The Waiting Game
by John Wilson
If you know me, you know I’m not very patient. Waiting for the birth of our son has been a long process full of ups and downs. At first we thought he was coming at Week 36. My wife has gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia, and the doctor thought we’d be real lucky to make it to 36 weeks. This was the last week of January and my wife’s doctor said that he could come at any time, and she’d be real excited if he made it to 37 weeks. At this time I had to stop traveling (traveling is basically my job) and wait it out.
Thirty-seven weeks and came and went without even a serious contraction. Which became a problem. We had one scare when Parker decided it’d be a good idea to take a day off from beating up mom’s insides which caused a trip to the Emergency Room. Everything was ok, and still no Parker.
If you’re Parker, why would you want to come out? You don’t know how bored you are. It’s warm, you don’t have to wash the dishes and you have free food coming in all day (no chewing required). If you can keep from rolling over on your umbilical cord then life is golden. Personally, I don’t blame him.
Week 38 and 39 have been super slow. Technically, after 37 weeks you’re full term, so all the growing now is just gravy. The doctor thinks he’ll be around 8 pounds (of pure muscle) which I’ve learned is a pretty good size kid.
Because of Amanda’s high blood pressure she hasn’t been allowed to work and was basically on what I call, “house arrest.” The only exercise she got was running to the bathroom 40 times a day. I took advantage of this time to try to give Parker mini pep-talks. 
I started by asking him nicely to come out and play with us. I was encouraging and and kept my voice quiet. Then I tried talking to him like a football player, “You can do it! Let’s go man, pick up the pace.” When that didn’t work, I got religious on him, “Run to the light.” Nothing.
I found out this morning that Parker is holding my wife’s bladder hostage. He says he’s not coming out until all of his terms are met, and he’ll keep squeezing every 45 minutes until we do. Boy do we have a surprise for him on Wednesday!
To see the most up to date pictures, stay tuned to this website on Wednesday!
All pictures taken by me! See the whole set here or my entire collection here.
