I've been torn the last few days. I've had lots of stuff to complete at work, but at the same time I've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of our baby.... the longer it takes for the baby to arrive, the more work I need to complete!

Anyway, its fair to say that things have gone from bad to worse for G. She is so big, tired and uncomfortable that she's getting a bit depressed. It doesn't help that people keep telling her the baby will be born imminently.

She saw her midwife on Thursday. The midwife was so concerned that G had been discharged from hospital 2/3 weeks ago after diagnosing excess amniotic fluid without a follow-up appointment. G was sent into clinic to speak to a consultant.

She actually saw a registrar and he was the most obnoxious idiot by all accounts (I was rushing home from work to pick up the kids). He told G that she wasn't going to be induced just because she was fed up! That's not even the reason for the referral to the doctor. Bloody NHS. Different doctor every time you go to clinic.

Anyway, its going to be a nice, warm long weekend and you never know, baby may come soon.

If anyone has any real, effective techniques for starting labour, let me know!! (no old-wives-tales though!)

Its my Birthday!!!! I'm 30 today. Whilst most people would worry about this transition of age, I'm not bothered because I GOT AN XBOX!!!! I'm dead chuffed!

Downside is my kids have insisted I wear a funny badge all day, but its worth it because I got an XBOX!

I just hope I have time to play with a baby on the way....

Aunty stayed for the weekend just in case labour came-about. It was nice having her, although this is the third week we haven't had any family time to ourselves and we kind of need that.

Its been raining and we have a decorator trying to paint the exterior of our house. He's been doing the sanding and priming, but now he needs to get on with the paint. Its annoying because the stinky British weather stops him getting on.

No progress on the baby yet. We keep getting annoying calls from G's mother (we don't like her. We don't like my mother either for that matter!). She wants to be all helpful because it will make her feel better and it will make her look good - so that she can moan about us to her friends and family and call us "snobs" again.

Anyway, I'll shed that chip on my shoulder one day.

G is home-alone today - R & H are at nursery and I'm at work. Hope she has this baby soon, but not too soon because I've got loads of work to do which is piling up!

I've been following the progress of Charlotte Wyatt - a premature baby whose family is fighting to receive ongoing care from her local hospital. I feel for the family and have included a link to Charlotte's blog at the top of this page.

Please have a read and make a donation to their cause using the link on their page.

G is 38 weeks and 5 days and we're still waiting for some sort of progress. We had an appointment with a midwife yesterday (not our usual midwife - she's on hols - but they are all really nice). It seems baby is engaged (yippee!) which ends our 'unstable lie' problem. Now we just need to get labour started...

suggestions for starting labour included:

*Fresh* pineapple (apparently it has to be fresh!) - we bought 2!

Caulophyllum - a herbal remedy reputed to induce labour - we bought 30 tablets!

hot curry - G isn't a fan of spicy food, but maybe as a last resort

driving over speed bumps at speed - hasn't worked so far

walking - G walked everywhere on Wednesday (a couple of hours on her feet) to no avail

sex - that's what got us in this state in the first place!

Wine - not sure this is entirely wise in pregnancy

castore oil - apparently a bit *harsh* (it just gives you the tom-tits all day!)

We'll try as many of these approaches as possible and report back which ones work. All I can say is that after eating a whole pineapple to herself, G was awake most of the night with stomach cramps! Perhaps I'll need to help her regulate her pineapple eating...

As if waiting for an impending birth wasn't hard enough, now I realise our car needs an MOT. I had a meeting to go to so I had to interrupt G's only day of rest to ask her to ring around about ten different garages trying to book our car in.

She wasn not happy.

We got an appointment for Friday nonetheless (thanks to Halfords - last resort!). Fancy car-juggling-acrobatics for the rest of the week then since we cannot drive one of the cars. And I've needed to waste 2 days vacation on Thursday and Friday to fit it all in.

Pain in the arse

Here I am, teetering on the brink of my blog. Well, lets get right to it.

G is 38 weeks pregnant. We already have two kids, R and H. We know the sex of our next baby, but rest assured it really *really* will be the last (I have made surgically sure of it).

I'm in work but not doing very much - we're at that point where any minute could see me receive the phone call to get G to hospital. We already had a false alarm last week, but that's another story....

Scary pregnancy this time - G has excess fluid (amniotic) and an "unstable lie", which means the baby isn't sitting still and swims all over the place (not good). We were promised a caesarean, but when G was admitted last week she was told the baby was "head down" and she could go home. That's where she is now, with the decorator who is painting the outside of our window frames.

The kids are at nursery today. R is an amazing child - she is so sensitive, intelligent and caring for a 4 year old. H is a most inquisitive, but very loving little boy. We just got H a new bed (a cabin bed which is raised about a meter off the ground). For a one year old he manages quite well not to fall out!

My birthday is coming up - G bought my pressie yesterday, and I think I know what it is (real exciting!) but I'm not letting on. She's scared she'll be in hospital on the day so she's wrapped the pressie up and is leaving it for the children to give to me just in case.

It's weird having a baby. Everything is really well established (life and all that) and yet there is this really quite dangerous, life threatening thing about to take place. Going into labor is scary. You never quite know if you're going to come out of it. Something horrible could happen to baby or mum and you could be left with a lot less than you bargained for.

These are thoughts that fly around my mind all the time. Especially when G has wrapped my birthday pressie. What if (just say) something horrible happens to G and I have to unwrap this pressie without her around? Nasty thoughts.

This all comes from watching that film "Jack and Sarah" - if you haven't seen it, its worth a watch. Probably better to avoid it if you are pregnant though.

Anyway. I better pretend to be working a bit more... it's 11am already and all I've done is set up this blog!