A Game While We’re Waiting for Baby

As of yesterday, we’re officially in my sister-in-law’s “due month” (38-42 weeks)—which is the term my first OB used in a futile attempt to keep her patients from focusing on the due date. All it does for me is give me up to TWENTY-EIGHT days to think “BABY? BABY? BABY? BABY? BABY? BABY?”

On one hand I don’t want to try your patience by having a contest so soon after all the giveaways. We are not some sort of daily sweepstakes blog. On the other hand, I’m jittery and I’m looking for distractions and I’m thinking a lot about the BABY? BABY? BABY? and it’s fun to make care packages, so here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to play a game I love, which is called “Guess the Birth Date.” (You may think you can also Guess the Rules, and you would be right.)

Guess the day my very first NIECE! will be born. If more than one person guesses correctly, I’ll pool the correct guesses and choose one randomly. The prize will be a Happy Niece Day Celebratory Swistle Care Package, contents as yet undetermined. A little spruce tree kit? An owl notebook? Lip balm? A monkey apron? Mint brownies? Goodness knows! But for sure it will include a small toy chicken for The Chicken Game, because Dr. Maureen introduced me to it (the game and also the chicken, whose name is Mr. Pickles), and you may want to play too. I also might send you the 2009 dishtowel calendar I just bought two of, because I love mine far more than I ever expected to love a dishtowel calendar, and perhaps you will feel the same way.

Here are some details you may find useful in coming up with your guess, now that you’re all hot to win that dishtowel:

1) The due date is February 24th.

2) This is my sister-in-law’s first baby.

3) Her OB has already warned her that she (the OB) doesn’t like to induce until 1 or even 2 weeks past the due date.

Okay, now guess! One guess per person. The deadline is the birthdate.

143 thoughts on “A Game While We’re Waiting for Baby

  1. Annika

    March 3. Which is the birthday of three of my friends’ children – two years ago, my friend K’s daughter, and last year my friend C’s twins.

    Reply
  2. courtney in FL

    Feb 20th. Good luck to her and the new little one. Oh, how I miss that new baby smell.

    I would have caused great harm to my OB if she said that she would not induce early.

    Reply
  3. Elizabeth

    I am guessing February 17th since it’s Eli’s birthday. (My due date was March 1st).
    Also, your comment word verification is “grump”. I can’t decide whether to be insulted or to agree with it.

    Reply
  4. Kate

    I will guess Feb. 25th, since my little sister just had her first in January and she arrived one day past the official due date (Jan. 14th, vs Jan. 13th, not that anyone other than me would care…)

    Reply
  5. Allison

    Feb 23rd! Oh and hey Swistle, just wondering, this is the first time I’ve entered any competitions on your website, but I’m from Australia. Is this ok?

    Reply
  6. MaggieO

    I was due on the 24th of February too! So I say the baby will be born on Feb. 27th, because that’s when my son came. Of course, I was induced, so this isn’t very scientific…

    Reply
  7. Jennifer B

    Feb 29. Oh wait, guess that wouldn’t be possible…though I think that would be a cool birthday.

    I’ll go with the 27th. Having a baby on a Friday worked well for me so all the relatives could come and visit over the weekend and my husband didn’t have to use those precious vacation days.

    I’ll be out by the mailbox waiting for mint brownies!

    jennanndavis at gmail dot com

    Reply
  8. may

    I always lose these guessing contests, but here’s hoping…

    Um, Feb. 28.

    And she’ll weigh 7 lb., 4 oz. and be 19 1/2″ long. How’s that for a guess? : )

    Reply
  9. Melissa

    Well, I’m going with March 3rd, my hubby’s birthday since his due date was also 2/24. Sorry Swistle’s Sister-in-law for wanting you to be overdue, but I am in desperate need for some mint brownies!

    Reply
  10. Whimsy

    I’m going with March 3 because it’s my little Alice’s birthday. And we like the round 3’s right next to each other. PLUS 9 is a product (it’s “product”, right?) of 3×3. So how COOL would that be to have that for a birthday? 3.3.9.

    Love it. Am huge nerd.

    Reply
  11. Kira

    February 19, because I am also pregnant and due March 29, and I can’t afford the karma of guessing an after-due-date-date for her.
    Fwiw, I also predict a lovely birth.

    Reply
  12. Kristi

    As much as I hate to predict lateness (for her sake), I’m going with March 4th. It happened to me with my first baby & it was AUGUST in PHOENIX. And I was not a very pleasant person to be around.

    Reply
  13. Christina

    How exciting! We did this once for a family friend who was having twins and it was $5 to enter the pot and all the money went into the baby’s savings account.

    I’ll say Feb. 23 b/c I was born on Oct. 23 and I’m feeling 23 vibes!

    Reply
  14. jess

    Nieces are so much fun. I got my first one for Christmas last year. My sis got me just what I’d asked for and you can’t beat the delivery date.

    Reply
  15. Bonnie

    March 10 as long as they don’t induce before… I had my first exactly 2 weeks past the “due date” and it was also a Tuesday. Everything went awesome and I was only in labor for 4 hours! I can imagine how rough it would have gone if they had induced me before… I say that our bodies know when the baby is fully cooked :) and things would go more smoothly (in most cases – I understand there will be exceptions) if we let things go as they will instead of butting in and getting in a rush! She was also only 7lbs 9 oz so she would’ve been a peanut if she came 2 weeks earlier!

    Reply

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