The Waiting is almost Over

So change is afoot. The main thing I have been doing while not working, is working on getting ready for the emergence of our new family member. I have created toys, sewed and knitted clothing and covered/sewed new bedding for the crib. I have also covered many cushions and items of cheap furniture that we have added to our now cosy apartment. It all looks homely and I guess the nesting instinct was finally satisfied by the time I went to hospital last week to see if the upside-down baby would turn over, or make an appearance. It did neither.

So here we are, on the brink of actual delivery day, tomorrow. Tonight we are going out in artic conditions (more fool us!) for a final fling with all the lovely friends we have made since arriving in this new place. It will be great to celebrate with them once more… and to farewell our spontaneous socialising with one big gathering.

Not working has meant I have been able to devote much more of my slowly ebbing energy to building friendships and enjoying as much as we can of the many and varied social activities that are available in St Louis. I have been grateful for that interlude. Now I expect that to change over the next few months… and I am used to changes in pace, I spent seven years living like someone on an oil rig, only getting out in the world properly once a week and not really getting time to do actively social things more than once a month. So I anticipate that I will just find some inner resource to adjust to this change as well.

But the questions that last year’s time out of employment raised for me will still remain, even in the presence of someone who I am sure will be diverting. So I am sure that I will find ways to continue to muse. One big issue is how our society values the input of homemakers… In principle I have always thought that it is imperative to find ways to place strategic economic value on this critical role – and as this becomes more my ‘lot’, I am wondering just what I will do about this issue.

Well, for now, the efforts I have made to prepare for the baby, both in practical terms (as above) and in physical terms (as in incubating the critter as best as I know how) will all come together tomorrow… and soon we will know who they are!