Due
The sixteenth of December,a date that always sticks in my mind.

21 years ago it was the due date of my first baby and even after all these years I still pause and think on the sixteenth of December.

To be honest the details of that day are sketchy. I can't remember too much but what I can remember is standing gazing out of my bedroom window. The day was grey. Not a remarkable day at all. But I knew that very soon my life would change beyond recognition.

And I can remember thinking its the sixteenth,where is my baby. I knew full well that most babies don't come on their due dates but it did feel strange to have that much awaited for date come and then go without a little baby appearing.

I guess the feeling was one of waiting,feeling very apprehensive about what was about to happen and so very excited to become a mummy.

I didn't have to wait too long. On the seventeenth of December I went for a routine hospital check and got admitted with pre-eclampsia and four days later my baby boy was born.

So for twenty years we have celebrated a very special birthday on the twentieth of December but still every sixteenth of December I remember standing at that window and waiting.