Last Outing as a Family of Three

So, after waiting and waiting for a baby that I thought was going to arrive early, I was 10 days past my due date and STILL waiting! When you are waiting and waiting for a baby to arrive the time seems to DRAG on and on. But, I really was doing fine, I just had to keep planning things to do and making lists of things that I wanted to accomplish and just be happy if I DIDN'T get them done BECAUSE I was having a baby! The common phrase around our house was....."well, tomorrow, if we AREN'T having a baby we'll ________."

There was a big celebration downtown with the lighting of the Christmas Tree in the plaza, a light parade, fireworks, and a laser show and we decided that it would be a fun thing to do.

So....we went! Along with everyone else and their brother in this city!

Stephen had to park about 2 miles away after dropping us off, you couldn't even get close to the plaza, and the parade was SUPER DUPER DUPER long. But, it was fun. But, in the midst of the crowds, calling Stephen 45 minutes after he dropped us off to find out he was STILL looking for a parking place, being stuck in walking traffic so thick there was NO MOVEMENT POSSIBLE....I decided perhaps this wasn't the WISEST place for a 41 week pregnant lady to be!!!!

I guess because my husband was a Scout he often will throw surprise emergency scenarios out asking, "If _____ were to happen right now, what would you do?" so that we can think through a plan of action. An example is, when Jaden was small and we were walking through our neighborhood with our dogs and I had Jaden in a baby carrier on my front we walked past a yard with extremely large, LOUD barking, VICIOUS sounding dogs. Stephen asked, "If those dogs were to get out of their yard and run right for us, what would you do?" The idea was to figure out in advance what the best set of options to best protect us, and especially the baby would be before we needed to know it.

Well, as I was standing in the crowd, noting that I was having contractions (nothing new, but seemingly stronger than before) I started asking myself...."If I were to be in serious labor right now, what would I do?" I had a serious plan of action in mind if I needed to get past that cement barricade and through all of those people quickly!

Thankfully, that wasn't necessary. By the time Stephen finally found us, the parade finished and we watched the fireworks.
Of course, Jaden slept through half of the parade and hid his face in Stephen's shoulder because the loud fireworks scared him but, overall, we had a good time.

Then, we started our walk back to the car. Stephen and my mom kept asking me how I was doing and I was fine but, I was noticing that those contractions just kept on coming. We walked and walked and walked.... I have no idea how far it REALLY was but it was far enough. By the time we got to our car all the other cars that Stephen says had been parked along the way were gone so it kind of seemed like he just parked out in the middle of nowhere for no particular reason.

Anyway, by the time we got home, gave Jaden a bath and got ready for bed I was quite sure these contractions were really for real and not going away until we had baby in our arms. But, that's a story for another day!