naps now included

My daytime schedule now includes an afternoon nap ;o)

It probably wont be too long until there is a morning one too ;o)

and he was worried that I was going to get hooked onto the home shopping channels

When I was about to start my Maternity Leave (I cant believe that I have only been off since last week) James said to me "I dont want to see that you are ordering stuff from this channel" (LOL James current favourite tv channel ;o)).

So I told him that he had no worries, especially when I can get on to the internet and I can order stuff from the likes of Amazon anyway ;o).

Todays quest has been internet shopping - and it is so much easier than getting tiered out traipsing around the shops on the High Street!

Now that I know that I am having to go through labour I have ordered myself a tens machine...

...and I have also ordered myself a couple more breastfeeding tops and another pair of maternity trousers (as I am currently alternating between James jogging bottoms and a pair of maternity jeans)

the miserable bits

We had another NCT class on Friday, and because a couple of the couples had dos to go for the lady running the classes decided that we should cover the miserable bits...

...oh what joy ;o)

So we started off with the things that can prolong labour...

I suppose that its good to be prepared for every scenario!

Then it was what will bring on labour (this is something very handy to know when I just want her to pop out) ;o)

Then came the thing that was too close to home...

...postnatal depression, one group had to say what the symptoms were and our group had to say how to help someone suffering with it.

I must admit that I was very close to just sitting out the time in the toilets as I still get far too emotional over it all, but I held back the tears and added a few bits...

We then finished with massages ;o)

First it was my turn to be massaged (I must say the baby certainly likes it when we do that) and then the lady taking the class handed us out tennis balls or octopusses, we got a tennis ball first of all and it was really good and far better than the octopus (when we finally swapped).

Then it was my turn to massage James (LOL I just hope that he doesnt expect us to swap roles like that at the time ;o)), he seemed to enjoy it too and could see why I would prefer the tennis ball ;o).

Anyhow on Saturday morning we bought a couple of tennis balls and one of them has gone into my hospital bag.

Today in Chelmsford they are switching on the Christmas lights and part of the fun is having your photo taken with Peppa Pig...

...there were three stages of queues...

the first queue was outside and then there were two queues inside before you got to do the photo!

I can see us doing this next year ;o)

hisnia or hernia

Yesterday I had an appointment with the consultant...

We got there about 20 minutes early for our 9am appointment.

The nurse called us in just after 9am and did my bloodpressure etc before the consultant graced us with her presence!

She then had the cheek to say that we had got there early bearing in mind that she didnt come into see us until 9.15 - I felt like saying to her "how comes you came in so late to see us if you were here to see that we had arrived early" but I bit my tongue as I dont want my notes to be labelled with "do not give this woman any pain relief under ANY circumstances" ;o).  I know that is something that I would consider doing if someone had aggravated me!

I told her about the tingling and numbness that I have recently had in the tips of my fingers and she said that it was Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and it should go after I have delivered the baby.

I remember the first time I had heard of CTS it was in the mid 90's and my boss joked with me that it wasnt a "fear of tunnels" ;o)

I was then asked to get up on the bed so she could have a listen of the babys heartbeat...

...so I lifted up my top and she took one look and said that the baby looked big (when I queried if she meant abnormally big she said that it was the bigger side of normal) and that she wanted to do a scan!  She then asked if I had a hernia (as instead of having an outie I have a little bump under my belly button instead)

So we booked a scan for 3.20 that afternoon, it also meant that James would be home with me for the whole day too ;o)

It was back to the hospital that afternoon...

...we got there early again and this time managed to get seen early too ;o)

The Sonographer said that the baby is footling breech, and she did all of the measurements to see if the baby was indeed big.

The lady doing the scan then pointed out that the baby has hair ;o)  She then looked at James and said to me she has more hair than her Dad ;o)  But she did say that the head looked a little on the small size!

She then said that boys hair genes come from the Mothers side - so that is a bit of a relief if we ever have a boy ;o)

When we asked if the baby would have James Tefal Head otherwise known as tefalheadacitus she couldnt or rather wouldnt confirm it or deny it!

The scan was finally done and we had to wait for the print out of the results...

...they showed us a chart of the babys progression and everything seemed to follow at the correct rate of growth from the earlier scans ;o)

Im glad that it went well and at least we got to see the baby again ;o)

the sock drawer abyss

James is always moaning that my sock drawer wont shut properly because it is crammed with socks!

So this morning I decided to have a clear out of all of the socks that are now unwearable (ie ones with holes or are threadbare).

