Forty one weeks and one day

May I introduce to you: The bump a.ka. Alban a.ka. Lotta Anna Marjatta or Pyry Johannes a.ka. our offspring at 41 weeks and one day! She's kind of shy ;).

We - the baby and I - had the pleasure of going to the family service in St. Henry's today and baby's daddy had some alone time at home for the first time in months. It was great to see so many members of my congregation there and especially the two latest editions, two baby girls, one at almost three months and the other a bit over three weeks.

We'd had an exhausting evening and night with a lot of contractions that then subsided around midnight. Baby had then been very still all morning and made me really worried. The minute I started preparing to leave to church she woke up and has been busy kicking around ever since. Maybe she was just a bit bored in the morning after a busy day of going to Bauhaus in the morning and for a walk in Ruissalo in the evening yesterday :).

The fun part is that she really likes church. She gets really excited listening to just about any kind of music but Matleena playing the recorder is just the tops. Despite the fact that I could hardly fit my knees to reach the kneeling bench around the altar when it came time to Communion I was so blessed to be able to take part in the Eucharist. God willing this coming week we will finally get to meet our little one and I really like that we got to start the new week with Holy Communion.

On Tuesday we're going to the prenatal clinic and Thursday is the date that the university hospital set for us for a new check up. The hospital is at the moment packed with mommies giving birth to Midsummer babies so there's a chance we won't actually get an appointment for Thrusday yet. Those of you who didn't know this it really is a statistical fact that more babies are born around March and April than any other month in Finland. The theory is that it's the light summer nights that are to be blamed :). So, they're kind of busy at the delivery ward and if the mom and baby are doing well they are even less likely to induce labor than usually.

BUT come Saturday if the baby is not here I'm going to stage a sit-in there and refuse to leave before the baby is born. Well, not really, but I do admit that reaching the 42 week mark would be scary since at that point there really is a potential problem at hand. The female body is not really designed to carry babies longer than that and the problem is that the placenta starts to - and has to an extent already started - to deteriorate. Not a very comforting thought for us moms - or dads - but unfortunately a fact. The fact that I am not 20 but pushing 40 does not really help...

But, the baby has her own time table and God is with us so, we're just going to have to trust that everything will be all right no matter what. Not easy, mind you, but there we are.