Changing Times...

We've been discussing moving house for a while now, to take us back to the Midlands, closer to L's family and our closest set of friends. It'll mean moving further from my family, but I've been privileged to be closer to them for the last 6 (sorry, 8 ! forgot the time we were in Ipswich before moving to this house) years, and for us three as a family, I think it will be a good move. This house is great, but with L working from home now and a growing family we need more room! The whole thing makes me feel quite nervous, mainly how we will manage it with a baby, but even if things move quickly, the conveyancing process itself could take a few months, so starting things now is looking towards a move mid to late summer and Z will be getting on for 6 months by then.

Our plans had been to start the process about a year ago, however 'someone' got pregnant in the meantime and then it just too complicated thinking about changing medical and midwifery care in the middle, and physically managing to move house with me heavily pregnant.

But now the boy is here we're looking at it again and scary of scary have put the house on the market!

We've been looking at houses in the Midlands and have found that we can afford the size and kind of house we want for what we can afford (which is lucky!) and have made some appointments to view next weekend. We've also had two estate agents round to value our house - sadly given the current market conditions, the price isn't what we'd hoped, but then this is probably reflective across the country and may be why we can get more for our money than we thought we might when buying. Articles like this are always scary. The interesting thing was that the first agent warned us heavily that he was giving us a conservative estimate of price and then the second agent came in below that even! The second agent also seemed to be positively encouraging us to stay put unless we had any time constraints on moving and in fact seemed reluctant to take the house on. So surprisingly enough we went with the first one. Both of them were full of stories of doom and gloom amongst estate agents though - offices closing in the town, withdrawing adverts from local papers... It doesn't sound good, but we're going to give it a go. The saving grace is that because L works from home, he is able to keep his current job when we move, so there are no hassles with trying to time moving with him ending one job and starting another. This should hopefully give us a bit of flexibility if we find that our house doesn't get the kind of offers we need to be able to afford the next house.

It's all such a minefield! But the board has gone up and the agent is coming back today to take details, get us on Rightmove and take some initial external pictures. We need to do some severe tidying up before the internal ones are taken, but with any luck he can show us where he thinks he'll take the pictures and we can selectively tidy!

Deep breath. Calm.

Lolbaby

Have been having a trawl through Lolcats and crazy animal pictures again following posts on a friend's blog. Here are some of my favourites so far, although there are still around 100 pages I haven't yet looked through! The last one is an 'inspired by' which L came up with last night, starring the man of the moment. Tee hee!


see more crazy cat pics


see more crazy cat pics


see more crazy cat pics


Bless him. Yes of course you can!

New things...

Now I'm starting to feel a bit more confident about changing and feeding Zachary out and about, I think it's about time that I got out to try and meet some more mums. I am in an enviable position with L working from home in that I'm not starved of adult company or conversation (well...you could beg to differ with the two of us!) during the day, but I think it would be good for me to meet other mums who are going through the same kind of things, and talk to them about breastfeeding, nights, and all the changes he's going through.

There are two children's centres within walking distance of home - the Wellington Centre, which is just round the corner (literally - about 2 minutes away) and the Meredith Centre which is further away, taking about 20 minutes to walk to. Both of them run a daily schedule of activities for parents and children, taking them up to about school age. I've been to a couple of the Health Visitor drop in sessions in order to get the lad weighed, and there's a baby massage class I'm interested in which I'll hopefully get on when it comes round again (it runs in 5-week sessions). I was also recommended to the breastfeeding drop-in which was this morning running from 10-12. Just a chance to meet other breastfeeding mums and chat about experiences - hopefully a bit less scary than talking to the health visitor!

The first challenge was to not only get myself and Z up and ready before 11, but also to get out of the house by then as well!. It was going really well - managed to get us dressed and ready to go, popped him in the carry cot while I went to get his coat, but on my return found he'd sicked up all on his cot sheet, down his face and in his hair! Nice. And I'd washed his hair specially today!

So a quick change later and we were ready to go. Really lovely weather today so I enjoyed the walk and the drop-in group was great. There were two mums there 'leading' it (in the loosest possible sense) and one other mum whose first time it was as well. Was there for about an hour, had a cup of tea and a really good chat. Very affirming. They also told me about the "Nought til they Walk" groups at the centres - they sounded great, again a chance to meet mums and apparently there are also activities and games for the babies and children, printing, making cards and other good stuff. I'm looking forward to it - next Monday is the next one.

We also talked about places in town which are good for breastfeeding mums. There are more than I thought and Debenhams and M&S both got rave reviews. The usual problem though is that even though rooms are provided for feeding mums, they are away from main cafe areas so you can't eat together as a family. There seems to be a need for some kind of breastfeeding cafe? I think such things exist but couldn't find one in Ipswich...

Smiling babies

We having been waiting with anticipation for the first sign of a social smile from Zachary. We've had a few smiles we thought were 'real' but were then followed quite closely by some milk being brought up, or a bottom burp(!) so were probably wind. L is doing a buzzy bee game with him every day which is getting a good response, but still nothing we'd call a definite smile.

Most of the material we have read (including this), indicates that most babies will start to smile at 4 to 6 weeks, although of course every baby is different and it can take up to 12 weeks for some. Zachary is 5 weeks old this week, so we are hopeful that something may happen soon!

And, judging by the glimpses we've had of what his smile might look like based on his 'wind' smiles, it's going to be absolutely gorgeous.

Diggers

After a slow start this morning, I finally managed to make some biscuits (something I've been trying to do since L bought his new book!)

It's a recipe from Mary Berry, and I venture to claim that these must be among the easiest biscuits in the world! All the melting and mixing is done in one pan (and you could use the same pan to weigh everything first as well to save more washing up), and there's no rolling or cutting out needed. Hurrah! So here's a piccie of the final product



and here's the recipe

Diggers (or Anzac cookies)

Ingredients -
150g butter
1 rounded tbspn golden syrup
175g granulated sugar
75g self-raising flour
75g desiccated coconut
100g porridge oats

Method -
1. Lightly grease baking trays and preheat oven to gas 4, 180C, 350F. Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a medium saucepan and heat gently until melted. Stir in the dry ingredients and mix well until evenly blended.

2. Spoon large teaspoonfuls of the mixture well apart on the prepared baking trays and flatten slightly with the back of the spoon. Yo should have enough for about 45 rounds. Bake for 8-10 minutes until they have spread out flat and are lightly browned at the edges.

3. Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes, then carefully lift them off with a palette knife and place on a wire rack to cool completely. If the biscuits harden too much to life them off the tray, pop hem back into the oven for a few minutes to soften. Store in an airtight tin.

Postcrossing

Got into this from through one of my friends and my first 2 cards have now arrived!!! I have diligently sent off one more, but now need to write another to top up the five that I'm permitted to have travelling at once. Hurrah.

Dining Al Fresco

Zachary and I have today had our first "al fresco" meal since he was born. I went into town this morning for some bits and pieces and to take advantage of the lovely weather (mucho chango [oh dear, that looks somehow wrong] since Sunday's snow - snow???!). Got to Cafe Nero for my weekly coffee treat and the boy started crying. Just before he started, he had been licking and trying to suck the inside of his coat hood, so I knew what was going on!

I had only just bought my goodies and knew we would not get home with him like this, so settled into my (fortunately) corner seat and fed him there and then. All went very well - no massive spillages from either my boob or Z's mouth, and no funny looks or glances from the other patrons. I feel much more confident about this now.

However as I was trying to eat my blueberry muffin at the same time, it reminded me that I should not be allowed to eat while I'm feeding Z. This time he only suffered from a few muffin crumbs, but in the past there have been dubious incidents with chocolate, and more embarassingly last Friday I dropped a piece of sweet and sour pineapple on his nose! Poor chap looked really confused by this.

Still, if you think that's bad, his father pumped the other night and then wafted Z's head in the stench so that he could 'share the joy.'

Hmmmmm, not really sure who thought we would make good parents!!!

I think I've solved the problem...

Whilst feeding my son in bed (which seems to have been the feed of eternal longeness), realised that the last lines of both stanzas of the Iolanthe DD are wrong and have too many syllables. I think a bit of tweaking will solve it...

Airily fairily
Poor Iolanthe, she's
Banished by fairies be-
-Cause of her son

Dad's the Lord Chanc'llor, so
Strephon's half-human, looks
Anachronistically
Older than Mum.

Hurrah.

(BTW is it wrong to will your son to finish feeding so that you can come and blog?)

