37 weeks, and my vent about the first day of school meet and greet

We have finally made it full term. I am 37 weeks and 2 days. No signs of baby coming any sooner than his induction date of September 1st, but that's totally okay with me. I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks of being able to get things in order while the kids are in school. Really, there isn't that much to get into order, our house stays pretty clean since we've moved, but there are little jobs that are tough to do with the everyday chaos of life...for example, our kitchen has white cabinets and they could all use a good wipedown with a magic eraser...things of that sort. We already have everything we need for him to come, with the important exception of the car seat that my mom will be bringing from Tennessee the day before. My sister had her baby on the 16th, she had a little girl named Halle! She is so precious and I am very sad that I can't jump in the car and head down to Knoxville to meet her. That, I suppose, is the drawback of being due only two weeks apart. It might be a while before we meet each others babies. My sister is doing well and her baby is fabulous. She says her family is complete now, with three girls and a little boy. She is thrilled and I'm thrilled for her. Our children started school on Friday. It was just a half day for the older ones and an hour long meet and greet for the Kindergartners and preschool kids. This year our twins start Kindergarten and Sydney is in the Pre-K program. Bree is on the waiting list which means that perhaps a spot will open up for her this year, perhaps not. Truthfully, I'm okay with it either way. I think she'd enjoy it in many ways, but she's also still a baby three, so she's okay with more time with her Mommy. So anyway, Friday was a meet and greet for the little kids, which means you go for an hour, meet the teacher, fill out paperwork, put away school supplies and acclimate your child to the room. This is very simple. Very simple, people. Yet for some reason, there are always parents who persist in treating the meet and greet as though it were a private conference for them, or a chance to hold everyone else up while monopolizing the teachers time going on and on and on and on about their child, their child's needs, their child's schedule or their child's interests. Here's the deal folks. If you need more time than the few minutes it takes to introduce your little darling to the teacher, please call the teacher on the phone at a later time, send and email or schedule a conference. We had three classrooms to visit during our time...Isaiah and Alexandria are in separate classrooms so we had to break up our time between both rooms, plus we had to drive out to a second elementary school which houses the Pre-K program for Sydney's meet and greet. So that makes three classrooms. I tried to give each child enough time in their room that they'd be familiar with it when they return for a full day Monday, make sure they got to each "station" the teacher had listed for them to visit during the meet and greet and do each activity the teacher requested. We visited lockers, unpacked school supplies, made handprints, took a first day picture, and read a book. We said hello to the teacher and located the nearest bathroom and the child's desk/table. The teacher requested that we stop to say goodbye before we left the room and here is where things turn frustrating. The teacher had a small box of prizes for each child to pick from on their way out. The little girl in front of me had some difficulty with deciding which prize she wanted from the box. So we waited, and waited, and waited. The little girl hemmed and hawed and stood there and ran her fingers over all the trinkets. Her mom stood there watching....patientely, apparently seeing no need to hurry her little girl along. I, on the other hand, was less than patient because I have different views on how things like this should go. In my mind, after the child has had an appropriate amount of time to chose something, the parent needs to issue a polite "Hurry up sally, other people are waiting." Or something along those lines. This particular kid took every second of five mintues to pick her prize. The mother stood there silently the entire time. The teacher tried in vain, twice, to hurry the child along with no success. Then, suddenly,just as the little girl settles on her choice, the mother decides that now would be a great time to strike up a new conversation with the teacher regarding where pick up and drop off should occur. What? You couldn't have asked this while your daughter took forever and a day to pick out her prize? You see, this is how I know I have reached the end of my child bearing years. My patiences are wearing down...I'm beginning to see things differently....common courtesy, in my mind, trumps allowing a five year old to take all day picking out a prize while tons of other families wait in line behind her. Finally the teacher held out the prize box so that Alexandria could pick. Alex took five seconds, I grabbed the handout we were supposed to get and said goodbye to the teacher. The other mom was still standing there, still unwilling to let her conversation be concluded even though the teacher had moved on. The teacher asked me if I had any questions. I told her, no, we were great and that we'd see her Monday morning. As I walked out and down the hall, I head "other mom" still chatting. Okay, so maybe it's my hormones. Maybe it's the fact that these are my 6th and 7th children in Kindergarten so it's not something I'm particularly apprehensive about. Maybe I just need to cut Other Mom a break. Maybe I'm just an impatient old hag. Or maybe I'm the mean mom who would be so cold as to rush a brand new kindergartner in choosing their prize on what must surely be one of the most important days of their lives thus far. Maybe a combination of all these things. All I know is I have one hour, three classes, three kids, three meet and greets and enough common courtesy for all the other parents and kids to understand that while my kids are certainly the center of MY world, they are not the center of THE world. And this is a meet and greet, not my own conference time. Conversation should be very short, and general in nature. The line should be kept flowing so everyone can get in and out, all the children can talk with the teacher and the teacher actually has time to breathe between the first session of meet and greet and the second session shortly following. And that's my rant about the first day of school. My kids all love their teachers, they were super excited about bringing in all their new supplies, gym shoes, backpacks ect and getting new agendas and schedules. They are all in great states of mind about the new year and can't wait for Monday. I'd love to say I have pictures of the morning as I usually do each year, but this year, as I went to snap the first picture, my battery died. So, Monday will be the first full day of the year, so I'll get pics then. I'm excited about it. My appointments at the midwife's office are still twice per week, except that I skipped Friday because of the first day of school and meet and greet stuff plus Manny had a scrimage that evening. Baby is weighing in on the small side at only 5 pounds, 5 ounces as of last week. I'm not sure I have much faith in ultrasounds and their assesment of fetal weight this late in the game, but that's the number it generated, for whatever it's worth. Baby was still breech and flipping all the time at 36 weeks and 2 days. At 36 weeks and 5 days, he was head down, whether he stays that way or not, I guess we'll wait and see. He was not at all engaged and I've since felt him flipping all around, so let's all hope he gets head down for good really soon. Induction is still on for two weekends from now. It's hard to imagine that's all the time I have left with him in my belly. Nighttime is hard though...it's hard to turn over, my back aches and I'm up several times at night either to use the restroom or because of my aching back. I have no reason to believe that baby won't make it to induction day though. No real contractions, just the usual, generic Braxton Hicks ones that squeeze but don't do anything meaningful. At my last appointment I was 1.5 centimeters dilated but not much effacement going on at all, cervix is still very high and baby is floating in the North Pole. Pretty standard for someone with lots of babies at this stage. I go again Tuesday, but I'm not expecting much to be any different. Perhaps there will be a bit more dilation, maybe not. Probably not much more effacement and my cervix and baby will be pretty much the same. We'll see if I'm right!