Homesteading Adventure #8: Learning Patience and/or Defeat

Hello, My name is Nellie Burdick and I have a problem with patience.

Day #21 has come and gone with no sign of baby chicks. I will admit that I obsessed (a lot) over the weekend. My incubator windows literally have nose prints on them...my nose prints. Jeremy warned me that watched eggs never hatch and I'm starting to actually believe him. I spent Saturday and Sunday trying to pip them with my very own eyes and that didn't work. As I got ready for work this morning, I tried to convince myself that something would happen today. It's noon and I've gotten no word of any action yet.

I have been pregnant twice. I bred chinchillas for years. I have never felt this anxious over an impending birth. Maybe time has made those memories foggy. Maybe it's because I could feel the little chinchilla feet kick my palm when I reached my hand inside the cage and onto a mama's belly. These eggs are so ungiving right now. They won't rock. They won't peep. They are taunting me by just sitting there looking pretty.

I am questioning my temperatures. My humidity. My airflow. Wondering if I've drowned them. Wondering if they're not wet enough. Wondering if I should have left them upright instead of laid them down. Wondering if I should just give up and never incubate again or if I should purchase new eggs while the incubator is still warm. And yet....here we are at only day #22.
Did I mention that I have a problem with patience?

Against the "lockdown" rules and even the advice of my six year old ("No Mama! They are in LOCKDOWN! Don't open it. Lockdown means it's Locked-Down. Like in Jail. You can't open it!"), I quickly candled two eggs last night before bed. Egg #10 - referenced in Adventure #6 - has grown significantly just in the last three days. There was next to no light showing through and I believe I saw some movement. I didn't see any movement in Egg #8, but it was hard to concentrate while Jeremy was whispering in my ear "you said just one. Hurry up! Put it back. You said you were only going to candle one!" Seeing the improvement in Egg#10's size has led me to believe that maybe all is not lost. That I may very well still get a couple (or all) of my chicks to hatch.

Cheer's to hoping that the last three weeks of planning, care, love, and obsessing hasn't been in vain. Cheer's to mother nature. Cheer's to What Shall Be Shall Be. Cheer's to Patience. Ugh, I need a drink......