Twillight Zone

With a few days to go (officially three), I feel I am in a weird sort of limbo... Thumper could arrive any day and anytime now. Literally. Especially since allegedly second and subsequent babies tend to be born more quickly (ie. after a labour of only a few hours).

My official birth plan, which is on file at the hospital, is 3 pages long, complete with instructions about how I would prefer things to happen (eg. not whisking Thumper away for weighing and bathing straight after the birth). Most of it is contingency plans in case I am transferred out of the Family Birth Centre. I feel quite confident that if all goes well and I birth in the FBC with midwifery-led care, I won't really need a birth plan at all. But if I end up in the birthing suites under medical care, it is much more important to spell things out in the birth plan. This is the important lesson I learned from my birth experience with BallFiend.

However, my unofficial birth plan is:

• go into labour when DeepSpice is home with me... probably sometime in the evening or overnight is preferable;
  
• have a labour of around 5 hours (enough time for natural endorphins to kick in, but not so long that I am too worn out);
• give birth on 9th September, 2009, preferably at either 9.00 am or 9.00 pm (so Thumper's birthdate is 09.09.2009!)
• have a pain-free labour and an intact perineum at the end... oh, and a healthy baby, of course!
  

It is weird to think that in just a few hours from now, I could have a baby in my arms, and yet at this moment, I have no indication that labour is imminent.

So as each day goes by, I feel like I am going deeper and deeper into a twillight zone, where my life is both on hold (and waiting for Thumper to throw our world into chaos for a few weeks... months... years!) and yet I am getting on with my normal day to day activities (as best I can when I feel like I have a lead bowling ball lodged between my legs).
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