Year 2 Day 71: Away in a Manger

In a pregnancy forum I frequent, I read a post about being thankful that now, in the late 3rd trimester, we don't have to take a long, bumpy journey on a donkey. To extend on that...we also don't have to give birth on some scratchy hay inside a barn full of animals, where likely our bloodhound senses would undoubtedly pick up the strong odor of stinky animal-poo. To top that all off, there wouldn't be any help from the services of a midwife, however, in her place to help deliver your child would be an inexperienced teenage boy! Wow.

'God Bless, Mary' is right!!

Today is my official "due date" and although I have had some rogue cramping and a possible ACTUAL/REAL contraction, bunny seems quite content for the moment. Then again, if I consider his late-night hermit crab tendencies...that could all change after midnight. Who knows?

I've spent most of the day in bed, even. I was up around 10am to accept delivery of a parcel for Matt -- his portable heater for the conservatory, but shortly after I felt a bit 'off' and retreated to the bedroom with nice, cold pint of water and burrowed under the duvet. Loving husband was kind enough to even give me a bit of a cuddle before returning downstairs to enjoy some mid-day gaming time on his first full-day off.

I managed to stir myself just before 5pm, which is when I thought I felt that "real" contraction. It was a crampy feeling at first, but on the other side from where I had been feeling the others. It throbbed for about 30-seconds before seeming to move up my belly like a wave and then my bump turned hard before it all slowly faded away. Then bunny kindly punched my bladder and I decided to get up.

Matt and I popped up to the Moor Centre to drop off some post at the Brierley Hill Post Office (which is where tonight's photo comes from) and then a quick trip to the Asda petrol station at Merry Hill to make sure we weren't relying on fumes to get anywhere for the weekend.

I'm back at Russell's Hall tomorrow morning for some repeat bloods and for them to monitor the baby for another 45-minutes or so. Hopefully all my levels will come out reasonable again and nature will be allowed to do it's thing for bunny's cameo into the world. It's all a waiting game now, but rest assured I have my Facebook and Twitter linked so that no one will be in the dark when it comes to news of his arrival.