Friday, August 05, 2005

It shoulda been today

The family is getting jittery, calling at least once a day to ask whether I'm in labour yet. My mum even rang three times before 10am this morning (before I'd even got out of bed!), because someone rang her before she could get to the phone and it made her worry that it might have been me.

My daily walks are getting shorter due to the bump discomfort, and my marathon DVD-watching sessions are more frequently interrupted by my awkward attempts to change positions - but there's been no other progress.

On the other hand, I'm not yet desperate enough to down a bottle of castor oil (ugh, yucky), coax the boy into labour-inducing sex (I'm feeling so unsexy right now) or order hot 'n' spicy food (I've gone off it).

Or maybe it's more subtle than that. Once Baby emerges into the outside world I can say goodbye to the luxury of sleeping through the night (albeit with massive snoring sessions and having to wake up just to turn over) and being responsible only for my own feeding and watering. Maybe my body is getting mixed signals from my subconscious and doesn't how to resolve them.

Maybe it's just as well that it's not all up to me.

9 comments:

darth said...

donald justice wrote a sweet poem to babies that are a bit late, and maybe to the anxious moms and dads too :)

To A Ten-Months' Child

Late arrival, no
One would think of blaming you
For hesitating so.

Who, setting his hand to knock
At a door so strange as this one,
Might not draw back?

Happy and Blue 2 said...

The baby is probably afraid to come out with all the scary books you've been reading lately, tee,hee..

Spinning Girl said...

Wow! Good luck to you...from the other side of the world!

Rainypete said...

Next time the phone rings and it's someone who asks why you haven't had the kid yet, just place the phone on the belly and let them take it up with the baby!

flying kiwi said...

Hurry up then. ;)

Amanda said...

I think in France or somewhere they actually say gestation is 40 weeks rather than 38 weeks as we define it here.

Frances said...

First babies are usually about a week late, on average.

My first was really late - finally at 16 days after my due date I took the castor oil and went into labour - he was born the next day, 17 days after his due date!

But then, I'm a fan of just letting the baby come when its good and ready (unless there's a good medical reason why it should come before it's ready!).

Violet said...

juliabohemian: wow, 4 weeks seems really early. If mine was 4 weeks early, I would have given birth on my last day of work! I don't even know anyone with a pool, much less a pool which is heated...

darth:I can totally sympathise with the sentiments of the poem.

eb: So you could give them joint birthday presents?

happyandblue2: That wouldn't be such an absurd idea if I'd been reading those books out loud, actually.

spinning girl: thanks

rainypete: Hopefully Baby isn't going to be so late that he/she will have learned to talk already.

flying kiwi: um, okay...

mtnw: I thought full term in NZ was 40 weeks too. Or maybe I've been reading European books...

cesca: I don't want to wait that long. I think if Baby is more than a few days late I'd rather induce - though not with castor oil - just so we can all get on with life.

Violet said...

Thanks E. The very idea of having sex while downing castor oil is enough to remind me what it was like to have really bad morning sickness.