A Great Excuse...And Any Day Now...

When I was completing my undergraduate studies, I always had a professor or two that would specifically state in the syllabus that everyone had to show up for the final exam - no exceptions unless you were experiencing child birth at the exact time of the exam. I always thought how wonderful it would be to get to use that excuse.

Last year at this time, we had a sushi date followed by a dinner gathering planned at our home. It was all scheduled with the caveat that I could go into labor at any time and we might have to cancel. My due date was still almost a week off and since I went 2+ weeks over with T Rex, I felt fine planning such gatherings. Additionally, the school semester had already started so no matter what, the timing of the baby's birth would impact my school. At least I thought it would. (Seriously, what was I thinking? I was more worried about the impact on my school and not that I was about to experience child birth. Priorities...?)


Well...the night before our sushi lunch I emailed my friend and told her I was having some contractions and I thought I should cancel lunch. She was fine with that having only recently given birth herself. I think she was a bit nervous I'd have the baby during lunch! And since she's a nurse and her husband and surgeon, they'd be the likely health care providers assisting! We opted to cancel and reschedule. (We still have yet to have that lunch date! We're hopeful, though.)


Well, as you can read here our baby was indeed born that weekend. And having been so preoccupied with weirdly prioritised thoughts, I had completely forgotten it was also a three day weekend. In the end, I did not miss a single moment of school. However, I did get to use my really awesome excuse for canceling our gatherings - child birth! But alas, not for any school related activities - which I'm glad.


Reflecting on this makes me remember those feelings of anticipation. The feeling of "this could happen any time now - how exciting!" Lately we've been experiencing this with our little girl. She is on the verge of walking and every day we think "this could be the day" and then it's not. But I just know she's going to surprise us when the timing is exactly right. In the mean time, it's kind of cool to relive that "any day now" feeling. 

(Yes, I made her shirt/pants - another completed project.)

(Stay tuned  - we had her family gathering for her birthday today so lots of wonderful photos of the event coming.)


So, anyone care to place bets on when she'll start walking. Walking being defined as more than 4 unaided steps? (Homemade prize to first person who guesses the correct date.)