Shade your guesses early

If the Monkey Mama and I were the type who gambled, we would place a wager that Baby August will arrive before the due date of late August.

At this rate, we'll be lucky if the Monkey Mama can hold her contractions in check for a couple more weeks. The midwives won't do a homebirth outside of a "normal" window of 37 to 42 weeks of gestation. If the Monkey Mama were to go into labor today, she would have to go to the hospital, which we would like to avoid.

Also, we are still putting our house back together after playing musical chairs with bedroom furniture to accommodate the installation of wall-to-wall carpet in the kids' rooms. (My back hurts a lot; I'm taking naproxen.)

Also, our work schedules expect us to work for a little while longer.

So cross your fingers and hope for the homebirth.