One day till D-day

Tomorrow is the big day. Or at least tomorrow is D-day, our due date, so we'll see what that brings.

Everything is ready, even me. I've been having contractions off and on for the last 2 days or so, and I'm fully convinced that sometime in the next 24 hours we'll embark upon the horrible adventure called "labor" and the wonderful and indescribable joy called "delivery."

It strikes me now as I type that these two things come in this order for a reason, or at least it makes sense to me that labor comes before delivery. Labor is a lot of work for Chase and me. For me, it's connotated with hours of hard work, uncertainty, sweat, tears, insecurities, pushing, deep breathing, and just plain effort. I think it might be like the preseason of the parenting experience. I don't know how many of you were involved in high school sports, but for me, preseason volleyball was just plain terrible. It was two-a-day practices, usually one at some inhumanely early hour, and one in the heat of the day in the stifling gym. The coaches did their best to come up with the most punishing, painful, and horrible drills they could think up, and I was always sorest on day 3. Rolling over in bed was almost too much, but that was also the day the coaches usually came up with some even more terrible drill to test out on us.

I think that's what labor is likely to be like - terrible, but I'll get to go through it with my best friend (although he won't actually share the pain. I think it may be better in some ways to experience the pain rather than stand helplessly by waiting to be told what to do next.) Chase will be my cheerleader and my support, like he always is, and we'll make it.

But labor leads to delivery - the wonderful moment when we'll get to see the face of the little person who's been growing inside me for months now, the little person for whom we've been preparing ourselves, our home, our family, and our life. She'll be perfect. She'll be beautiful. She'll have a cone head, a squished nose, a smooshed chin, wrinkly red skin and a squalling cry. And she'll be more than we could have ever dreamed - the very embodiment of love.

Delivery. That's what makes me look forward to labor, at least as much as one can. The hard work must come before the joyous payoff. And I know there will be much hard work after delivery - for the rest of my life there will be hard work caring for and raising our daughter. But for now I'm just hoping that both labor and delivery will come sometime in the next 24 to 36 hours... if our little one is promptly on time on her due date!