: bowling ball between my legs) and my waddle had grown comical. I was sick of dealing with commuting on the subway or bus, because it was 100 degrees outside, making it 110 or more down in the belly of Hell known as the subway in NYC summer. I was warned by my midwives to drink ridiculous amounts of water and stay far from the platform edge in case I should faint from the heat and fall onto the tracks. Yeah, scary, I know!
I took a picture of my last day at work:
Over the next 2 weeks, I spent time napping, walking, doing prenatal yoga and stretches 2-3 times a day, and enjoying the last few days of selfishness before this baby would radically change my life forever. I read books, wrote music on the piano, cleaned/organized, and dreamed of my little boy/girl. I was so excited and ready to meet him/her, but I loved being pregnant SO much!
Cory and I went out for drinks (well, Sprite for me!) at Croton Resevoir just a week before I went into labor. Cory was leaving town for a wedding and I warned her months ago that fate would proabably have it that I would go into labor on that very weekend that she would be away! She told me to hold it in until she gets back!
While she sipped on a pear martini and I gobbled down a plate of potato skins (yay carbs!) the waitress came over and asked me when I was due. She said I was having a boy for sure, since the belly only stuck out on the front, not the sides, and my nose hadn't spread or swelled. She also encouraged me not to have drugs for labor, saying that she chose not
To and it was the best decision she made. She said that if you turn off your body's way of communication through the pain, you don't have any idea how to push or move in order to get the baby in position. (I agree now- she was right!)
As we were leaving, Cory made me stop outside on the sidewalk and take a picture because she said it might be the last time she sees me pregnant...
...she was right TOO! ;)