Double Dactyls

Inspired by this and this, I spent a good while in the shower this morning trying to put one together this morning. Trying to build it around Leigh's name and Zachary's penchant for stealing our sleep, I had a bit of a problem coming up with a 6 syllable word for the second verse and gave up on that. I did however come up with an Iolanthe based one, although strictly speaking I'm not sure that the very final line works. My guess is that the first word really belongs on the penultimate line, otherwise the natural stress of the syllables doesn't quite fit. Also wasn't sure whether the second line of the first stanza (which should be a person's name) really counts - came up with "Queen of the Fairies; Banished I'lanthe" as an alternative but I prefer the way the version below scans.

Spoke to L about the first double dactyl this evening and he saved the day by coming up with "insomniacally" for the second stanza - probably not a real word but it fits! So below we have the 2 I attempted today and one I found in "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman.

1. Airily, fairily
Poor Iolanthe, she's
Banished by fairies
Because of her son

Dad's the Lord Chanc'llor, so
Strephon's half-human, yet
Anachronistic'lly
Looks older than Mum.

2. Mapely, stapely
Leigh Bobby Caple is
New Dad to Zachary
- 4 week old son

'Sweet' little Zachary
Insomniacally
Robs Leigh of bedtime sleep
Mutinous one!

3. Hankety pankety
Boy in a blanket, he's
Off on a goose-chase to
Look for a star

Incontrovertibly
Journeys through Faerie
Strip off the blanket to
See who you are.

Too much poo!

Fortunately was confined to Zachary's sleepsuit and a bit of wet in our bed!

I like this too...

Roll on Saturday...

Mind you, I think I said something similar last year about this time...

Nipple Antics

I have 2 things to say about squirty nipples and then I shall leave well alone as this probably falls squarely into the category of 'too much information.'

1. I appear to have a squirty nipple. I'm not really sure what sets it off, but often when Z takes a break in feeding, there is a definite vertical jet going on there. Only very small, but enough to soak his head, the cushion, or basically anything standing in its way! This has caused much hilarity to husbands and health visitors alike.

2. On her last visit, Mum told me a story of how supposedly my nan would think it a great lark after feeding my uncle (her youngest) to chase my Mum and auntie round the house squirting at them! God bless her, my nan's no longer with us, but she always appeared quite conservative in outlook - this was a woman who felt strongly that women should not wear trousers... I shall never think of her in the same way again.

Completely at his mercy

So far, we have been taking our sleeping cues from Zachary and working around his natural waking and sleeping pattern - which so far has tended to mean that he sleeps well during the day and then at around 9 at night when we're trying to get to bed for our sleep, he seems to be his most wide awake, just lying gazing around! Feels a bit mean then that we're not all enthusiastic about playing with him!

But all in all, we can't complain about the nights so far - I was speaking to a lady I know today who said that one of her sons, while an extremely happy baby, would wake 9 or 10 times a night and just would not sleep. We're only getting 3 or 4 wakes.

We have however been plagued by endless articles and advice about getting your baby into a sleep / bedtime routine so that they learn to distinguish between night and day, and also start to get used to sleeping for longer periods at night.

Although he's only 3 weeks old, we thought we'd have a go and start a routine for him from tonight, but not too stringent because we think it's too early for anything really strict. The plan was feed, change into sleepsuit, read story, put to bed upstairs. Start this whole thing at about half 7/8 and then try not to bring him down again - doing any other feeds upstairs.

Well...got the feed in. Then he fell asleep so we decided not to change him in case it woke him. Put him to bed upstairs. We then spent an anxious 20 minutes or so with the baby monitor stuck to one or other of our ears to check he was okay. Could hear him grunting, gurgling and moving around. I went upstairs to check and he was fine, if a little jiggly. Then he got hiccups and we sat downstairs listening to him hiccup for a few minutes (no, of course we were not laughing!) before he began crying. We're complete suckers and went and brought him down basically straightaway and he's now lying on his daddy quite happily hiccuping away. He has also now been changed due to a sicking up incident in bed - he really needs a hairwash tomorrow...

Oh well, there's always another day!

Visitation

Enjoyed a great visit by my mum and sister today. Z had quite a disturbed night and although I'm very tired, it was great to catch up with them and hear all their news and gossip. One thing which struck me as amusing - my mum is a Methodist local preacher and since the rearrangement of the Circuits (like preaching districts) within the Church, she has been going out to a lot more smaller country churches which seem to have their own way of doing things. She went out to a church recently and was not impressed - amongst other things, the church was not opened until 10.57am for an 11am service! After the service apparently the steward came up to mum and said that it had been a good service and hadn't she felt the Spirit? Mum told me "No, I didn't feel the Spirit - felt incompetence more like it..."

Happy Easter!

Despite my skepticism and belief that yesterday's snow flurries might be it for the weekend, we have had lots of snow this morning! Seems to be confined mainly to the east side of the country and is less heavy here now than at 9 this morning...but still - it's nearly April!

Snow!

We have in fact had flurries of the white stuff today (despite my disbelief in the weather forecasts!) punctuated by periods of bright sunshine! Now need to wait and see what tomorrow holds to see if we are going to manage our trip to the seaside...

To boob or not to boob

As you may have gathered from previous posts we have decided to breastfeed Zachary - the key winners for this for us are the convenience and cheapness!! (as well of course of the health benefits for the both of us...) One of the downsides is that I am the only one who can do night feeds, but to be honest they haven't been too bad so far - there tends to be a feed sometime around 11 or 12, then again about 2ish, 4ish and then getting on for 7 which is kind of when we would be waking up anyway. Some nights the feeds have lasted about an hour in total (including nappy changes) but last night managed to get through all of them in about 25 minutes a piece! (I'm not really expecting it to last!)

The bit I was most concerned about before having Zachary was the whole feeding in public thing, and had thought that I would not really be keen. One of my school friends had a baby in September and is very gung ho about it - I get the feeling that she would be most strident in putting her view across if she ws ever told it was "not appropriate" for her to be feeding in a particular place. After all, most of the changing areas for babies are in toilets - if you are expected to feed in there as well, that's not really on - how many people do you know who would like to eat their meals on the toilet?!!

But...since giving birth and getting settled into the feeding, my attitude has changed somewhat. My boobs have now been on display for nursing staff at the hospital, the midwife, the health visitor and all my in-laws, so I'm really not feeling all that fussed about whipping one out in a public place. And if the boy's hungry (demonstrated by use of his "hungry mouth" - ie open mouth which he waves around vaguely in the hope it will land on a nipple, and into which he jams anything he can get hold of for a good suck - hands, cardigans, shoulders...)

To try and be slightly modest about the whole thing though, I've also splashed out and bought some new "nursing" tops from various maternity/baby catalogues. Most of them have been pretty good - working on the discreet boob peep-hole idea, which basically keeps most of me covered up while still allowing Zachary full access. One I bought though just has a line of poppers underneath my bust which allow the top to basically divide in two to create access. It has to be the most fiddly, awkward top in the world!!! Very nice as a top but sadly just too darn annoying to use again for feeding.

Googling

I am really sad. I'm sitting in the front room at home watching L battle with mystical beings on his PS3 having just fed the boy. Thought I would Google our names as I haven't done that for a while (!) - surprising results.

Of the Kathryn Caple entries, 3 of the top 4 are actually me - one for the STEP website and 2 from my employers, L appears in the list courtesy of a review he wrote for Board Game Geek and via Twitter. And if I put in Zachary's name, I find that he appears to be some kind of expert on zebra mussels! Bonus. And there's also an entry for him linking back to my Blog. It's a small world.

Overly optimistic...

Zachary awake and hungry again at about 6!! Fortunately Daddy took pity on Mummy and changed him before attaching him to feeding station Caple again.

Managed to get another hour or so when Z finally dropped off - he's snoozing contentedly upstairs, L's planning a trip to the tip and I'm girding my loins ready to clean the kitchen and make an Easter cake. Nanny Caple's coming for a visit this afternoon - we're hoping to make use of her babysitting skills to keep an eye on him while we both get a nap later!

Were hoping to go across to Aldeburgh or Southwold over the weekend to give Z his first glimpse, smell and sound of the sea. Heard however that we're forecast cold weather and even snow on Sunday so that plan may be shelved for the time being - looks okay outside now though. Will keep fingers crossed.

So tired!

It's 0324, and I'm here typing this one-handed while I give my son his seond of the night feeds tonight. Computer had been left on for me if I wanted it and the screen mysteriously flashed up as I sat here so I thought I'd make use of it. Last feed was ar midnight - hopefully he'll now sleep until 7ish?....

The Incredible Shrinking Woman

I'm really pleased with my progress in reducing my baby bump - clearly a large proportion of this disappeared on the happening of a certain event, but still it seems to be going down well. It was a nice surprise to me to get back into pre-pregnancy trousers this week and also to realise that I can now get into basically most of my old clothes again now! Hurrah.

38 weeks pregnant...



...and today 11 days after birth...

