So, what’s been happening today? I’ve spent the day mostly working at home after a morning business meeting at Reading’s Madejski Stadium. Take-away Chinese for dinner. Heather’s out at her book club meeting. And I’ve just finished editing an interview with Olympic cycling bronze medalist Bobby Julich for the cycling blog I run. A pretty ordinary day in many respects, much like any other.
Except today is anything but ordinary – because today is D-Day, the due date of our third baby.
This time last week I wrote about how I was feeling “relaxed …almost to the point of being blasé” about the impending arrival. Over the course of the past week the anticipation has gradually ramped up, not least because we were both convinced the baby was destined to arrive early. Well, it hasn’t. Now I’m experiencing a strange feeling of limbo, like life is temporarily on hold until number three – to give him/her their official name in the Liew household – can be bothered to grace us with their presence.
This isn’t a new feeling. Both Isaac (12 days) and Toby (two) were also late. And it’s not as if life has actually stopped – when you have four and two-year olds haring around the house life never stops, of course it doesn’t. But every night over the past few days I have gone to bed thinking that this will be the last time I go to sleep as a father of two, and trying to hold onto the memory of what being a family of four feels like. No matter how ordinary every day may seem at the time, each is unique. Not better, not worse, not even necessarily anything other than mundane and instantly forgettable. But a part of me doesn’t want to forget – just as a part of me will not want to forget what the first few days of being a father of three feels like.
It doesn’t really matter whether you’re single or married, or have no, one, two or more children. Life is anything but ordinary, although in the hubbub of work, bills and the million and one other stresses and challenges the world throws at us on a daily basis it is easy to lose sight of that. But not today, even though the big event hasn’t happened. So before I get too maudlin, I’m off to enjoy what little remains of this day. It’s been a good one. How has your day been?