Things that have not yet brought on labor

I know, I know; the baby will come whenever the baby is ready. But I can't quite help hoping that we can encourage her to hurry up... So far, no dice. 

- helping to set up and stack bunk beds 

- spending all morning on my feet in the kitchen making all the things 

- building IKEA-style drawers on my hands and knees with a "helpful" almost-3yo

- driving bumpy dirt roads

- going for a walk

Not all in one day! I would be even less mobile than I am now. Bunk beds were Sunday, and did trigger some contractions, but they went away after an hour or so. Monday I spent hours in the kitchen, making applesauce, sandwich bread, granola bars, snickerdoodles, and sun tea. And then went and walked around the grocery store in the afternoon. No contractions worth paying attention to, but my hands and feet (especially feet!) were pretty swollen by bedtime. This afternoon I assembled a set of drawers, which had many more Phillips-head screws than I'd anticipated and took close to two hours of kneeling and crawling and grumbling. I'm worn out this evening, so maybe I should be grateful not to be having contractions? 

Because I was tired, it was the perfect evening for us to have planned a grilled supper; Matt lit the charcoal as soon as he got home, and when the grill was ready he just had to grab the chicken I already had marinating in the fridge. All I had to do was stick pots of rice and carrots on the stove, and then go put my feet up.

Grilled Lemon-Basil Chicken

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, halved lengthwise

zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves

Place halved chicken breasts in a resealable bag. Combine remaining ingredients in a food processor and pulse 30 seconds. Pour into bag with chicken, squish around well, and refrigerate for at least an hour. Grill at about 400 degrees F for four to six minutes per side, or until done.

I have to admit something: before this afternoon, I had never used a real lemon in cooking. A recipe called for lemon zest? Just throw in a little extra bottled lemon juice; there's not really a difference, is there? Little Bear helpfully added a lemon to my grocery cart yesterday, and by the time I noticed it I didn't have the energy to walk back over to the produce section, so I used the real thing today. Oh. my. word. My hands, my kitchen, everything still smells like lemon, the chicken had the most wonderful "brightness" to it, I am now spoiled. It's going to be so disappointing to go back to the bottled stuff!

Totally a grasping-at-straws hope here, but we made a fun/fancy chicken meal the night before Little Bear was born, and now this little one has been up to the most ridiculous gymnastics for the last hour or so... I haven't even had any sugar tonight! Maybe something will happen tonight? Or maybe she just likes the fresh lemon, too.