Baby Check up

Well, we've now had our alloted 2 visits from the midwife since coming home, both of which were fine. Zachary's now under the care of a Health Visitor until he makes it to school and he was weighed this afternoon - birth weight 8lb 4oz, weight today at 11 days 9lb 5oz!!! Hurrah! I must be doing the breastfeeding right! (and fortunately Zachary managed not to embarrass himself in front of the HV by pooing or weeing when on the scales...)

Update...

Following this...Zachary had another 3 clothes changes that day (first one due to mummy dropping chocolate on him, second and third due to pooing and weeing (Zachary that is!) during nappy changes!) - last one being about 2am with his feed!

I know it's an advert but...

Saw an advert in a baby magazine for Mothercare's Smart Nappies (which we have not yet been successful with...) which struck a chord with us!

"My Rights Pertaining to Nappy Changes

I reserve the right to fill my nappy just as you finish dressing me

I reserve the right to perform the 'crocodile roll' as you struggle to remove a very messy one

I reserve the right to claim phantom poos as an attention seeking strategy

(advert for the nappies)"

Hiccups

Zachary has had quite a few bouts of hiccups, and although it doesn't upset him (and it's quite funny to watch) I wondered whether there was anything I could do to ease them. Checked out a few internet sites which confirmed it's all completely normal in a new born and there's really nothing you can do except sit them out.

I did enjoy this piece of advice though...

"There isn’t a lot you can do to stop the hiccups in a newborn baby. Certainly the old wives-tale solutions for adults (such as standing on your head, breathing into a paper bag, getting a scare etc.,) should not be tried on your infant."

Since we've been home...

Here are some highlights of the last few days...

Having my first beer since being pregnant on Thursday evening but not being able to finish it due to a very hungry little boy keeping me busy until I was too tired to finish it...

When he's crying for a feed, Zachary quite often reaches out with his arms and grabs what he can - it's not nice when it's my nipple and he has quite sharp nails...

Enjoying the early morning feed in bed with both of us so that L can enjoy some skin to skin contact...and then watching Zachary spit up on Daddy's chest...

First trip out into the real world yesterday to The Range and first use of the pushchair - both successful...

Zachary managing to make it into his third set of clothes of the day by 2.45pm today - lots of weeing during nappy changes! We've also had some pooing while being changed accidents, although fortunately no projectile poo as yet...

Zachary's ability to multi-task - ie eat and poo/pump at the same time...

Being able to once again shave my legs without having a bump in the way, and the realisation that I can now fit into my entire wardrobe again!

He is constant source of amazement and wonder to me - how did he ever fit into my tummy?? I can't stop looking at him or wanting to hold him and am really enjoying my time with him and L together. It will be different when L goes back to work after Easter, but I'm making the most of now.

Welcome Zachary Thomas Caple!

It has truly been one of the most terrifying, traumatic and yet amazing weeks of my life and I can now say welcome home to my lovely little boy.



I make no apologies for the length of this blog, and have split it into days to try and break it up a bit. It all began last Wednesday...

Wednesday 5th

My waters broke at half-past midnight and, having woken Leigh up and stumbled down to the bathroom leaving a trail of devastation behind me, rang the hospital. I wasn't expecting to have to go in then - contractions didn't appear to have started and the antenatal classes had been saying there was no need to go in until they are regularly 5 minutes apart. Rang the hospital anyway to let them know and we were told to go in for an assessment at 9.

Once my waters broke, the baby's environment is no longer sterile and I knew that if nothing further happened I would be induced in 24 hours. Went back to bed but too excited and anxious to sleep (and making sure I could still feel the baby move!) - L put on some G&S which we listened to. Have no idea whether I slept at all that night, but must have done for a while.

Went to the hospital for 9 - I was now starting to feel contractions and they seemed to be about 10 minutes apart. The midwife we saw strapped me to a monitor which showed the baby's heartbeat (lovely and strong) and could also record my contractions, and further examination showed I was about 2cm dilated! I was really pleased with that - only 8 cm to go (which, according to one antenatal class could be timed at approx 1 cm per hour)... went home again with instructions to ring later when the contractions were about 5 minutes apart.

I had a bath and L made us lunch and attached the TENS machine, and we watched some TV - got through Murder Most Famous which I had been following earlier in the week and also Diagnosis Murder, but by this time the contractions were much closer together. Rang the hospital again and they said to wait until 3-4 minutes apart! This didn't seem to take too long at all, and we were back off to the hospital very shortly afterwards.

The TENS machine was really helping with the contractions - it works by stimulating your nerve endings with pulses of electricity, helping to release endorphins and also by blocking the pain signals to the brain.

In the hospital saw another midwife - again the monitor showed every seemed fine with the baby and further examination showed that in the 6 or 7 hours which had passed since we were last in I had progressed to...3cm dilated! How annoying!!! Went home again.

Rested more, watched Torchwood and the first episode of Cranford and then tried to go to bed. Contractions now coming thick and fast and even with the breathing exercises (ably assisted by L) and TENS the pain was getting worse and I couldn't sleep. About half past midnight I decided I needed more pain relief, so woke L up and we journeyed to the hospital for what we hoped would be the last time!

Thursday 6th

This time got straight into a delivery room where I was assessed again. Turns out I am now about 5 cm dilated, and we're looking at 4 or 5am before I will be ready to deliver! The midwife also noticed that when my waters broke only the hind waters broke and the fore waters were still in tact so she broke those in order to move things along a bit.

I realised that there was no way I'd go another 4 hours with my contractions the way they were and talked about pain relief with the midwife. I had been planning to try and manage with just the TENS and entinox, but the midwife was very clear that entinox was really only appropriate for the transition stage of labour and I could not have any now! We talked about using pethidine and/or an epidural and although I was initially reluctant, knew that I needed more than the TENS and agreed to pethidine. It made me feel incredibly woozy and light headed, but also let me get some rest as the effect of the contractions was much more muffled. The midwife set up a foldout bed for L and we both managed to doze for a few hours.

Probably around half 4, the contractions changed and I knew that I needed to push. It was then all systems go and I suspect that L's hand got a bit squashed! And let's just say that the position the midwife was getting me in to push was less than dignified! L was great throughout it all, keeping me encouraged and motivated and being so supportive re choice of pain relief. It was very hard work needless to say and at some point, the contractions dropped off a bit so that my pushing wasn't as effective. The doctor came in to assess me as it had been so long since my waters had broken and started to talk to us about possibly having to have an assisted delivery (ventouse or forceps). The midwife was confident we'd get through though - she set me up with a syntocin drip to help strengthen the contractions and finally Zachary was born at 7.14am! All 8lb 4oz and 53cm of him!

He was put on my tummy immediately and my heart melted. He was absolutely perfect.

Zachary was whisked away for measuring and a bit of cleaning up and it appeared that as well as an episiotomy, I had also suffered a tear during labour which would need to be stitched in theatre. I had one final cuddle with my boys, some photos and was then nipped off to theatre.

Was given a spinal anesthetic for the procedure and it is a completely odd sensation to be aware and to see your legs being moved (enter the stirrups...) but to not feel them at all. The main topic of conversation among the theatre staff appeared to be the new shoes which had been ordered - which apparently are fastened by velcro and did not find favour with the female members of staff!!!

I was taken to the recovery ward for a half hour or so after the procedure and then eventually down to the maternity ward where I finally caught up with L and Zachary again. With some help (!) I managed to give Zachary his first feed and it was then time to relax!

Zachary was great all day, and I managed to get the feeling back in my legs by mid-afternoon, so could eventually sit up properly! By the evening though, the staff were getting a little concerned about Zachary as he hadn't fed again and didn't really seem interested in doing so - there was a possibility that he'd picked up an infection after my waters broke and a doctor was called down to see him.

L had gone home by this time and the doctor decided that there might be something wrong and Zachary should go up to the Special Care Baby Unit. This was really quite scary.

The nurses on the SCBU were absolutely brilliant though and very reassuring, although because he wasn't feeding well they had to put a tube down his nose which was not nice at all, and it meant that he had to be fed with formula. On the plus side, because it wasn't a bottle it shouldn't interfere with the breastfeeding, but it was very upsetting. He also had to have a canula fitted so that he could received antibiotics - I guess that the fact that he barely murmured when the needle was being inserted showed that he really was not feeling well.

L came back to the hospital, but apart from the initial admission procedures, there was nothing else we could do until the morning and we were sent away to get some rest.

Friday 7th

We spent a lot of Friday up in the SCBU watching over Zachary. He was being well looked after, but was still not right. The tests they ran showed that he did have an infection, although they were unable to tell exactly what it was.

