Confessions of a Sleep Consultant: The Jett Diaries - The Beginning of the End
Sophie Acott
Certified sleep consultant · Author of Sleep Play Love · 13 years
Published July 11, 2023 · Updated July 17, 2026
The short answer
The final days hold everything at once. As my last pregnancy neared its end, I felt sadness, gratitude, excitement, apprehension, grief, and wonder all together. That mix is completely normal. Even the quiet grief for the closeness of carrying your little one is real and worth honoring, and it softens as excitement to meet them grows.
here with you
I am in the final days of what may possibly be my last pregnancy (if hubby has anything to do with it!).
As my due date nears, I find myself overcome with mixed emotions; an overwhelming sense of sadness, gratitude, excitement, apprehension, grief, and wonder...
Sadness that this may in fact by my last child, last pregnancy, last squishy newborn baby. I am one of the few who just love (almost everything) about being pregnant, and birth. In fact, I would keep having babies just to experience this over and over again. To think this is such a small window of time in a woman's life, and is only experienced a few times at most, I do feel a certain loss and sadness - which is inevitable if I was to stop at three children or ten.
The gratitude goes without saying; I am incredibly thankful that my body has carried three perfectly healthy babies full term without any complications, and minimum discomfort along the way.
This is the general answer.
Your little one deserves a specific one.
Sleep Play Love builds the plan around your baby's exact age, their habits, and how you're holding up — then adjusts it every morning. And it answers at 2am, in my words, in seconds.
Get your plan · 3 minutesExcitement of the impending birth - meeting our family's newest love, observing the first interactions between my other children and this baby, and of how the birthing process will unfold (which is where of course some of the apprehension also sneaks in- when will I go into labor? how long will it be? will my midwives make it in time or will hubby have to deliver this one like he did our second?!! ). The apprehension is also of how an additional person will change our family dynamics, the relationship between my two children, between myself and my husband. How I will have time for it all? Will I be able to balance work with family life, and share my love and energy around not only my immediate family, but extended network of close friends and loved ones…. that thought in itself becomes too overwhelming - park for now!
I have only in the last week uncovered an underlying grief. The grief for the loss of the particular connection I share with this baby in the here and now; feeling their little body inside mine, a divine universal connection, and the feeling of true 'togetherness' that only a mother could ever feel with their unborn child. Although this connection will evolve to something greater and more tangible - I will never again have this very moment - with this child, or potentially another. I know as the time draws even closer, this grief will very soon be overtaken by excitement, so I know this is not something I will dwell on forever (hopefully!).
The wonder is many things; what is this little soul's journey? who will they be? what lessons will I learn from them? what will his/her relationship be within our family? There are not many untapped things left in life that we cannot determine by research, science or technology. The miracle of the timing of pregnancy and birth is one of the few remaining untapped mysteries of life. Hell, we still don't even know for sure how labor even starts, or doesn’t…..So I am left wondering right now... When and how will this all begin?
Sophie
here with you
Before I could really answer this for you, I'd ask two things.
Tap one and I'll start your plan there. No judgment — there never is.
....... To be continued...