Well not so far. But I'm sure it's only a matter of time. To be honest, I can think of better times for Lisa to start labour than 2am this morning when I'm in the middle of a dream about penguins, but them's the breaks.

To be honest though, Lisa's never been one to commit herself fully, so having gone into labour at 2am, she came back out at 4:30, and after drinking liberal amounts of tea, went a little more conservative in her estimates of a mid morning birth, and let me go back to bed before I turned into a monster raving loony.

The extra sleep gave me just enough energy to phone work at 8:30 this morning and tell them I wouldn't be in today. So if we don't get a baby at the end of this, I'm going to look pretty stupid.

As things stand right now, Lisa's padding around the flat, breathing through the irregular surges, and packing enough make-up to make an Avon lady jealous. Judging by the shelf of pregnancy books we've accumulated, I'd say she's in the 'Latent Phase' of labour, which apparently can "sometimes start and stop and then start again over a period of a few days". So patience is a virtue. Personally I'm waiting for the 'Transition Stage', which according to the helpful pamphlet given to us at the ante-natal class two weeks ago, is "known as the time of despair". It's something to look forward to.

Anyway, as luck would have it, Lisa has her last scheduled midwife appointment at 1:40pm today, so assuming she can still walk, we'll be going to that and asking for an expert opinion. Hopefully I'll still have time to come home afterwards and make my sandwiches for the labour ward. I plan to eat through the contractions.