He was receiving 2 hourly feeds, extended to three hourly during the day and I was also trying to breast feed him to keep that going. We would go up to the nursery in time for a feed, change Zachary and then I'd try to give him a feed, which was then topped up through the tube. I was not convinced either he was taking anything or my body was giving him anything.

We had been hoping that Zachary would only need the initial 48 hours antibiotics and be able to go home on Monday, but unfortunately the latest set of tests didn't show improvement and we were told he'd need 5 days worth. This was a bit of a blow.

The next stage was for a lumbar puncture to be taken to rule out the more serious infections like meningitis, but the doctors weren't able to take a sample from him that evening. L had driven home but came back again to see his boy. Zachary was also put on a "billi" bed in his cot as he was slightly jaundiced. The billi bed provides phototherapy for babies with jaundice - Zachary only needed the bottom section and his jaundice was not severe, but I did see a baby with the top section as well on the ward a couple of days later. The baby looked as though it had its own little sunbed, complete with goggles!

During the day I was also moved down to another ward because my health was improving and I could go onto the ward where there had been no issues or difficulties with the birth or mother's health.

Saturday 8th

This was my worst morning and I was really weepy for ages. Had been moved into a single room, which although was great in the end, was awful to start with as I felt on my own and didn't even have Zachary with me. Breakfast was difficult seeing all the other mothers on the ward with their babies and I didn't think I'd cope with my mum and sister visiting later on. I had also tried to express the previous evening so that although I wouldn't be specifically doing a feed during the night, I kept my boobs active! The expressing was really dispiriting though as very little seemed to be produced.

But...we had a breakthrough that morning. I tried to give Zachary a feed - he seemed to be sucking much more strongly and the nurse was able to show us that he had taken milk from me! It was such a huge relief for both of us and reassurance that he was improving. He was also getting more active and we were confident that things were getting better. From that point, I was able to establish full feeding for Zachary and the feeding tube was removed altogether later that day. That did however mean the start of night feeds...

Because of the success with the feeding, and as Zachary had been moved onto 4 hourly feeds, we were able to bring him back down to my ward for my family's visit in the afternoon, which was great and much better than having to take them up to SCBU, as we managed to sneak all 3 visitors into my room (see, I told you it worked out all right in the end!). I think the sight of Zachary having a tube in his nose and being on the special bed upset my mum a bit, but L and I were both feeling much brighter by now.

The lumbar puncture was tried again and again without success, but the other tests they were running all seemed to show improvement, and the feeding was a big bonus.

Sunday 9th

Had a good night feeding Zachary - SCBU would ring down to my ward everytime he needed feeding during the night and I would drag my tired old bones up there! I also had my first experience of the joy of leaking boobs!!

Today was to be the visit of the Caple clan. I was discharged from my ward, but as I was by then feeding Zachary myself, was a priority for one of the Rainbow rooms they have on SCBU. These are mini flats which can be used by mothers and families for accommodation while their babies are in SCBU. It's a bit like university rooms - there are a pair of bedrooms with a wardrobe and cabinets (so more like a 'real' room than a ward bed) and a shared sitting room, bathroom and kitchen area. This was a complete godsend as we had been preparing ourselves to go home and then drive back to the hospital when he needed feeding.

Having the room meant that I could have Zachary in there with me all the time, except for when he needed the next dose of antibiotics (every 12 hours), so feeding at night was much easier!

The Caple visit went well, and again because of the arrangements we managed to squeeze in an extra visitor again!

Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th

The next couple of days saw us taking care of Zachary in the Blue Room, feeding going really well, and learning how to top and tail him (it's washing him!) and how to wash his hair. The latest tests showed his infection level had dropped significantly and the doctor confirmed that he would be able to come home on Wednesday - at long last! He had his Guthrie test, hearing tested and a new baby check over by the doctors to make sure that he was physically all in order. No problems there at all.

Wednesday 12th

Home today! Spent most of the morning getting ready, attending the last ward round and going through all the discharge papers and procedures. The nurse had to escort us from the building, checking that the car seat was properly and safely fitted, but by just after lunchtime we were at home.

It was such a relief to be back home and to be able to come back with Zachary - I had been dreading having to come home without him.

We're all adjusting and settling into life with 3 of us at home, but so far (and fingers crossed) things seem to be going really well. The night feeds aren't too bad, and I'm certainly sleeping better in my own bed than I was in hospital! One of the other best things about coming home (apart from L's cooking!) is having my own things around, being able to use a hairdryer again and finally getting out of disposable pants!

And because I just can't get enough of him, here's a piccie of my two lovely boys!

Leigh in print!

This isn't the only one he's done, but the most recent - game review of Pandemic.

Sometimes that's God's way of telling you to think on and look sharp...

...been watching a bit of Victoria Wood this weekend!!

Had a really good weekend and it really helped going to see my sister and brother-in-law, getting out of the house and Ipswich for a bit.

Watched "Stardust" on Friday evening which we both really enjoyed (Robert de Niro very funny) - so much so that I've now bought the book to try out as well! Finished off the cupcakes - these needed cream cheese frosting according to the recipe. Sadly, although I had been efficient and checked we had all the ingredients needed for the cakes themselves, I didn't check the icing sugar situation! The recipe called for three cups of it - I managed to cobble together nearly two cups from the rest of the normal icing sugar we had and the end of a box of golden icing sugar (which will never be bought again!). The golden icing sugar had got a bit damp so I spent a good few minutes scraping that through a sieve and the icing still came out lumpy! Because of the lack of icing sugar, the frosting is still pretty liquid even two days later...but tastes pretty good somehow!

Overall the cakes came out quite moist - whether that's a slight undercooking on my part, or the use of the very wet pineapple, or a combination of both, who knows??

Headed off to Norwich Saturday morning and had lunch at a department store called Jarrolds. I had the obligatory cheese scone from Jarrolds. This harks back to my days as a child when going shopping in Norwich was a real treat - half an hour away on the train was a long journey for us then! We always stopped at Jarrolds for tea and a scone to boost ourselves on arrival before starting to shop.

Did well in town - L managed not to buy any more board games, although I was unable to resist the pick 'n' mix stall in the Mall. Went back to my sister's house where they are in the middle of refitting the kitchen (impressively Ralph is doing most of the work himself) so it was an Indian takeaway for dinner - yummy, and most importantly, didn't set off any contractions! We played lots of board games that evening and Sunday morning - a couple of games of Ticket to Ride during both of which I was soundly thrashed (Ralph is getting far too good at that game!), a games of Thebes (which fortunately I won) some card games and a bonanza of Pandemic.

Pandemic is a new cooperative game which L has recently bought - it's basically the players teaming up against the game trying to find cures for 4 diseases spreading quickly across the globe. L and I had played a couple of times on our own - one to us and one to the game. We played 5 times over the weekend - game won 3 but we won the last 2. It felt as though we were getting more organised as the last game seemed to be won much more easily, but then part of the fun of the game relies on collecting special cards from the pack and avoiding Epidemic cards. As these are drawn randomly perhaps we were just lucky! I like to think we were just great!!

Have to mention L's poor puns at this point - Bangkok is one of the cities in the game and twice L followed up the announcement of the city's name with "ouch..." Sadly it took my sister some time to catch on...both times....

Back home on Sunday to enjoy a Nobbly Bobbly in front of the Gavin & Stacey reruns we recorded on Saturday. Plenty of bobbles down my cleavage - a great end to a really good weekend.

Hummingbird Cupcakes

Had another culinary adventure this morning - off to Norwich this weekend to see my sister (she was going to come to Ipswich but we're taking the opportunity to get out of the house while we still can - I know L's going a bit stir crazy now so a change of environs is called for!) so I thought I'd make some cakes to take with us.

L has a great cupcake book which I has used before successfully (apple and cinnamon swirl cupcakes) even though all the measurements are in US. There is a conversion guide in the book, but fortunately we've also got "cup" sized measuring pot things so could follow the recipe without too much messing about. The Hummingbird cupcakes were fairly straightforward to make (although I'm saying this not having yet tried one!) and there's just the cream cheese frosting to go on. Here's a piccie so far...



Was intrigued by the combination of ingredients - banana, pecans and pineapple are apparently what make up a hummingbird cake. Had a quick trawl through the interwebs...but it appears there is no definitive explanation as to how it got its name, although seems to be incredibly popular. The most suggested explanation appears to be to do with the sweetness of the ingredients and the sweetness of a hummingbird's diet. There is another suggestion that it was because people hummed while they made it... I am more dubious about that one! Southern Living magazine Feb 1978 is credited with its first appearance and there are numerous websites displaying the recipe now - also found a very interesting site called Food Timeline which you can email for free with any questions about food history. Here's the entry for hummingbird cake.


