See you on the other side

Tomorrow everything will change.

Tomorrow, everything will be different.

Because, tomorrow, bubba arrives!!

I was given the option to induce labour by the doctors at my 37-week checkup, due to my history of preterm labour and the minor bleed I had at 27 weeks. After much deliberation, research and weighing out the risks versus benefits, Ege and I decided to go ahead and induce labour tomorrow when I am 39 weeks. So right now I'm feeling terribly excited and terribly nervous and terribly terribly BIG.

Aidan has his moments of excitement about the baby, when he talks to my belly. Just the other day we were pointing out one of the benefits of having a younger brother was that he could eventually fetch stuff for him, like some water LOL. "Nah," Aidan said, "I'll treat him right." I was impressed!

But lately I sense his nervousness. He confessed the other day that he felt we would ignore him because of the baby, and he's a little upset we're not going ahead with the name he's keen on (he'd recently changed his preference to Brent, after the winner of Master Chef 2014.) I know it'll be a big adjustment for him, as he's been an only child for close to 7 years; I just hope the transition for him wouldn't be too hard and he'll adapt, in his own way, eventually. One of the reasons we're having a big splash for his birthday this year is so he won't feel like his special day has been overshadowed by his brother's arrival.

Anyhoos, here's a selfie taken about 6 weeks ago:

Me at 32 weeks

The baby's grown a lot since then!!

Added to the prep we need to make in order to herald bubba's arrival, are also the food I need to cook and freeze, and the tonic soups I'll have to get Ege to make for my "confinement" period, where I would need to "tonify" my body post-birth. My mum was meant to arrive on Monday, however the poor dear was stung by a mozzie and came down with dengue fever! She's recovering well now... but still needs lots of rest and is easily fatigued, so we'd rather her recover fully before making the trip over. Thankfully our dear friends across the road (Ivy and Steve FTW!) have offered to cook for us, and help us out, at least until my in-laws arrive on the 23rd.

My really dumb autocorrect fail LOL.

Whenever I mention to anyone about my mum & how she's had dengue, 

people smile and try to hold back a laugh rather than make sympathetic noises

The Sunday past was interesting. I had the opportunity to share our journey and our story of what happened with the twins at church. The days leading up to it were definitely emotional and hard, as I had to confront and re-visit a lot of my residual feelings, which were also conflated with my nervousness about the current pregnancy, and my fears at the process of labour and childbirth. But it was strangely free-ing and cathartic and therapeutic for me, being up on stage and sharing the pain, but also the hopes and prayers we as a family were holding.

Having it all out in the open meant that everyone knew my version of the story, rather than the bits and pieces that they would have gathered from shadowed whispers. Very rarely would someone have asked about details as they would have been too polite to dredge up the experience, for fear of making me uncomfortable or upset.

But now that we are all on the same page, I feel like I can move on. It was like the windows opened and a breath of fresh air flowed in. Cleansing. Healing. Allowing me space to find trust in God again.

And now I feel that I, We, all of us, can re-focus on the future and the excitement that new Life will bring.

See you on the other side!!