Induction looking likely!

My induction has been booked for Wednesday. Hopefully all they will do is break my waters as I was already 2-3cm dilated on Friday when the Midwife did my sweep, but if that doesn't start the contractions off I will have to have the drip.

With a bit of luck I won't need the drip and I'll still be able to have a fairly natural birth in the birthing centre with the pool... knowing my luck though, I'll end up on the drip and having an epidural. At least I'll finally meet my baby!

The worst thing about being over due is the not knowing. I'm waiting for something to happen, but I don't really know what is going to happen. Every tightening, cramp, ache and pain gets my hopes up. I'm trying not to get excited but each time I can't help but think 'maybe something is happening...'

For the past few evenings I've gone to bed with tightenings but woken up with nothing. This morning has been different - I'm definitely getting some different pains and stronger tightenings but am trying really hard to ignore them for now so I don't get feel so disappointed when nothing comes of it! Not so easy to do...

I'm going to have a hot bath, go for a walk and try and enjoy the sunshine outside to take my mind off things!

40 weeks and counting!

This should be my last bump photo... fingers crossed anyway!

I reached my due date yesterday which was exciting. I know only 5% of first time babies are born on their due date but I couldn't help but think maybe something will happen! It didn't...

I saw my midwife who performed a stretch and sweep, and I was 2cm dilated!!! Which got me very excited but she was quick to tell me that it could still be a while before anything happens. I was given instructions to stay active so have been blitzing the house in between dragging Grant out for walks and bouncing on my gym ball!

I think I was pretty anxious about yesterday as I hardly slept on Thursday night. Last night I managed to sleep all the way through from 1.30am to 7.30am which I think is the best night's sleep I've had for weeks. Let's hope that this continues until after the baby is born so that I'm as rested as possible in preparation for the sleep deprivation I'm sure is to come!

Working and Walking

Working from home has its benefits:

• no daily commute (especially beneficial in pregnancy)
• no overbearing manager checking what I'm doing every 5 mins
• flexibility - I can pop out to the shops/put on some laundry/bake some bread whilst still working

But it also have some definite downfalls:

• not much work social scene
• no one to chat to over the water cooler
• no reason to leave the house - I realised yesterday that I hadn't left the house since sunday, that's 4 days!!

Don't worry, at that point I decided that enough was enough and walked down to meet Grant at the station.

The trouble is, I'm not very good at doing exercise at all. Walking is about as active I get! I love going for walks if I have someone to join me - a dog or child will do - and I am happy to walk most places if I have a purpose - need to pop to the shops, post a letter etc - but I'm not very good at just walking aimlessly on my own. I feel a bit silly walking around my area for no reason and if I go off the beaten path, I don't feel very safe on my own - who knows what could happen and no one would know where I was... I am a worrier in general!

We live in a small flat so I'm expecting to need lots of 'get out of the house' plans once the baby arrives. I hope having a baby to push around and to take to feed the ducks will give me more drive to get out of the house and get some air and a change of scenery.