Also cooking related - watched the final of Masterchef last night. Agreed whole-heartedly with the judges' decision to award the prize to James. Started me wondering though how much time the contestants actually have between rounds of the competition and final and whether, for example, they have a few days to perfect the recipes they produce themselves in the kitchens. Found this blog from Ben, the cheese shop guy who got to the final last year (you have to scroll about half way down to get to the Masterchef stuff). Quite an interesting read, and although there is some time for them to prepare, it does also sound as though the tests come fairly quickly on top of each other.

And just in case you're wondering about the other 2 finalists, I've also located the blogs of Hannah and Steven.

Some sound advice

"If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the things is cats."


Lemony Snicket
The Wide Window

Lost Abilities

Bought some tasty cheese on Monday - double Gloucester with onions and chives. Yum. Been enjoying this on the final few crackers left over from Christmas, but (and sadly I suspect this is not baby related), I appear to have lost the ability to eat crackers, or anything else even vaguely crumbly come to that) without showering my chest and boob area with crumbs. Right down the front of my bra. Very annoying - perhaps I should stop wearing all those boobtastic tops...

Out in town today and saw a car from a local driving school called "L ABILITY." I managed to read it as "LIABILITY" - not too far off???

Over-emotional?

I'm starting to get a little concerned about my emotional state as the pregnancy draws to a close. I had thought I was doing quite well - no frequent mood swings or massive hormonal outbursts (except perhaps for new year's eve, ahem) - although that's my view and L may well say something different... I would say that I am not usually someone to let my emotions get the better of me - not crying at my own wedding is something which is often mentioned by L! (although a good film can get me going)

But the last couple of days have been weird - watched Ballet Shoes from Christmas and got really weepy during a couple of bits because I thought certain things were going to happen (they didn't in the end) and then yesterday got weepy (although not so bad) during The Strictly Come Dancing story when they did the round up of all the past winners at the end. Yes really. This is not good.

It has happened randomly before - I think it was after my first year at uni and I didn't have a TV in my room there so I was deprived of watching all the usual crap I like (the TV room was awful and the only thing I ever managed to see on a regular basis was ER as it seemed to be football all the way otherwise!). Got home at the end of the year and I remember watching a really awful game show at home, the player won the big prize and was over the moon - I was so happy for them I was sobbing for some time. Goodness knows what I'll be like when the baby's born...

An observation

There are at least 3 shops in town which have their maternity/baby sections upstairs. I realise they're probably not the most used parts of the shops, but given who their main shoppers are going to be, only one has a lift, the other 2 have escalators up (well, one of them has, the other you can access if you go in through the next door shopping centre entrance which has an escalator) but not down. Stairs are equally as difficult each way for me and if you're trying to manage a pushchair and numerous other small children as well... not the most convenient!

Organ Donation

Saw this entry and information on one of my friend's blogs and I think it's so important it's worth repeating here. Have been a blood donor now for a good few years - ever since me and another girl were dragged down to the Blood Donation centre in Nottingham by another friend at uni...who then couldn't give blood herself because her iron levels were too low!

Obviously can't give blood at the moment because of the bump (and for 9 months after birth)...so L has a chance of catching me up as otherwise I'm way ahead of him for donations!!

But I've always been happy with the idea of donating my organs, should anything happen to me and have had several conversations with L about it. It suppose you could say it's a bit morbid to think about, but I'm sure that dealing with death and Wills at work on a daily basis has made me more aware of the issues and that the earlier you sort them out and the clearer you are with your wishes, the easier it can be for families dealing with horrible decisions at a horrible time.

Here's the link if you're not strongly anti... Thanks Niles.

Another Monday...

another ante-natal check up. All seems to be in order - blood pressure, weight and baby's heartbeat all fine. Baby lying with back to my left side and head well down so in a good position. As I have no ongoing health issues, no appointment needed next week and scarily the next one the midwife booked me in for is on 10th March. My due date is 8th March. I could be with baby by the time it comes round! That is a scary thought indeed, but also quite exciting! Other than that pregnancy wise things have been quiet - the ice cravings have waned (although whether that's just the psychological impact of knowing that I am taking iron supplements combined with the effect of the article I read...who's to say?) but the Braxton Hicks contractions have been working up a storm in my tummy. No sign of the real thing yet. I need to get to the weekend for two reasons anyway - do not want baby's birthday to be 29th Feb (apologies to anyone out there whose birthday is leap day and they love it!) and L's mum's in Lanzarote until Thursday.

Basket of spring flowers arrived unexpectedly from my mother this morning ...



...and she is apparently sending on some more carrycot sheets she has been fashioning from other bigger sheets. Also, she's finally had broadband set up and now has email! This has taken some years to accomplish.

Today has also seen the cleaning of the bathroom, making of another batch of yummy yoghurt and am now settling down to watch Ballet Shoes which we recorded at Christmas. Richard Griffiths is so huge. Saw him in The History Boys last week (also recorded from Christmas)...just as huge.

Just a quickie

Just trying to squeeze in a quick blog while L gets dinner ready - I'm supposed to be looking at Alhambra expansions on the Geek, and I've got a tab opened up for it ready.... Played 3 games this afternoon - I did abysmally at Alhambra...even Dirk beat me! I could blame it on starting to feel quite queasy during the afternoon - but that appears to have been down to lack of a proper lunch (I thought I could manage on a cheese scone and pear after my lovely scrambled eggs and mushrooms breakfast - but sadly it was not to be) - toast and marmalade has sorted me out! Pork chops and lemon sponge pudding for dinner - I love having a husband who cooks!!!

Car Park Machines

In a stunning display of lack of forethought and planning today paid for a £2.80 car park ticket with a £20 note. Yes the machine accepted notes in payment of fees. No the machine did not give out notes in change...I have very heavy pockets!

On another note, this appears to be my 200th Blog!! Hurrah!

Pregnancy update

We have been taking a few pictures of the progress of the bump (although not regularly) and here we go...

August 4th (approx 9 weeks)



October 27th (approx 21 weeks)



December 1st (approx 26 weeks)



December 16th (approx 28 weeks)



December 25th (approx 29 weeks - yes I am being forced to do the washing up!)



January 23rd (approx 33 weeks - note the washing up theme!)



...and finally today! 38 weeks tomorrow...



Not long to go now.

My husband is skiving work, sitting by me readingg

The electricity man has been and gone (and completed a very nifty and efficient removal of our old "spinning wheel of death" meter and replaced with new digital meter), and the health visitor has also visited. Left some useful leaflets and an NHS book called "Birth to Five" which looks as though it will be really helpful. Apparently I should have also received the "Pregnancy" volume from the midwife...but no show on that!

The health visitor will basically take over looking after us and the baby once the midwife's remit finishes at about 10 days. Health visitors are all trained nurses, and will be looking after us until our child starts school, at which point a school nurse takes over. There appears to be somewhat of a shortage of health visitors in the area, so we won't get many fixed visits after the first few months, but she emphasised that they're only a phone call away and will always come out and see us if we need help. That is very reassuring! I had thought she would want to look round the house, check where the baby's going to sleep etc, but she didn't - just took some basic details and brief medical histories for each of us and our respective sides of the family.

Had last ante-natal Parent Craft class last night which was pretty good and covered a wide selection of topics - induced labour, forceps, ventouse...all those nice things, but also bathing and putting baby to bed, a bit on breast feeding and we finally watched a video called "the Social Baby" demonstrating how babies are ready to communicate and be social right from birth. Oh so looking forward to meeting my little one now!

Also had an exciting parcel delivery this morning - 10 Kinsey Millhone books and 2 surprise matinee jackets from friends in Nottingham. Fantastic! Sadly this means that Don Quixote may need to be shelved for now - I'm only about 80 pages through this weighty tome. I thought I would be all literate and clever by reading it after it's closely referred to in The Shakespeare Secret (also recently read), and I have had a copy for many years now "meaning to get round to reading it" but....haven't really got into the swing of it yet, so I'll have to try and return to it between Kinsey, Dr Who and the Series of Unfortunate Events books which I'm also working through!

Finally, just been out to the shop to get out of the house for today and bought a KitKat for each of us to have with a mug of tea - L has just found the holy grail of the KitKat world - a completely chocolate finger. Mmmmmm.

Today's round up

Was just about to start blogging when there came a knock at the door - a deaf Polish girl trying to sell me a drawing. I didn't buy one. Ho hum, only another half hour to fill to Diagnosis Murder. L's been finding things for me to do - this morning I dismantled the old office chair (as BT have sent him a new exciting one - all mod cons and bells and whistles) and counted out the components of his newly arrived game Hero Quest. Only one piece missing as expected (it's a second hand game).

Have also been to Mothercare this morning and bought what will hopefully be the final part of our armoury (at least until we know what sex the baby is and how big it is) - a baby bath! All now washed and clean. We also got sidetracked at the baby clothes again and bought another sleepsuit - the excuse being that it is another one without feet so can be used at the hospital...

