Explaining The Countdown

Babies are unpredictable. You never know if they'll be the kind of baby that sleeps a lot, or screams a lot, or is pretty relaxed and content, or needs to be fed every 20 minutes, or the kind that is fine when you feed it every four hours. And they usually don't let you know exactly when they are coming.

The baby countdown is just to give some idea of an estimate. Nick was 3 weeks early. Nate came a day before his due date. If the trend continues, I'll be banging on the doors of the hospital on Christmas morning begging them to get the baby out of me because it's LATE!

Anyway, since this summer I've been keeping a notebook of lists of things to do with the holidays - Thanksgiving and Christmas especially. My thinking was that I was going to be too huge and uncomfortable to do much thinking and moving around, so the more I could do ahead of time, the better. Honestly, I've thought less about the actual BABY and the actual BIRTH with this child than I have with either of my first two. Every once and awhile I remember that there is a labor process, and I will have to go through it, and also we will probably need a name for the baby and maybe we should get some diapers at some point...

So when I say "50 days left until the baby comes" here's what I really mean:

- Halloween is in three days. Try not to eat the candy for the trick or treaters. Remember to make PB&J for Nick's School Halloween Party. Find something for Nick to wear underneath that Diego costume, because apparently they found a way to make it out of sponge.

- Lillian's birthday is only a little more than a week away, so find her a present and wrap it and figure out when we're all going to celebrate.

- By the way, only 5 more doctor's visits left... assuming all goes well...

- Thanksgiving is in less than a month, so I better start moving all our junk out of the kitchen, and make sure we have enough glasses. (We do.)

- Christmas - 2 months away! - I need to finish shopping and start wrapping gifts, because the baby should get here BEFORE then, and I will be a sleepless, hormonal wreck. The day might actually slip by without my noticing. But I need to wait until the good Holiday stuff is out in the stores, which probably won't happen until after Halloween. I have always been horrified at how early they start putting stuff in stores and here I am chomping at the bit!

At least I am distracted and not just waiting for the baby to be ready to emerge.