41 weeks and 5 days, and waiting

Well, babby is almost two weeks overdue, and the waiting is getting crazy. I am a very patient guy, and I don't have a lot of expectations of others, but this is getting whacky.

I was very pleased to be having an Aquarius, but now it will be a Pisces - which I have never been crazy about. They are water, and I am fire... So, a lesson about expectations? I guess so. Interestingly, an acupuncturist once told me that I had too much yang (male/fire) and not enough yin (female/water). Maybe I need some water to cool me down? I don't know, I'm pretty mellow already.

Maybe the message is to throw away the ideology of horoscopic influences? Ya, maybe. It can't matter, because this is my child, and I will love it for the rest of my days. Maybe my fire will warm it's water - which is much more pleasant than cold water. Oops - horoscopic ramblings again.

But it will be born in the Chinese year of the Golden Boar, and that is supposed to be auspicious. I'm not superstitious. I don't think so, anyhow. OK. I am.

We went for the check-ups at hospital yesterday, and babby and mummy are just fine. I think that babby realizes that it is in Heaven, and wants to dream as long as it can. I don't blame it at all. It is in the safest place that it will ever be, after all, but geez, it's gaining about a half a pound a week. Yikes!

Stay tuned...

40 weeks and 2 days (and counting)

Here is J whilst I cast her belly. I did it about two weeks ago, but
I had to get clearance from her to post this publically. She was nude when I did the cast, so I had to photoshop some panties onto her. Now if I could just photoshop the babby in her arms...

Ah well, the babby will come when it is ready. I have been doing a soapstone carving for J of the sheela-na-ig - to give her encouragement for the birthing, but I have been so busy that it is slow going. Maybe it is us who are not ready. Plus, J strained her back on Friday and had to go to the chiropractor. She is feeling much better today, but there is still some residual discomfort. I told her that once the endorphins of birth kick in, she won't be bothered, and the chiropractor confirmed this.

In our pre-natal reading we have discovered that 40 weeks gestation is not necessarily the case. In the beginning of the 20th century, gestation was commonly considered to be 42 weeks. The medicalization of birth has pushed that back to 40 weeks or less. It's become all about schedules - of the medicos, of the working mothers, etc. We want this birth to be as natural as possible.

Induction of labour is more and more common, but as soon as one starts intervening in the natural process, it can (and most often does) create a cascade of interventions - right up to caesarian section. There are non-medical ways to induce labour though. The most simple (and enjoyable!) is intercourse, and nipple stimulation. Human semen has a lot of prostaglandin, and that "ripens" the cervix. Nipple stimulation causes uterine contractions.

So, I'm off to induce labour!