Countdown

Our first baby is due 11 weeks from today.
It's now starting to feel like it's no time away and there are obviously 101 million thoughts flying around my head regarding this fact, ranging from 'Where can we get a seatbelt extension for the car seat?' to 'How the hell will I cope with childbirth?' to 'Never mind all that - how do you change a nappy?'.

I'm having to work through the questions one at a time though starting with the here and now, beginning with 'When will I leave work?'. OK, baby aside for a moment, this is a really wierd thought in itself. Having left university in 1999, I've pretty much been following the same routine for the last nine years of getting up every morning and going to work. And now it's time to stop.

In the culture and society that I live in, the way the story goes is that you go to school, go to university, get a career, get a house, do up that house (you could only afford to buy a knackered looking one), then STOP! Now start a family - GO GO GO! Although it doesn't seem that contrived until you've actually gone through the system and looked behind you.

It's no wonder that woman are generally in their 30s by the time they start a family these days. But does that make it even harder to say goodbye to your previous life - the fact that you lived it for so long and had time to get attached to it? Myself? I like to think that I'm 'ready' (as I could ever be).

It might seem trivial to be thinking about relatively small points like this in comparison to the life changing event that parenthood will inevitably be, but I do think it's important to stop and appreciate what my life HAS been, in order to move on to the next chapter - which I am genuinely excited about.

I guess I'm just looking around me, taking in a deep breath and smelling it all in!