There are two ways to think about the time remaining until our daughter is born. Either the seventeen weeks (we hope) seems to be a very long time to wait and we need to fill it somehow or it seems like nothing and we feel hopelessly unprepared. We have both feelings at different times in the day.
In any case we do need to get a move on with the preparations and yesterday we both went to Mothercare. This was the second time, after the trip to Target in Sacramento, that we had gone looking for baby stuff together. I am perfectly sure that no-one there gave us a second thought because they are wrapped up in their own worlds but I did feel very conspicuous and nothing, certainly not rational thought, can make that go away. Yet it's the beginning of something that we just have to get used to one way or the other because Harriet needs somewhere to sleep, a mode of transport and seemingly millions of other things. Our little hang-ups just don't come into it and very soon these concerns will seem laughable.
This afternoon we have done some on-line research on prams, high chairs etc while waiting for some people to come and see the puppies. They didn't show up - the third time that this has happened. It's absolutely infuriating but poor Billy is the loser because it curtailed his walk. On the positive side some of the people who have come and chosen puppies have been very interested in what we are doing and were really keen to hear the results of the scan. That is encouraging that these complete strangers whom we have met through the unrelated area of selling puppies have been so kind.
Seventeen weeks seems sometimes long, sometimes short. But here's one number that's scary whichever way you look at it - there are only 74 days till Christmas! Good luck everyone.