This afternoon I'm planning to sort out some kind of labour timetable chart (?) so that L has a ready reckoner of when he needs to be taking me into hospital. The midwives keep saying don't come in too early, but I guess that once things start, it might be difficult to stay at home, because we will just want to know what's going on in there! Last ante-natal Parent Craft class tonight as well.

Tomorrow's looking exciting - man from British Gas is coming to change the electricity meter (as the old one is now at the end of its life), and health visitor also due for an ante-natal check. I have no idea what to expect from that - the title "health visitor" still seems to conjure up negative associations, although my cousin's wife reckons that they're completely different now and she got on really well with hers.

That's it for now - time for a quick Hanjie methinks. Okay, that sounds more dirty than it actually is...

Ice cravings

Having another lazy day today - catching up with some TV on BBC's iPlayer, which is great - although I have had some problems with it stopping while it continues to download - watched Masterchef from last night (which we missed due to a tryout of L's new games San Juan and the Carcassonne Traders and Builders expansion - little pig meeples, but an abysmal performance by me as I completely ignored the farmer effect and L scored a whopping 220-odd!), and am in the middle of Being Human, which was a one-off pilot on BBC3. I'm enjoying it, although only 15 minutes in and waiting for another blockage to clear. May have to restart it and fast-forward to where I got to. This afternoon am planning to re-pack my hospital bag (since it appears that the hospital do in fact have towels which I can use and that will save some room in the first already too-full bag...) - oh the excitement!!!

Had another ante-natal class yesterday - this time on breathing and relaxation. As well as learning breathing and relaxation techniques for getting me through the contractions, we also discussed good posture and positions for me to try to get the baby in the right position (ie head down and its back on my left side) and the head to engage. Have been trying a few out this morning, but the sitting backwards over a chair is now starting to get a bit achy - not to mention the bump is pretty squashed against the chair back!

I had previously thought that I hadn't really had any cravings during the pregnancy, but am now starting to wonder if in fact ice was/is one. It's only been noticeable the last few weeks, but I now have to have ice in my drinks (sometimes having a glass of water to get to the ice...) and I rarely let it melt completely before having a crunch. Someone at work mentioned they'd had a similar craving, and I had a bit of a trawl on the internet to see if there was any particular mention of it and found this article. Interestingly, the last 2 blood tests I had showed I was slightly anaemic so perhaps there is something to it?? On Pregaday tablets now to hopefully sort out my iron levels so will wait and see if this has any affect on the ice situation.

Approaching geekdom...

I am slightly worried about my general geekness status. It started badly with borrowing Doctor Who books from one of my friends, I have also been indulging in the many and various graphic novels L has bought over the years, and have more than a passing acquaintance with various superhero backstories and lore, not to mention a lot of things murder mystery related and a bit of Star Trek...Mario...Nintendo/Wii-related stuff...

It is not getting any better and is in fact now extending to board games - L mocked me for "using the word 'meeple' in general parlance" (see the blog about Carcassonne...) - and I'll leave it up to you to make your own minds up about his use of the word 'parlance' (!) - and this afternoon when we couldn't resolve a token retrieval query in Thebes, I suggested (yes, me) looking it up on The Geek.

Whooopsie. Although I will probably not get too concerned until I reach the point that I can identify the Star Trek episode (from any one of the series except Enterprise) from a ten second or so excerpt. And recite the entire plot of the episode. You know who you are.

Blogs of Note

Having a look at another one today - some people do indeed have too much time on their hands...

Balloon Fashion show

78 points!

Played Carcassonne with the Inns and Cathedrals expansion last night. L worked out quickly that getting a cathedral into a rival's city which they are unlikely to finish is a good sabotage move as a partially completed city with a cathedral scores no points at the end (whereas a partially completed city without a cathedral does).

Within the first few tiles of the game we were fighting over supremacy in a new city and desperately trying to make sure that our two bits of cities joined up to share the points. I managed somehow to block out Leigh's third meeple, which left me with 3 men and him with 2 in the city. He gave up trying to muscle in on the pointage action and instead tried desperately to sabotage my plans by adding a cathedrals and other big city pieces in an attempt to make the city unfinishable. But he was foiled! Marvel at the wonder of the 78 point city!!! See the cathedral! See the shield pieces!

Funny, But No: Rejected Valentine's cards

Idly looking through the first "Blog of Note" on the Blogger homepage - Shoebox Blog - came across this ...

Gaming

Well, after the last thrilling installment, you may (or may not) be pleased to learn that the brownies did in fact turn out pretty nice (despite a lack of choc chips in them!) and even better smothered in custard! They are now all gone...



A couple of busy days just gone - cleaned the oven on Thursday and then went out for a Valentines Day lunch the The Vanilla Pod in town. Delicious - I had Welsh rarebit followed by Guiness braised beef and L had tomato and sweet pepper soup followed by sea bass. Yum, but sadly no room for pudding.

Spent most of the afternoon reading (The Shakespeare Secret and a brilliant graphic novel version of The Big Four (V Day present) - I have now ordered the rest of the series!) and then dozing and sadly drooling on the sofa....

Had another ante-natal class in the evening - much shorter this time, just a quick look round the delivery suites and the maternity ward at Ipswich hospital. There are 3 wards servicing the needs of birthing and post birth mothers and babies and we had a look round the quiet one. Strangely made me more nervous than the 2 hour step by step description of labour and birth we had last week!

Yesterday went over to see my cousin's wife in St Neots and collect some baby bits from her - including a huge bag of clothes! We shall not be wanting for vests...but a fun afternoon ahead sorting those out. Meanwhile, L's board game empire is slowly expanding with a Ticket to Ride - Switzerland expansion, Carcasonne Inns and Cathedrals expansion and a new game called Elasund arriving this week. Tackled Elasund and Ticket to ride last night - both pretty good, although all I dreamt about last night was bloody board games! We were playing Elasund in every dream I had that I can remember! L thinks this is a good sign...I'm not so sure.

Fishy ambition

Felt completely sapped of energy yesterday - didn't really do much other than sit on the sofa, finish my Doctor Who book, and watch crap on TV! Went out to post some letters in the afternoon, but that was it for venturing out - and spent all day in jogging bottoms...lovely and comfy.

Today much better - got out into town and sat for a while in Starbucks enjoying a cup of tea and a cake! Wrapped the Valentine's day presents and made sure that we're booked up for lunch tomorrow and that the Mother's Day flowers I thought I had ordered yesterday were in fact ordered! Watched the end of "Shall We Dance" this afternoon (lovely, lovely) and have just made brownies. Unfortunately it appears that of the 3 recipes I have for brownies, I've used the wrong one, so they may in fact be vile. Oh well.

So that's been my exciting day - except to say that I spent a happy hour this morning looking at the Wikipedia entries for some of my favourite TV programmes - Quantum Leap, The Crystal Maze, Knightmare... and following a link for Hugo Myatt (Treguard to the uninitiated) turned up an interesting fact... he apparently has a burning ambition (note that, not just any old ambition, but a burning one!) to one day play Captain Haddock, whom he resembles. Yes.

Spreading the load

I have a list of jobs to do while I'm on maternity leave and I've been trying to spread them out across the weeks. Today's tasks included cleaning the bathroom, shortening the curtains in L's work room and phoning the health visitor. All done.

Also met one of my old school friends for lunch in town - it was great to have the time to do that and to catch up with her. Then appointment with the midwife who seemed to cock up taking some blood from me leaving me with a lovely bruise on my arm!

Now watching the third "Who do you think you are" we have saved on the Vision box from last year... It's Griff Rhys Jones looking at old railway records at the moment. He met up with a "railway enthusiast" to glean some more information - oh dear. Now I don't like to stereotype, but if I just say that the enthusiast was wearing slightly too short trousers, white socks, had very thick glasses and was carrying a clipboard (I kid you not)...well, I'll just leave the rest to your imaginations...

Long time, no see

It has really been an age since I last blogged and so much has happened - particularly pregnancy-wise. Last time I blogged, L and I knew, but we had decided to wait until the all important 12-week scan (confirming that it was in fact a baby inside and not just trapped wind...) before letting everyone know. It was really difficult keeping it quiet - especially from family, but we felt happier knowing that we had at least got to 12 weeks, up until when, miscarriages can still be quite usual as there is little the medics can do to prevent them. What also made it particularly hard was that during that first 12 week slot, we had various family "dos" (my sister's wedding...L's 30th birthday party...L's aunt's 50th birthday party...) at which nothing could be said and we had to come up with various sneaky plans and reasonings as to why I wasn't drinking at any of them!!!

