sundayscribblings

“Three weeks and 2 days and the date the baby is due is December 23, 2003.” I was only half listening, still couldn’t believe I am going to be a mom before the year ends.

Amazing these modern machines, they can see beneath our bodies, measure our fetuses and tell when they’d be born! I wished it would be the next day after that, and I’d have a Christmas baby and all our Christmas celebrations afterwards would never be the same.

Summer, fall and winter came and the date nears. It was December 21 when I felt the first pangs of labor. Contractions that, over time, became longer, stronger and closer together are said to be the surest sign that the real due date has arrived. The doctor had been wrong and I would never have a Christmas baby, I thought. The date of the baby’s great exit into the world would not be what he had predicted nor it’s going to be on Christmas eve. It would be definitely today, December 21st.

The calculation of the due birth date is by no means exact science and about 96% of babies DO NOT arrive on the calculated due date, no matter which method is used in the calculation. But guess what? My daughter stuck to her schedule, after 40 weeks and 0 days of gestation, she made it to the dot. After a long labor, we welcomed her on the date initially predicted, December 23.

This writing exercise is fueled by the writing prompt “the date” at Sunday Scribblings.