waiting in Beijing...

I'm almost at my due date now and really looking forward to finding out who will be joining our family soon. I am in Beijing staying with some friends until the baby is born. It has been two weeks already, because I thought I might be early like I was with Eli and Dana. This baby, it seems, is in no rush.

Why in Beijing you may ask? There is a very good international hospital here that I feel quite comfortable with. Originally I was planning to give birth at a local Chinese hospital, but I found myself not seeing eye to eye with the doctor there (the language barrier didn't help either). I felt I would be a horrible patient at a local hospital because of my nursing background and because I have had two very positive birth experiences already. The rate of cesarean sections in Chinese local hospitals is also very high which scared me. I wanted to be somewhere where I could have a say in what was happening rather than being told as is the norm.

I'm reminiscing the baby days with Eli and Dana, pictured above is Dana, sweetly surrendered to sleep. I wonder what it will be like with 3... soon I will find out, but it is hard to be patient and not be anxious about when. With every twinge or slight discomfort I'm asking myself, "is that a contraction? am I in labour now?" It's tiring to keep that level of alertness up, only to be disappointed over and over again.

Here's a picture of baby Eli. I just love how he has his little hands clasped together, and I love his little toque too (hiding his cone-head no doubt).

Thankfully, last weekend Scott came to visit me with the kids. It was so good to see them and we got to spend 3 days together. We were hoping that I would go into labour at some point during the visit, but it didn't happen.

We had a little scare with Eli, he fell off/jumped off some monkey bars and bashed and gashed RIGHT on the outside of his left eye. He just missed it. I was also thankful that he did not whack his temple, which can be really dangerous if not deadly I understand. We did not take him to get stitches, I just cleaned and bandaged him up. Aside from some swelling, it looked a lot better three days later. Phew!

Well, I will try to post again as soon as SOMETHING happens! People say that no woman has stayed pregnant forever, but I'm beginning to feel as though I may be the first...