It's Official...

I'm a mall walker. And by association - so is Mike. You know this group. Most are senior citizens, dressed in their finest workout gear and best sneakers. They walk the mall because it's climate controlled and a safe place. We now have joined their ranks. We walked the High Point mall last night for an hour. How many loops is that you ask? 3 upstairs and 3 downstairs. I have to say that we were the youngest "walkers" there, and we also received the most pitiful looks. I think everyone in the mall, "walker" or not, knew why we were there and they were sympathetic. Not because we're getting ready to have a baby, but because I now sport that "She's going to go at any moment" look. This isn't our first "mall walk" - we've been casually walking around different malls for a couple weeks now. We even had a store employee tell us this weekend to "kindly get out of his store." He didn't want me to go into labor IN his store and he said that mall security was WAY too slow and they wouldn't make it in time to help. But last night was different. We went with one mission in mind, to get this baby moving. I left my purse in the car. I wore my sneakers with my jeans and we did nothing but power walk the mall.

It did help, I had steady contractions that started out every ten minutes, and then every six minutes and they lasted until about midnight. At which point, I decided to go to bed and get some rest just in case THIS was it. I woke up this morning to no further progression.

There have been other attempts to get this party started.

They say that pineapple has a natural enzyme in it that helps induce labor. I ate 3/4 of a fresh pineapple on Monday night. No lie. Ask my husband. I finished the balance of that pineapple last night, before our big walk.

Sitting on birthing balls - which are basically the same thing as a yoga ball - and rocking forward and backwards is also thought to help. I've sat on our yoga ball for at least an hour the last two nights.

I've semi attempted the old "spicy food" adage. Can't get too spicy though being that cold water tends to bring on a case of heartburn that last all night. Speaking of which, did you know that John Hopkins recently conducted research on the old wives tale that heartburn = a baby with a full head of hair. And that they found evidence to state that this is somewhat true? No lie. Google it. Which means that our baby girl is going to have one lustrous mane.

After much research, I've ruled out Castor oil for the time being. The side effects seem a bit cruel to a woman in my state. Although I may give her a try after my last day of work.

So for now, I guess the only thing left to do is accept that my daughter is trying to teach her mother a lesson in patience. Something I've never had much of, nor been very good at pretending to be. I'm guessing that this is just the first in a long list of things that our children will teach us.

Well, there's that and the new found companionship of my fellow mall walkers.