38w, 6d

Here we go...

I'm now in the midst of making the eggplant parm recipe (from HERE) to get Katie out over the next few days. So far I've washed and chopped up three eggplants, salted them and left them under paper towels and weights to dry. In an hour, I'll start putting the whole  thing together (even though my back WILL NOT cooroperate today, it hurts so much!!) On my baby board, I have women betting if I'll be the next one to go or not. Fingers crossed that I will be!

Katie seems willing, and seems to be as much done with this pregnancy as I am. All she does lately is wildly thrash about like she's trying to find the escape hatch somewhere along my belly. She's constantly shoving her butt, legs and arms out as hard as she can (she also head butts in a terrible way!) like she's gonna make this happen with or without my body's approval! As long as she keeps that up, I'll work with my body to see if we can both get what we want. Having her out by Sunday is my goal. We'll see!

I'm so very tired. Another reason I'd like her out sooner rather than later is that every day gets a little harder. I haven't slept in so long, and the cramping and contractions get a little worse each day. I never knew the last few weeks could be so painful. I'm envious of so many that say they had zero signs, no pain, and then one day went into labor. I'm constantly having so many cramps and contractions, I guess my body is really trying to prepare itself! Just wish it would prepare in the day light hours so I could enjoy a few more peaceful nights sleep before i never get that again.

 Either way, fingers crossed that Katie will be the next eggplant baby!

EDIT: I'm in hour four of making this recipe. Wow, when the mommies on that site said this was time consuming, they weren't kidding! I wish I read the entire recipe out before making it (which is what a lot of moms said, but I didn't understand until now) because now everything is ready, but the sauce needs to simmer for an hour. And without the sauce, I can't put the rest of the dish together to bake. So, I'm waiting and stirring.

 My back is in agony though. Thankfully the bad cramping went away at some point, which is nice, but I was literally breading eggplant pieces and flipping them to fry in the pan while on the phone with my chiropractor asking for an appointment (I got one for late night Friday - we'll see if I make it there! I would have loved to do it tonight since they had an appointment at 6:30, but I have a baby appointment at 6:15 and they take forever in there!)

 I did taste one of the eggplant cakes and it is super yummy. Didn't taste the sauce yet as it didn't have enough of a chance to come together yet, but all the spices make it smell yummy. I did accidently burn the onions, but I was too exhausted to cut up more and try again, so hopefully they won't hurt the taste too much. With all the other flavors in there, I'm hoping it'll be fine. (There's like 7 spices, plus garlic and a few other things.)

So I still have about two or three hours to go to finish this recipe. Good thing I started it at 11 AM, or else this would run into my appointment time (as it is, looks like I'll be cutting it close!) I'm desperately hoping it tastes good, with all the work and effort I've put in. Though honestly, it could taste terrible and I'll be eating it!

Doesn't look like a lot of eggplant, but trust me, there's a huge amount!

Bright red sauce. This is right when I put everything in, so nothing is stewed yet:

Edit: More pictures. After 6 hours of working on this, it's FINALLY done!! Hopefully I'll get to eat some after my shower, before running of to my midwife appointment. I'm so beat, I can barely walk at this point!