!Forty weeks
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agk's phlog
9 July 2021 @ 0942
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written on Pinebook Pro while Evy sleeps
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Evy will be 40 weeks Saturday. First-time uninduced
babies usually take 41 or 42, but we go to our jobs
this weekend knowing it's our "due" date.
Evy says a baby is not a bill. We don't need to birth
to avoid past-due notices. In one sense maybe she's
wrong--parents and friends call and text, "Baby come
yet?" Evy's standard response? "Fuck off." We're very
glad they care, but this is the quietest part of our
pregnancy. We're busy napping.
It takes an hour to waddle to the Family Dollar to buy
toilet paper. On the way back Evy walks one foot on the
curb, one on the street, "to shake the baby loose."
We hung the baby-weighing sling from a hardpoint so she
could rest her abdomen in it and sway til baby turned.
It's good if the baby faces Evy's spine, but it takes
gravity to get baby's back (her heaviest part) turned
that way. Pregnant people do not naturally spend much
time face-down.
Our friend Faith is here from North Dakota to cook and
clean. We went to nursing school together. Disillusioned
with nursing, she's learning Java programming. We all
swam at the reservoir Tuesday with one of my coworkers.
Then we played cards under a tree while Evy slept.
Wednesday I taught CPR at work and got approved for FMLA
family leave. We do a little weeding, admire our plants,
and eat the tomatoes, blackberries, and mint. I haven't
kept up with schoolwork. Mostly we've slept. On the couch
Evy climbs on me and falls asleep. In bed she curls around
my arm and leg.
We're reading aloud Agnes Heller's sweet, sassy, smart
book *A History of My Philosophy.* She wrote it after 60
years of philosophical practice. We also read O'Rourke
and Standifer's *Gardening in the Humid South.* The
authors were retired long-time colleagues in Louisiana
State University's horticulture department.
Sleeping and listening to the thoughts of caffeinated,
opinionated elders, we quietly prepare our souls for
motherhood.
