What I mean by this is that the little chick is finally full term.
If I were to give birth now, it would no longer be classified as premature birth. Usually people give birth at the 40th week, but a couple of weeks before or after isn't unusual at all. Most women tend to give birth a little later. In 3 weeks I will be jumping up and down to try and shake the baby out. But for now, I'm in no hurry to go into labour.3 weeks is a really short time! I have to do some more maternity-shopping! It's quite difficult to imagine that everything will change soon.
I can't REALLY imagine being a mother. It feels so surreal to think about it. Yesterday (Wednesday) was an important day - I had an exam in the morning, so now I'm finished with classes for this semester, and I spent a few hours in the lab cleaning out my desk and computer. I made sure I have back-ups of my experiments on the institute hard drive. I dusted my desk and cleared it out so other people could use it while I'm gone. When I finally walked out of the lab it felt so significant. I almost heard a dramatic "hummmmmmmm
" as I turned off the light and closed the door behind me.
I also turned in the paper that says I'm off duty starting from a week ago. The secretary smirked because she knew I had just spent hours doing Excel tables and charts. She had a baby recently so she knows how tired pregnant women get during their last month. Perhaps I did spend a bit too long working yesterday. My tummy was like a hard basketball for most of the day. This usually happens when I have physically exhausted myself too much. It's like a practice-contraction. Perfectly harmless and very common. 
But usually it doesn't last for such a long time.So today I should relax and rest, right? Ummmm... Probably yes, but that's not what I did! I spent a few hours working on a website for the lab. It's a fun thing to do and I'm the only one qualified to make the necessary changes to this specific website but it's still work. I feel like I've been useful today, but I don't feel like I've been resting much. Don't blame my boss though - he offered that maybe I should give the website management to someone else because my due date is so close. I said it's not worth the effort. The website needs such minor updates now (especially after today). I can do this faster and better than anyone else.
Somehow improving the website is at least as satisfying as writing a blog post. I do something that has a clear visible effect that other people can see. I find expressing myself so satisfying that I used to dream about writing books when I was in high school. Then I realized that even I wouldn't read my books so I decided that such a plan has no future! Now I'll be writing science articles, so that's kinda similar to what I dreamed of doing. Unfortunately there's so much less creativity in writing those. In science, the creativity lies in asking new questions and coming up with ways to find the answer.
I think I want to take a real break from working soon. I've been taking it easy and trying not to exhaust myself too much, so I've been trying to do the bare minimum. But still I did some work each week during my 29 days of vacation in March and I was actively working yesterday and today - a week after my maternity leave officially started. You know what, if I spend 3 days per week planning and worrying about what I need to do and 2 days working, then it is still as exhausting as working the entire week.
I need to draw the line and say - NO MORE WORK! I have 3 more weeks to rest before the baby is supposed to be born. I could find enough work for a very active month or two, so can't just "do a little bit" and expect to feel like I've done most of what I needed to do. So that's decided then!
No more work. I'm officially on maternity leave, so it's about time I start resting and relaxing. 
Well, except for the website updates (about 2 days of work)... and the scientific poster I have to create in the next couple of weeks (3 days of work)... But other than that, ...and some long work emails I just remembered (1 day)... it's time to really stop working! Maybe I should try to do all the work next week otherwise I'll spend the entire remaining 3 weeks in the horrible cycle of worrying for 3 days and working for 2 days and that's not good. 
So basically my plan to stop working means I'll be working the entire next week from home.
That plan kinda backfired! Note to self: I need to learn to rest and relax.PS! I have not gained weight for 3 and a half weeks, but the baby has definitely got bigger and stronger. I'm quite pleased!
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