But 12 weeks safely came and went and the first scan showed no problems. Told everyone, then the next big stage was the 20-week scan. By this time we had spent a couple of weeks in Florida (!) and I was getting worried that I wasn't big enough and hadn't felt (or at least hadn't recognised anything I had felt) as being the baby moving around. But the scan was again absolutely fine, all measurements safely within the average brackets. It was really amazing how much could be seen on the scan - they can check length of bones, positioning and shape of the main organs and also the chambers and major blood vessels of the heart! Was really quite incredible.

And now, somehow we've made it to 36 weeks! I'm on maternity leave from work (which quite frankly couldn't come quick enough after Christmas...tiredness really starting to hit me), L has started working from home, we've had the first couple of ante-natal classes (I am still trying to work out whether the 2 hours of explaining labour has reassured or terrified me further...!), I've been to see my friend from high school who had a baby in September and feel better now I know that she is coping and still seems normal (!) and I feel absolutely huge! Definitely beached whale territory.

Physically, finding things much more difficult - I am getting out of breath incredibly quickly, which isn't helped by the fact that the little one keeps wanting to stretch its legs out just underneath my ribcage (!) and can no longer put on socks, knickers or trousers without sitting down! Getting in and out of bed...the bath...off the sofa....also proving to be a challenge on occasions, and I seem completely incapable of sitting in one position for more than about 20 minutes at a time. L is being incredibly patient (although am slightly concerned at some of the things about "mummy" he has been whispering to the bump!).

The nursery is now almost ready as well - we have most of the big things we need now (like somewhere for the baby to sleep and a car seat to get it home from the hospital!) but we've tried to hold back from buying too many clothes until we know whether it's a boy or a girl and how big it is! I have been steadily washing through everything we have so far - and we're going to try the Mothercare Smart Nappy (which has disposable and washable liners) so have been washing those as well. I think we're nearly ready?????!

Midwife appointment tomorrow and then a tour of the hospital maternity ward on Thursday in the antenatal class. And hopefully plenty of time to now catch up with some blogging!

Oh, and other than that, L has become obssessed with board games - spends a lot of time on "the Geek"! Fortunately so far he has been choosing games which I actually stand a chance of matching/beating him at. Thank you!!! See what we did last weekend...

Pachelbel Rant

My sister pointed me towards this - maybe you'll have had to play the damn thing to understand but it's still pretty funny...

Coincidence??

Oh heck has it really been that long since I last blogged??? Well a lot has happened since then, most of which you can catch up on on L's blog ('him indoors).

The reason I'm blogging now is to record a strange coincidence which occurred on Thursday. One of my clients has died and her daughter came in to start off the probate process. Her mother is being buried in a plot in Nottingham, but because the burial deed was in the deceased's name, there is no one to authorise the re-opening of the plot (her late husband's already there)
so the whole thing is being transferred to the daughter's name (I've not come across this before - strange Nottingham thing?). This has created various documents on which I need to witness the daughter's signature. She provided me with the business card of the funeral director (because I had to ring them for a bit of help with the form...) and lo and behold, the funeral directors are none other than the office below the flat where L and Richard lived for a year when I was doing the LPC!!! How odd!

It's real cake!

Honestly.

Gay

By the way, I appear to be 50% gay - which according to the test means I'm a happy well-adjusted hetero babe. I'm a babe! But one of my gay friends is only 43% gay. I'm not sure I trust the results.

That'll learn 'em!

I need to do some article writing for work - we make use of a "Lawspot" in one of the local papers, and have been trying to think of some kind of hook to link my efforts together. Needless to say, 300 words isn't an awful lot of space to establish a hook and get across the actual law point! I haven't actually written any yet although Lasting Powers of Attorney is looking a pretty good bet.

Anyway, L and I have been talking about this - some kind of witty catchphrase to make will writing seem more exciting and appealing. After the success (dubious or otherwise!) of the recent "Ditch the Bitch" and "All Men are Bastards" posters a few years ago (extolling the benefits of some divorce lawyers) we came up with "That'll learn 'em" or variations on a theme :

- Husband told you your bum looked big in that skirt? Cut him out of your Will - that'll learn 'im!
- Grandchildren never visit you? Cut them out of your Will - that'll learn 'em!

ad infinitum....

Blog apathy

This isn't good - I was all keen about updating my blog last weekend, then have had a really busy week and can't get motivated somehow...but I shall stop moaning.

So, last weekend - pretty great really. Went up to Nottingham to help celebrate a birthday - drank far too much wine and champagne, ate at a great restaurant in Southwell called Funny Peculiar. Went to see Magicians on Sunday afternoon - very very funny. The finale was filmed at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham and some of our friends went along. You can see them in the film! There's a great shot of R giving a very disapproving look to his neighbour. Definitely buy that when it comes out. Sunday evening we went to see Richard Herring live at a club in Nottingham - generally very funny even if some parts of the set I really didn't get on with.

Back to Ipswich Monday and trying to sort out by email getting a laptop and projector organised for my presentation Tuesday morning - never have the day off before a presentation when you haven't made sure that absolutely everything's sorted! But anyway the talk went well and I managed to coordinate powerpoint, the laptop and the projector - hurrah. Even gt a couple of choccy biscuits out of it!!

Been out every night this week so far - but it's bank holiday on Monday which can't be bad.

Play it again

Okay, okay this is the last one today!

I went to a BBC Play it again event in Cambridge today - it's the series of "roadshow" events taking place up and down the country to accompany the BBC1 series. It's an attempt to encourage people to become more involved with music - start up an instrument if they've always wanted to, dust off the instrument they learnt as a child and just get back into playing again. The events welcome all ages and abilities and if you can't play, you can sing or play percussion.

There were tons of people at the Cambridge event this morning. Started off by listening to the BBC Concert Orchestra playing the overture from West Side Story and they we got a chance to join in. The director of the day had adapted the theme of "Tonight" for orchestra and written some new words for the singers. Basically there were four different lines which could be played - all of which fitted together and moved from basic to quite tricky. The orchestra, singers, percussion, saxophones (because there were 24!) and guitars all practised as different sections, then came together for a final performance at the end of the morning. It really was great! I'm enthusiastic about music anyway but it was great to play with the BBC Orchestra. All the members of the public were seated next to a professional so we got help and encouragement from them and the chap leading it (Tim Steiner) was ace - really made everyone feel totally involved.

Had a surprisingly large range of instruments too - the guitar section was most varied, there was a mandolin, banjo, accordian and melodian as well as the guitars.

I really enjoy this kind of thing, but do tend to get a little carried away and start thinking about taking lessons again or doing other musical things like learning a new instrument, but realistically, it would be very expensive and I probably wouldn't be able to put in the time needed for practise. Maybe later in life?? Anyway, fully enthused for the concert at the end of June I've just downloaded to whole programme to my iPod so that I can at least get more familiar with how the pieces sound! And apparently the Pines of Rome are on Fantasia 2 - I think that might be coming out from the cupboard again....

Flying the Flag

Not the clearest of pictures, I must apologise, but a representation of our views of the songs last night at Eurovision!!! Note the UK flag at the top - we all thought Scooch were brilliant - but it was not to be...

The party was great though - went up to Nottingham to see our friends there for the do. The host had kindly split Europe into 4 geographical regions for the various couples to support, but a rather too enthusiastic elimination of western European entrants in the cunning semi-final meant that the host's region only ended up with 3 songs! We had 7 which wasn't too bad, and our themed contribution was from Germany - Holten Pils, Reisling and home-made black forest gateau. A triumph in the taste department - but don't talk to me about grated chocolate and how you can get it on to the side of a cake ... Greece was one of ours, which we thought was a good song - other favourites were the Ukraine and Sweden - although emphatically not Serbia (bah).

Chris had also kindly prepared rather dubious fact sheets for each country - some facts true, some facts blatant puns and others just ...well... rather strange. Take Turkey for example :

3. The Turkish National Football Stadium is lit by 4 floodlights; Light A, Light B, Light C and the famous Turkish D Light.

4. Turkey is often criticised for their oppression of the Kurds. They also oppress jam, marmalade, chutney and preserves of all kinds.

Yes.

There were also special awards for Scariest Lead Singer (think that went to Finland in the end), Most Sexually Offensive Dance Move (the Ukraine for that one groin thrust at the end of the song) and Least Clothes on by end of set (Sweden for the removal of the jacket - but disappointingly for all party goers, a lot less stripping on stage than in previous years!).

All was going well until the voting - but we're all off to Malta on hols next year!!!

House of Fun

Listening to Radio 2 on the way to Nottingham yesterday - a caller's claim to fame was that he'd been in the video for Madness' "House of Fun" which was apparently filmed at the Pleasure Beach in Great Yarmouth!! I have carefully scanned the video - I think I recognise that roller coaster!!!

