I have taken some time out of my busy sched. [busyness necesitates abbrvs.] to answer some Questions I have been most Frequently Asked.

1. Worried about being a mother?
shivering baby
in a car
on busy streets
to a house
full of germs
to be cleaned
with a cloth
soaked in bleach
from a shelf
much too close
to the floor.
[I either read or wrote this poem moments before reading or writing this blog entry]

2. Worried about labour?
Yeah, awaiting labour. I am not worried. And yeah any ache or pain could be it – the start of five or twenty hours, passing five or twenty seconds at a time, until baby (little baby who is sitting here inside me right now) will lay, scared and squinting, in the hospital bassinet, Mike in the chair, and my mom, in a cab from the airport – worrying and crying just enough for the driver to know that none of us feel ready for this.

3.Do you think it will be a boy or a girl?
Yes.

We have decided to hold a contest here on A Portrait of the Baby as we get closer to baby-time, guessing the actual date of Katie's delivery. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on this post with your guessed date (and time of day), and I will compile it on the sidebar so it looks all official and whatnot. Prizes include a firm handshake, and a total of 5 (five) re-tellings of "the time [you] totally guessed when [Bridget/Finley] was born!" to the child when he/she is grown up. Here are the facts:

1. The baby is due on October 4.
2. As of today — Wednesday, September 20 — Katie is exactly 38 weeks pregnant.
3. I once had a dream where the baby was early.

Check below for a recent picture of Katie. Now let's set a good example for the baby — start gambling!

Sharon & Katie, September 2006.