Sunday Salon: any day now

I'm pregnant enough that a steady stream of colleagues stop by my office each day to see if I'm still at work. I imagine people are visiting this blog, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to see if posts are appearing. Yes: I'm still pregnant.

Any day now the nomadbaby will be here. My due date is later this week, and my OB practice doesn't let patients go more than week past their due date. So, one way or another, sometime this week or next, the nomadbaby will be here. I'm definitely at "the sooner the better" stage. I am so excited to see his face, hold him in my arms, and see Mr. Nomadreader hold him.

It's getting harder to enjoy the last few moments without him here. I've been having cramping and mild contractions since Thursday night, which adds to my general physical discomfort at being 39+ weeks pregnant. If labor weren't on the horizon, I'd be more inclined to call them painful, but imagining what's coming, I'm trying to keep it in perspective and use words like "uncomfortable" instead. They're also such a tease. When they started, I thought labor would soon follow, but this baby seems relatively content for now, despite his kicks against contractions.

I've still been reading, but I've been faring better the past couple of days with mysteries and nonfiction than the Booker Prize longlist. Rolling cramps are much more distracting from beautiful language than from a tense thriller. Thankfully, I'm still sleeping pretty well, and I'm trying to stay as well rested as possible so when labor comes, I have as much energy as possible.

I have managed to read three of the Booker longlisted titles, and I've enjoyed all three. It's a fascinating longlist, despite its dearth of diversity and lack of female writers. I'm curious to see how the rest of it fares, as well as which titles make the shortlist in September. While I hope to read all the longlisted titles, the first few weeks of motherhood may not be the best time to tackle many of these titles, so I'm playing it by ear.

It's a rare treat for Mr. Nomadreader and I to have a day off together, and we're starting it by drinking coffee and reading on the patio. As it's likely the last day off together as a family of two, I hope we savor it.

Now tell me: what are you reading and doing today?

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