Massive isn’t she? Of course I mean the bump – look at those skinny little pigeon wings she calls arms! She’d be better of with a cocktail stick as an arm.
Today’s the day. The predicted date of arrival! Our due date is today; 28th July 2014. This is a bizarre feeling; mainly of expectation, frustration, irritation, moving towards bitterness and good dose of impatience; and as I thrash this post out on the keyboard I still have 5 hours left of hope.
I remember the moment the midwife and sonographer sat in a room with us and gave us the date; a date a good 8 months ahead of time. I also remember sitting in NCT lessons and being constantly reminded that only 5% of babies arrive on their due date. It’s as if a couple of professional ‘ish’ people stabbed the dark and hit 28th July 2014 as a ball park figure knowing that only 5% of the time, they get it right. And yet, we place such high regard on this date.
I don’t like being late at the best of times… so having this date thrust upon me was the single most unhelpful thing the midwife has done. Closely followed by telling my wife that she shouldn’t wear flip flops!
My argument here is that I don’ think we should have due dates but instead have due months. It would be far more useful (and far less disappointing, frustrating and antagonising) if the midwife had said, “yeah, he’ll probably be born in July sometime.” Now, I know what you’re thinking, what about those babies that are due dangerously close to the end or beginning of a month? Well, I think that with a slight manoeuvre, and quite frankly, a better use of the words ‘early’ & ‘late’ we could be on to a problem solved!
Here’s my plan, layed out in a dad, logical, methodical way:
– If your old due date is in the middle of a month then you just claim that month as your due month. That way 2 weeks early or 2 weeks late, pretty much covers it.
– If your old due date is at the end or beginning of a month, you have “late ‘July’/early ‘August'” as your due month.
Simple! We ditch due dates and introduce due months.
If you have any doubt what your due month is, just pop me a comment with your dissatisfying due date and I’ll be happy to clarify it for you.
