I need a schedule

Yeah... sorry. My wife and I were talking about this blog when I first started it. She's more active in blogs than me and explained that a lot of blogs that she reads stick to a schedule. They update every Wednesday, or twice a week, on Monday and Friday. "I'll be fine," I said. "I don't need a rota to make sure I blog."

So here I am, nearly three weeks after my last post. Hi. I need to stick to a schedule. So from this moment on, every Sunday will be my blog day. Yes, I know today is Wednesday, but I will also post when I see fit, and right now is as good a time as ever.

A lot of things have happened the past few weeks. Multiple trips to the hospital, monitoring twice a week with a weekly scan. Last Saturday I was woken up at three in the morning to my wife stroking my hand and saying, "I'm getting pains every few minutes." The possible birth of my son that morning, coupled with the fact that my brain was attempting to wake up, led me to sit in bed muttering:

"Right... Hmmmmm... Okay... Right..."

As you can tell, I was on the ball.

He didn't come along, anyway. She took some pain killers, settled back down and the pains subsided, but the following day we paid a trip to the hospital due to his lack of movement. That's something that has happened a lot during this pregnancy. It's resulted in us having to change delivery venue from the birth centre in Port Talbot to Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend. At the time, we were both quite upset by the prospect. The birth centre allows for constant visitation by the new father. Some rooms have double beds and, within reason, there are no strict visiting hours. In comparison, Bridgend allows fathers to be there from 10am to 8pm, there are the usual visiting hours for friends and family and no double beds. No saunas or full length swimming pools, either.

Since then, however, we've both become more positive about Bridgend. Yes, I won't be allowed to stay continuously, but we do have three very demanding cats that I would have to return home to anyway. It'll give my wife some alone time with our son and it'll make going into the hospital that extra bit special (not that it'll need any extra special sprinkled on top, though). My wife is also liking the idea of the wide variety of painkillers that are available to her, something not present in Port Talbot.

Because of the multiple visits for diminished movement, the consultant has been speaking of inducing. That's up in the air at the moment, but despite the fact that my wife was 36 weeks yesterday, we may be meeting our son sooner than in four weeks.

So our bags are packed and ready in the boot of the car. As of today, the nursery is ready for him (except for blackout blinds, which are on their way). We're only missing one thing. Our baby. And despite our worries, I feel like we're just about ready.

Kael