Realized that something felt different yesterday. Ah, yes… I can breathe again, and there’s a bit of extra room in my maternity clothes. I had forgotten about this part of the pregnancy – the ‘lightening’ or ‘dropping’ where kiddo decides to prepare for takeoff. Head down, butt up, everything in a line to exit the pod. Crash helmet at the ready, our little daredevil prepares to run the luge.

Suddenly I’m no longer quite so confident that things are a good month or so away. My grandparents are visiting in early October, and I’ve been forewarning them that the baby probably won’t be here before they leave. Now, every little twinge makes me wonder if labor’s starting. The ‘what to expect’ books aren’t very helpful – they say that for first time moms, lightening generally happens two to three weeks before delivery, and that for those of us who’ve had kids before, lightening can wait and not happen until just before or when labor begins. But, they note helpfully that there’s no good hard and fast rule. Darn it, I want the hard and fast rule that says I now have precisely X days to get everything in order and to prepare for labor pain to begin! That on day Y my schedule will become completely not my own, as I stop whatever it is that I’m doing and navigate to the hospital. If our child chooses poorly, I could get to navigate not one but two Beltways to get to the hospital! Traveling those byways is nerve-wracking enough on a normal day – can you imagine what kind of driver I’ll be as I grip the steering wheel through each contraction and try to swerve around any potholes?