Due Today! The due date. Eagerly awaited for nine months. The day that the baby is supposed to come out. Only he doesn't! :-) Not really surprising in my case though, after five overdue babies, I fully expected to go overdue again and don't mind at all. It would be nice to have an idea how much overdue I will be, but I know the baby will come when he is ready. We had a lot of stress around the birth last time, because we had an extremely important, international trip coming up (visa stuff), and we needed Kate OUT of there in time! So we did a lot of things to try to get labor going, but she still was 10 days overdue. We ended up traveling with her to the Netherlands when she was 10 days old. Wouldn't recommend that to any one! Ever tried to get a passport for a newborn really fast??? I mean, even trying to get a passport picture was a challenge on its own. The eyes need to be open! This time I want to do the total opposite, since there are no pressing time limits. We are not going ANYWHERE after the birth, so I just can relax and wait for it to happen. I will have no internals at all, and I am not going to try any inducing tricks or things, unless there is a medical concern with me or the baby. I have gone from 3 days to 22 days overdue, although the 22 days was less in reality I think, because my cycle had been longer than usual. Still, it means that the baby should be here within a few weeks at the most, very exciting! Alas, my energy level is going down and the house is backsliding again. Really hoping for another surge of nesting energy before the baby arrives! At least I found the floor of the living room and the kitchen today, my goal was to find the floor in all downstairs rooms, but that didn't quite happen yet. And the Christmas tree has been taken down, so we have more room in the living room again. It doesn't help that all the kids activities have started again, so we have been out of the house a lot. When I am gone for half of the day, I usually don't have that much energy for cleaning up the rest of the day. Oh well :-) I had a prenatal on Wednesday, everything was well for me and baby, but Tim and Tara were, let's say, less than optimal. As in, the moment one of them touched any toy, the other one wanted to play with that NOW and started fighting.... This went on and on and on... I am glad it is not always that bad. Actually they often play well together lately, but definitely not during that prenatal! I am measuring 36 cms now at 40 weeks, which is normal for me, actually even a little higher than with Tara and Jane. My next prenatal is next Friday, I'll be a week overdue by then, so we'll see whether I make it or whether I'll have a home visit because of a new baby instead. The phone calls, ICQ inquiries and emails have started. 'Is the baby there yet?', 'Anything happening?'. I have to disappoint them all. I have the feeling this baby will stay inside for a while longer, but of course you never know. At least the kids are still busy with all the new toys they got for Christmas, especially all the building toys get lots of use. On the picture on the top you see Tara with her Brio builder set, she is getting very good at following the directions to build things with it. Another hit was Zelda for the Nintendo 64, Cees would play that day and night if I would let him, he really enjoys it. Kate's biggest hit was a $.25 slinky from the thrift store, she would have been totally happy with that as only Christmas present I think :-) I also have gotten some presents for the kids which will be given by the new baby to his older siblings. That is a tradition we have been doing with every baby, I think it makes the birth of a new baby even more fun for the kids. And it gives them something to do at home, since we won't go out much during the first few weeks. This might be the last pregnancy entry, next one could be a birth story! We'll see what happens! Page design by mabear | Send email to Karen | Page last updated: Dec 29, 2001