Scary times

With just over 5 weeks left to go, things are starting to hot up in the Berry patch! This is the time when the fears emerge properly. Often disguised as irritations, it takes a fair bit of time, perhaps a raised voice and a tear or two, but they do eventually show themselves for what they actually are. Rational or not, they are real.
It starts with the "unimportant things" (they are important, but perhaps only in the mind) like how to organise that the correct stationery is available after returning from maternity leave...
I'm sure there are a few things happening between now and then like say...child birth??
And then eventually it moves onto the real fears...
"HOW THE HELL AM I GOING TO FIT A 4KG BABY OUT OF MY VA-JAY-JAY?"
Clearly its my fault that this kid is going to not be a small baby, but she could have seen that from the day we first met... And measuring size while in the womb is not an exact science... And if he puts his head on his chin, then things will be fine...
My reassurances are not exactly that comforting as I haven't actually been through this myself and, of course, each birth is different...

So, the plan.
- I need to stop working such long hours so that I can be around more in order to get to the real fears sooner, perhaps before they become reasons for panic.
- with just over 5 weeks to go... pack the bags*
- buy the pram (this will somehow make things feel more under control)
- type up the birth plan (list of preferences)
- C needs to take the "How do you eat an elephant?"** approach to the Everest size mound of work she has to get done before she goes on maternity leave
- organise a massage for me and C
- fix the dimmer switch in the nursery

I think getting these things done will go a long way to getting us to a stage where we can say that we're almost ready. I don't believe you can ever truly be ready for something like this, but hey, we'll see how far we can get with it all.

On another note, some congratulations go out to J&J on the birth of their little girl Jordan. And to Gav & Julia on your little girl. And to Pete & Trish on your little boy Shaun! They're poppin out all over the place!!

*I can't believe how many bags its gonna take, 1 for labour, 1 for baby at hospital, 1 for daddy (cognac and cigars), 1 for mommy at hospital and 1 for the going home gear. Thats 5 different bags...
** One bite at a time