Please see “why the rush?” for many of my feelings on Pregnancy Week 40; my time seems to be massively taken up with looking for gross signs of labour such as the loss of the mucus plug. Give me strength. I was hoping that I’d get a relaxing week in before the baby made an appearance but so far I have managed to clock up a good few working hours every day and haven’t done very much Kindle-reading whatsoever! Oh well. I suppose, in a way, why lull yourself into a false sense of relaxation and rest when a baby is about to arrive and turn your life upside down! Better to acclimatise, maybe, than spend weeks doing nothing, eating chocolate, only to be suddenly thrown into the fray.

Very little in the way of ailments to report, other than the fact that my whole upper body feels as though it’s going to fall through one of my…exits…at any moment. It makes for interesting car journeys, let me tell you – we are currently residing in a remote barn somewhere near Saffron Walden and the track to reach it is pitted with holes and weird bumps. I have to practise my pelvic floor exercises the whole way to the main road. Bump is now very heavy and by the end of the dog-walk circuit around the fields I have to kind of hold it up from below, which is weird. Otherwise, nothing new. Extreme tiredness for a couple of days, but then felt rather energetic yesterday, bit tired again today. Oooh, this waiting game!

I’ve been advised to have a “sweep” today if nothing has happened, labour-wise, but I have another week or so before they would think of properly inducing, so that makes me breathe a little easier… Though to be quite honest, I don’t know how I’ll cope with the suspense for another whole week, if things go that way! My Mum is on red alert waiting to travel up and there are only so many fish pies and lasagnes she can make for the freezer, and only so much knitting she can do before she’ll undoubtedly drive herself mad. I’m giving her regular updates on Whatsapp, but so far they all say “no signs yet!” so I can’t wait to have something to report. I have a little background fizzy excitement in my tummy, now, and can’t wait to hold the baby for the first time. It’ll be epic. And thank you so much for all of your brilliant comments, they have made sharing this pregnancy with you an absolute joy, and I can’t tell you how much strength and positivity I’ve gained from your wonderful stories and messages of support. You are absolutely top notch, the lot of you.

Right. This could be the week of multiple diary updates if things don’t move along – I’m just getting this one out there in case I get taken by surprise!