This work week has been busier than I’d originally assumed it would be. I’m supposed to be offloading all my account work onto my colleagues who are temporarily covering for me while I’m on leave, but some of them are out on PTO this week, which means I still have day to day tasks to do. It’s not that bad because it keeps me busy, but I had told my mom that work would be slowing down this week, so I suppose she took that as a cue that she could call me whenever and I’d be free. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have told her that, but oh well. Now it’s too late.
I was on back to back calls for about two hours this afternoon, and she called three times during that period. I saw three missed calls from her on my phone, and I was wondering what tangent she was on. So I called her back, and she nearly raised her voice at me.
“What is going on?!” she exclaimed. “Why didn’t you answer the phone?!”
I explained to her that I was on back to back work calls, which is why I didn’t answer the phone. What was wrong?
“You didn’t answer the phone, so I got nervous and thought something was wrong!” she responded. “I thought you could have gone into labor! You need to call me back right away when I call, otherwise I will worry! I need to know that you and the baby are okay!”
Oh, great. Now my mom is on edge because she’s worried about when I’m going into labor, which at this point, could be any time, and she’s more anxious than I am. So now I have to deal with her anxiety on top of my own state of uncertainty….
To be honest, I don’t really have much conscious anxiety around this; when it happens, it will happen. The only thing that has recently heightened my anxiety was the hospitalization and the doctor saying that the baby is small on average, and that the placenta needed to be more closely monitored. I’ve been gradually, mentally preparing myself for labor since around week 30. I’ve certainly done as much research about it as I can. Now, it’s just a matter of whenever Pookie Bear is ready to jail break.
Well, I still have Vietnamese sticky rice dumplings and lactation cookie dough to make for the freezer, so Pookie Bear, as a reminder: don’t come out yet!!