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Surrogate Nesting Pays Off

We've finished the bread; the refrigerator is almost bare. Our bags are packed. The gas tank is full.

We are on baby watch, prepared to drive to Pennsylvania as soon as we get word that our daughter Anna has gone into labor. It's our first grandchild, we know it's a boy, and we're very excited.

We may be ready, but the baby is not. Week 39 turns into week 40 and he stubbornly resists birth. I reach into the recesses of my memory for useful advice and find an old chestnut. Nesting activities, such as baking or cleaning, can bring on labor.

I text Anna with this insight. She does not seem not impressed. I think she ignores my advice … sadly, not for the first time.

I know; I'll do some nesting activities. Perhaps they will work by osmosis to reach across the 800 miles and start the ball rolling. Hey, it's worth a try, right?

I start in the garden by digging up the lilies alongside the garage -- very hard work that yields an aching back but no baby.

Next, I cut up every tomato, onion and carrot in the house to make a huge pot of sauce for the freezer. I bake two plum cakes and a batch of molasses cookies.

I bleach towels, scrub the sink, change the shower curtain, wash loads of laundry. Still no baby. And I am exhausted.

At last my hard work pays off. Anna gives birth to Henry Jackson a few days after I wash the windows and only a week after her due date. Pennsylvania, here we come!

I'm Deborah Booth, and that's my perspective.

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