At 38 weeks, this week marks the time in our first pregnancy when Robert was born – so anticipation is running fairly high in our house at the moment.
As with most pregnancies, Sara is looking a little bigger this time around (supposedly the muscles having relaxed more during the last pregnancy causes more “expansion” the second time) and we’re pretty-much ready to roll – bags packed for Sara, baby AND Robert, plus several different flow-chart plans plotting who we’ll call
I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like for Sara, but for me the mixture of anticipation and trepidation is very bizarre to behold.
On one hand, I’m raring to go and feeling nervous for the moment when it all kicks off. Will it be during the night or during the day? Will I be at home or at work? Which of our many plans will we have to go with? What happens if we have to take Robert with us to the hospital? Will it be a quick birth like last time, or more of a “normal” one?
So many questions are swimming around in my head, it certainly makes getting to sleep a little tricky at night. But it’s certainly a nervous-excitement, rather than anything too scary.
On the other hand, I’m remembering what a shock it was when Robert came along, both in terms of “workload” and the whirl of activity from visitors and appointments. I really should be making the most of the quiet time before the storm – time when we still have our evenings free for instance (well, most of them – Robert’s sleeping patterns have been a little ropey lately, probably due to his own nerves about baby’s arrival). But it’s pretty hard to do much “relaxing” when there’s such a big storm over the horizon…!
Whilst I have absolutely no control over when the big entrance happens, I’m trying to plan for it in my head as much as possible, hoping that I can remain the calm one (for a change!).
Tonight we test-drove the TENS machine (hiring a digital one was definitely a good idea – it’s just a gadget now!) and a recent trip to Sara’s mother’s house proved a useful dry-run for ensuring everything we needed was packed and ready.
Whatever happens, all I really hope is that I provide the support and assistance that Sara will require. Oh, and that they give me some of those George Clooney, ER-style scrubs to wear like last time. Those were awesome!