WEEK 41

We are one week overdue and Maria is getting more than a little frustrated.

"Come on baby, it’s time to come out" or "please get a move on" are regular refrains from my wife as the days creep on with no visible sign of motion.

It’s Sam in replay, all the memories of Maria’s tortuous labour with our first child come flooding back – Maria definitely doesn’t want to go through that again. The pacing up and down corridors, the hours spent tied to a heart-rate monitor… we recall those days with little fondness.

Rather than a wait and see approach we are now in full-on encouragement mode. Maria is drinking gallons of raspberry tea, eating curries like there is no tomorrow and is even going to reflexology classes. Reflexology is a complete mystery to me. I ask her what it involves and whether it is doing any good? Maria’s reply makes it sound like massage and she says it makes her feel totally relaxed… Hang on, shouldn’t her body be urged into motion rather than sinking into torpour – am I missing something here?

Oh well, at least it seems to have calmed her nerves a little but not much else has happened.

I try to convince Maria that it will all turn out fine in the end, but it’s difficult when she has so many bitter-sweet memories of Sam’s birth. In the meantime, she's tearing her hair out waiting for something to happen.

I’m very much the outsider in all this – the baby and Maria are playing a game of chess with each other and my wife feels like she is on the brink of check-mate.

Read week 42 of Adam's pregnancy diary >>