Old, weak and pregnant

Less than a week to go now before our son appears and life changes dramatically for Jiajia and I. It's very exciting and, of course, a little nerve-racking. Jiajia will lose the use of the buses' comfier seats [see photo, left], though I think I'll still qualify!?

Jiajia will be having a C-section - more common in China and a sensible precaution because of her age and a small placenta problem - so there will be no mad "waters breaking" rush to the hospital! She should even have a private room, we're told, in the hospital's new maternity wing. In China, there is no thought of mother or baby returning home until at least a week after the operation and babies are often not even taken out of the house for the first 100 days. With no free National Health Service, we've also had to save up for considerable medical costs. But, all being well, I'll be a Dad by this time next week.

We have started to fill-in a Baby Book [see photo, below] sent by my
parents. I still have the one they completed for me as a baby...

---

As I was running this morning I was listening to Ultravox's latest album on my MP3 and the lyrics of their song, "One", suddenly hit me afresh;

"It’s hard to believe the time has come for this one.
Good fortune has breathed its breath upon this one."