As my little progress bar to the right will show you, I'm currently at 15,452 words of 50,000, almost a third of the way done. I'm actually ahead of the game, despite not having written yesterday. As of today I'm supposed to be at 10,000 to finish on time. I like being farther than I need to be. I'm finding 50,000 words to be a LOT less than it sounds like.

As for what my book is about? Eh...I'd rather not say. I'm not writing this for publication or anything. I'm writing it because I've always wanted to write a book, because I've previously dreamed about doing NaNoWriMo, and just because I want to be able to say "I did it!" I'll tell you this much; it's realistic fiction, and the main character has a cat named Voldemort (a fact which amuses me to no end...who names a cat after "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"). It's mostly literary rubbish, which is kind of the point. NaNoWriMo is about word count, about just doing it and ignoring your inner editor. If you try to right a best seller, or if you even try to write cohesively your chances of reaching 50,000 words grows smaller and smaller. It's actually *fun* to be able to write utter fluff with no expecations and no plans to do anything with it once I'm done.


We met with our doula, Loree, again last night. Have I mentioned how awesome I think she is? I highly recommend a doula for anyone planning on having a baby, and especially recommend Loree for anyone having a baby in the area. She was going to bring along a doula-in-training but apparently, of the three doulas-in-training in Medicine Hat not one of them wanted to get training in on a mom with a December 24th due date! Ha ha! I can't blame them...but at the same time they're going to have to get over that some day. Babies arrive when babies arrive. And you can't be a success in the birthing industry if you're too picky about timing. Of course, we don't mind not having a doula-in-training. We had agreed to one as a way to "pay forward" Loree's generosity (she's working for us pro-bono). Anyhow, we'll meet with Loree one more time (in early December). Then we'll see her when I go into labor! It's coming up so soon!

Loree checked the position of Lovey. She's almost in the perfect position for birth. She just needs to move her butt over to the left. Something I can help her do by sitting correctly and spending a little time each day in some funny looking, but not uncomfortable, poses. Baby's position is important for a myriad of reasons (one of which is avoiding painful back labor like the kind I gave my mom). For example, if baby doesn't present right they may try to come forhead first. The problem with that is that the forehead isn't meant to mold like other parts of the head. So you're trying to fit an unflexible larger diameter through...which can be problematic. And, unfortunately, most doctors are not trained in how to get baby to turn, or "spin" into the right position during labor. Then they blame the problem on the mom's body being somehow inadequate.