STEPping on

Friday - STEP conference in London, update on Trust and Estate matters. Pretty good really, although a massive bundle of notes to have a read through. First section was on the FA 2006 changes and the recent case of Phizackerley. Fortunately one of the speakers was Chris Whitehouse - witty, sharp and acerbic about the Revenue. Very entertaining and has the uncanny ability to imbue all his advice with a very relaxed air as though there really is nothing to worry about at all. Also reassured us all that Phizackerley wasn't really the catastrophic herald of the end of tax planning in Wills certain newspapers would have had us believe.

Second section on contentious estate issues was a but dull - although enlivened by a tale of the almost perfect crime committed by a solicitor - sadly the devil was in the detail and trying to buy a car from the estate for around £25 less than the market price was apparently the undoing!

Lovely lunch - although as usual really pity the poor souls who have the first afternoon session. And it wasn't the most interesting of topics either - the Mental Capacity Act. The main problem being not being that the subject itself isn't interesting, but that the bits of the Act we're most interested in haven't yet come into force, so there are no interesting cases or anecdotes to keep us awake and instruct us in how to work with the new rules. Just lots of going through the act's provision and the Codes of Guidance.

Final session was on unusual Grants of Probate - not anticipating this to be particularly stimulating but it really benefitted from a lively speaker with lots of tales of how she and her department have come across them.

Even managed to get a seat on the train on the way home. Hurrah.

Cheers

A big thanks to L for making my snack all the more enticing. (It's Nutella)(really)

Whoopsie

Dropped my rosin at orchestra on Thursday - saw it slip gently from my hand and slowly drop to the floor as if in slow motion where it promptly smashed to smithereens. Well...good excuse to buy a new shiny block!

Clumsy

Somehow managed to smack myself in the chin with a lever arch file as I was getting in the car to come home tonight. Bonus.

BD

Work's been pretty busy as usual - and if actually getting on with the client stuff isn't enough, we are all being encouraged to get out there and business development our little socks off (so much so that where there was previously one non-chargeable time recording code for "Business Development," now there are 7!!!! - or 8, can't remember).

So, last week my Thursday afternoon to evening consisted of a tax seminar at the neighbouring accountants, followed by a reception marking the opening of new offices of a stockbroker in town (office very hard to find - above the Alliance & Leicester - very small signs!) followed by orchestra. Then 2 meetings on Friday, one with a thoroughly pleasant IFA and then another stockbrokers in the afternoon. This week I spent Tuesday evening with a group of my work meeting a group of accountants from the town and Wednesday out for lunch with another IFA. I'm getting my hours in!!

It's really strange - I'm so used to being the "junior" person at one of these BD meetings I've never really developed a knack for the kind of small talk/business talk you need to be able to make when you go to one...and be able to start up conversations with complete strangers! Slowly getting there - but the point of this is, having always been a junior member of the team, it somehow felt wrong that at the Wednesday lunch I was the senior colleague! I kept looking round for backup from one of the partners!! Still, I know it all takes time and the more I do the better I'll get - well.. that's the theory anyway!

Still, although my general conversation isn't great, my conversation stoppers are absolutely marvellous! Take Tuesday evening - there we are all sat in the restaurant, people at my end of the table (two men from my firm older than me and 2 ladies from the accountants, a little older than me but much more trendy) have been happily chatting about their pinups - Debbie Harry, Simon le Bon etc. Then someone asked me. Now you wouldn't think this would be too terrible, but I've never particularly been one for pinups or idols, even as a child. No posters on my wall, or cravings to go to concerts. So I panic. I could lie, but a) this doesn't really occur to me until too late and b) I get worried that someone will ask me a followup question about that person that I can't answer and my lie will be revealed - embarassment all round.

Okay, so first thing that comes into my head - Scott Bakula. Had a BIG thing for him in Quantum Leap (and he's still pretty cute). So I say him. Have to explain who he is. Still not much comprehension. So, and this is the really, really clever bit - the only other thing I can think of he has been in recently is Enterprise. Star Trek. Yep. Conversation dead as a dodo.

I really need help.

(on the plus side, I did see a good menu in the pub afterwards - one meal being served was brocilli and cheese bake. Yum - sounds almost bacterial)

Return to work blues

Actually, despite the cold which L has kindly managed to pass on to me, first day back wasn't all that bad. Lots to catch up on but no hidden nasties which is a bit of a relief - I always have this fear that something will have gone crazy wrong. But if it has, it didn't surface today!

The only slightly annoying thing was a judgment of the Special Commissioners in which the Inland Revenue won an argument about some will tax planning schemes. This was reported (sensationally and badly) in the press last weekend and I had several clients on the phone worried that this would affect them. In the most part it does not - but the press reporting makes it sound as though every single one of these arrangements is now totally worthless. Which they aren't. Bah to the press.

Perfect day

Heard it on the radio last weekend and we spent a happy few minutes trying to remember who sang each bit - this may help (and apologies for the blatant BBC plug...)

The Invisible Woman

I think I am slowly disappearing- had my hair cut and gave blood yesterday...either that r there's some kind of black magic going on somewhere!

Had a good day yesterday - finally managed to finish off cleaning and sorting out the house which has been on my mind (I'm a strange sort really) and then time for a bit of Warioware on the Wii. I've also been cajoled into starting the next Phoenix Wright game on the DS. I've got through the first game which was basically a reminder of how to play and have started the next main story - the big black space behind the screen has aroused my suspicions!!

Off t sort out more little jobs today - get my car serviced and through the car wash and then back to the tip and B&Q to get rid of the last of the spare room rubbish. Managed to get rid of a lot of things though Freecycle - some of those people must just be sitting at their computers waiting for stuff to come in - had some freakishly fast responses!

Oh, and we must also welcome our Swedish houseguests Mikael and Billy all the way from the province of Ikea!! And they eve managed to get constructed without us killing each other...

Holiday spring clean

A whole week off work - wonderful. Decided to stay at home and catch up with a few bits and pieces...like sorting out the computer room, which is long overdue. Had a long session at Ikea yesterday choosing furniture which now needs to be assembled and the room put back together! Well, that's most of today sorted.

Tomorrow there's a haircut and blood donors, followed by a play (Travels with my Aunt) on Thursday and a meal at Midsummer House on Friday. And in between that, hopefully some cross stitching and Diagnosis Murder time.....

Eva Longoria

Blimey. Who'd have thought it.

Sunny days

What a lovely day again - beautiful outside and we'll hopefully be off for a bit of caching this afternoon. This morning it's a bit of catch up stuff - L's busy outside gate building and blister acquiring, and I've given the bannister a second coat of paint and cleaned the oven. And the shower curtain's in the wash - oh domestic bliss!!

Not been too bad a week at work - L's been a bit down, but I think it's just general frustration with work and the old "being told one thing by one person and something else by someone else" syndrome. It's month and year end at my work so I have been obsessed by billing for the entire week - my supervisor mentions it in every email and the intranet keeps being updated with the departments who've now met their annual target. Ho hum. I think it's a bit of an uphill struggle for our department again this year, not helped by the fact that the staff in our bit keep changing!! Oh well, still got a day and a half left but I'm pleased with what I've done. Just have to wait and see how the firm's performed.... Bonus in sight?? Sadly I think not!

As Easter fast approaches we've been warned to keep the fridge free for defrosting over the holiday weekend - sadly it beat us to it - this email arrived Friday morning :

> Subject: CAUTION WET FLOOR
>
> The upstairs kitchen fridge has got bored waiting for the weekend and decided to defrost itself all over the floor. So please take care and remember to take out anything you have left in the fridge before going home or it will be a sorry mess by Monday (a bit like me!)
>
> thanks


Looks as though the gate frame's just been finished though so we'll be off to B&Q soon!! Happy days.

Expanse of pants

Over the years it has become abundantly clear that normal trousers do not sit well on my body shape. I have a large hips, bum, saddlebags area, but a proportionately slim waist. This usually results in either trousers fine at the waist, too tight on hips, or too loose at waist, fine on hips. I have a feeling that I may have described this unnatural state of affairs before...

Anyway, low riding trousers seem to be the key - no waist problems because they're designed to sit on the hips, and I can then just get the size that fits my thighs. Woo-hoo. I've been wearing my lovely new birthday low trousers today - only problem being I made completely the wrong pant decision to go with them. High waisted pants do not go well with hipsters - I have at least a 3 inch expanse of pants showing above the top of the back of my trousers. And they're not sexy pants either. Think Bridget Jones.

Fortunately didn't need to do too much bending down today and my top is quite long so it remained mostly hidden - but it gave L a good laugh in the kitchen when I showed him!