For fun here's a picture of me at 14 weeks and again at 39 weeks, hard to remember not being this fat!

Week 39
The good news is that the midwife thinks baby's head is now engaged, the bad news is I'm recovering from the cold and feel pretty crap.
Not been able to eat or drink much for a few days but on midwife's advice I bought lots of lucozade today and feeling a bit better after drinking a couple of cups of it.
Thanks to everyone for all the advice - this week I'm going to be doing serious work on getting into labour or else they start to talk about inducement at my next hospital appointment. The thing is I really want to be able to go to my graduation which is on the 30th so it would be ideal if baby came around the 20th which would give me time to recover for my graduation and husband would still be on his 2 weeks paternity leave and able to come as well.
So will Sorley do as he's told, that is the question!

Finally, hopefully, nearing the end of this rather odd experience of the past nine months. I'm not sure what I expected it to be like, it's been harder work than I imagined and I'm not in much of a hurry to do it again! Probably the longest nine months of my life, they say the rest of your child's upbringing, in contrast, flys by. It's been good to have this blog to record it all and to be able to look back on each stage. I'm aware of how fortunate I have been to have such a supportive network of family, friends and local church who have been there for me throughout it all, an experience that many women and/or couples don't have. I'm also grateful to all my fellow bloggers who have shared this time and their experiences with me, how on earth did people survive without the internet??

I'm sure people think I'm lying when I say I'm not nervous about the birth, the truth is I'm more nervous about bringing this newborn back home and being totally responsible for him! The birth is an inevitability, I've not really mulled over it - I'm sure if I did I would start to get nervous, but I'm just not like that. I've got the feeling that having a baby is like starting a new job - the first couple of weeks are a bit of a stressful nightmare but when you've learned the ropes everything falls into place.

Week 38
Had a hospital appointment yesterday - all is fine but the baby's head is not yet engaged, does anyone have any ideas on how to encourage this??
This week I'm going to start a variety of 'natural methods' to hopefully encourage things on a little (avoiding the castor oil though!!) - the best ones I've heard are raspberry leaf tea, cinnamon tea, hot curries, walking, stair climbing.

Husband was still not well this week from the food poisoning from Co-op sausages (which were well cooked!) and only went back to work yesterday. The other day we took the dogs to a favorite place of ours for walking where they also get a chance for a wee swim.

I've not been able to eat meat since the food poisoning so I've been practicing a variety of vegetarian recipes - tried Aubergine, Chickpea and Potatoe Balti which, to be honest, wasn't that great. Also tried a recipe for Gratin Dauphinois after having tasted it made by my brother-in-law one Christmas - very delicious and extremely fattening! Tonight it's vegetable casserole's turn so I'll see how that turns out.
I'm starting to really feel the stress of nesting - feeling like everything has to be perfect and getting stressed when it's not, poor husband gets the brunt of it and I get worn out overdoing it. So I've been trying the last couple of days just to chill out and forget about house stuff, enjoying working on some poems, typing up my travel journal from 2003 etc. Last week went to a Body Shop party and bought myself some nice stuff which was fun and went to a friend's for bonfire night, they had a huge bonfire and there was lots of fireworks, people and food - so it was a good night (though not for the dogs who are terrified of fireworks).

My blog is worth $5,080.86.How much is your blog worth?

Just a bit off the topic but according to this website my blog is worth $5,080.86!

WOW 37 WEEKS PREGNANT - although baby isn't due until the 24th he is considered full term anywhere from 37-42 weeks - I thought this day would never come!!

To say I've had a rotten week wouldn't do it justice - husband and I both got food poisoning.
There can't be much worse than being 8 months pregnant and spewing your guts out other than perhaps getting food poising whilst having bronchitus - which is what husband had.
We both felt so ill, it was a total nightmare, my tummy and sides were aching all over and the stomach pain whilst retching, also the panic that I was going to go into labour (the mid-wife said diarrhea can bring on contractions), it was truly awful. Thankfully we are both feeling a lot better - not in the least part due to prayer - people have been very good to us, we have had lots of well wishers and people praying for us, but I'm esp. grateful to my mum who really looked after us - good old mum's eh?!

Well cradle's ready and moses basket, all baby clothes / towels / blankets washed and ready, house is painted and decorated, all we need now is a bouncing baby boy!
Thankfully baby seemed to have survived the food poisoning without too much trouble - still hiccuping away! Here's my hospital case packed and ready with baby's bag on top and nappies and bag with aunty Betty's lovely knitted shawl!