When we went to the baby safety class yesterday, as always with these type of things, the instructor went around the room asking everyone's name; she also asked whether people were expecting a boy or a girl and when they were due. When she got to us and I said that the due date was 26th of August, she joked about us having left the class until the very last moment - so I didn't like to add that I didn't have a birth plan printed out and laminated (or, ok, actually written out), or even my hospital bag packed yet.
It's weird at this point of the pregnancy because people keep telling me it could happen ANY moment now, but if I say something like that then they, and often it is the very same person, will chuckle knowingly and tell me that first babies are usually about a week late. And why if I do something now, like take a baby safety class or try to book a tour of the hospital (the only tour they have any space left on is two days before my due date - So either pin-point perfect timing, or utterly useless!), do people act like I've been lollygagging around doing nothing much for the past nine months and should have done this earlier? Actually having moved house so recently is a great explanation for leaving all this so late, so I'm cutting off a lot of tedious conversation with that! That sounds a bit mean doesn't it, but at this highly visible late stage of the pregnancy I am getting a lot of unsolicited advice, and some quite personal questions that I'm just not that inclined to answer fully, so saying "Well, we have only just moved here so we still have a lot to get organised!" really helps for some reason. Anyway, if I'm not meant to be taking my pre-natal classes now (and ok it is a bit late in the day for some of those), then what exactly am I meant to be doing now? Mostly, according to the books and the websites, it seems I'm meant to be resting and pampering myself, which sounds great in theory but gets old pretty quickly if you ask me.
Today, spurred on by the it could happen ANY moment thought over the more likely three weeks from now thought, I packed myself a hospital bag, and one for Eva as well. Mine has clothes, snacks (which seems odd, but all the books & websites are most insistent on this point - I've got a box of cereal bars, some plain oatcakes and a handful of green tea bags), toiletries and various types of pad (again - Odd!) Eva's has clothes, a sun hat, one of those "My Birth Books" (which we are filling out only so we can cull the information from later and make a new one which doesn't have teddy bears and bloody duckies all over it) and two blankets. One of the blankets is a thin swaddling blanket and the other is a slightly thicker cotton blanket which I'm bringing just in case there is a really sudden cold snap (unlikely), but mostly because the fabric is a Keith Haring design and the idea of wrapping my baby up in modern art pleases me.
Isn't that fabulous, with a nice twist of the 80's to it? This side is clearly Haring's signature Radient Baby whilst the other side is black and white radient hearts with the occaisonal red heart. Evalyn is going to be surrounded by good design and aesthetically pleasing objects from the moment she is born, and that's all there is to it!
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