I managed to clear out about a third of them, I also found a whole load of tights and stockings or rather pantyhose to my US friends ;o)

I will go through those another day I think...

...hee hee now Im going to have a look at replacing all of the socks that I threw out ;o)

its a good job that I had set my alarm

Today is my first day of not working ;o)

Its not officially my Maternity Leave yet as I have two weeks annual leave yet to take ;o)

Anyhow I went to bed last night and left my alarm clock on as usual...

My alarm clock went off this morning and James was still in bed so I shook him awake yelling that he has overslept (there is no use being subtle about these things ;o)).

He wouldnt have been late for work as he has loads of time built in before he leaves in the morning ;o).

So James left for work at his normal time and I eventually got up having a nice leisurely breakfast of crumpets with marmalade.

I then turned my sights to bagging up the videos that we have accumulated over the years...

...I have left all of James one stacked up in a wall formation so that he can decide what he wants to keep and what he is happy to get rid of ;o).

I wouldnt want to get rid of any of his treasured videos such as the one of Hulk Hogan winning Wrestlemania or something ;o)

a bit like jetlag

It was my last day at work on Friday and I had a great day...

My bosses even took me out for a goodbye lunch (they said that it was to make sure that I actually was going to leave ;o)).

The guys who work next door to us even laid on tea and cakes for us as a goodbye for me ;o).  They told us that they used to have "cake Wednesday", they werent kidding either...

...as they had nice cups, a teapot and some proper cake forks ;o)

One of my bosses asked me how I was with sleep deprivation?  I said that I didnt know but my only real experience has been when I have had jetlag and he said to me that it is a bit like jetlag...

...I am absolutely useless when I havent had enough sleep, so hopefully my adrenaline will kick in - well it better had!

tissues a plenty

Its my last day at work today before I start my Maternity Leave ;o)

On my way around to our office I made sure that I picked up a supply of tissues from the kitchen as I am bound to start blubbing ;o)

I had to use the first tissue when I saw that my desk had been decorated ;o)

I have so far managed to restrain myself from opening anything ;o)

Time for a new coat me thinks

Last night on my way home from work there was a lady on the train and she decided to share with the carriage that the temperature in Chelmsford was 7 degrees Celsius (yes I know to my friends in cold countries that that temperature is a walk in the park but bear with me) and in Malaysia (where she is from) it is 37 degrees Celsius.

I think weatherwise I would prefer to be in Malaysia at the moment ;o)

So last night I dug my big coat out to see if on the offchance that it would still fit me?  The answer to that is a big fat no!

I could do up my coat as far as my boobs but nothing further down than that :o(

I have heard that I will double in size during the last four weeks and as it is going to be during December then it does make sense to splash the cash and buy a Maternity Coat.

Anyhow I have a 10% off voucher that is good until Sunday in Mothercare so I will see what they have in store otherwise I will order something online.

In Metro today I saw that the new presenter of Countdown will be Nick Hewer I think that he will be really good and will be something to watch with littlun to get her brain working from an early age ;o)

positions breathing and pain

Last night saw our second NCT class...

Each couple had to write down their names, their due date and something they liked doing together...

...I had gone into the toilet before joining the group so James wrote the stuff down for us ;o)

We were the first couple to say anything and James had wrote down that we liked watching cookery tv shows (although we dont do any of the cooking we just like watching them).

LOL all of the other couples had put down eating out and socialising (so at least we were different ;o)).

The lady taking the class then  put down on the floor a whole load of cards showing different positions to be in during labour (I have to admit some of them were really strange).

Last week we were told to bring some cushions with us so that we could practice some of these, so we chose three positions that involved him holding me which seemed to work.

We then moved on to breathing techniques which essentially involved breathing in and exhaling very slowly during the contractions, and the different ways to visualise them...

...the way I am going to visualise is the coffee caffetier (you breath in and pull the plunger up and when you breath out you push it back down again) this worked fr better for me than imagining colours or feathers.

Next was pain relief - we had to split into groups of two couples and were given four sheets of paper each with a different method of pain relief on, and had to write down a maximum of four things (good or bad) that you knew about that method...

...I heard a few not very nice stories about pethidine but as they say everybody is different...

We then finished off with relaxation techniques and that involved James rubbing my back while I breathed through the contractions (I did enjoy the back rubbing I must say).

We were told to practice these techniques ;o)

one for mummy and one for baby

On Thursday lunchtime I went out and bought my Advent Calendar (chocolate of course ;o))...

I told James when I got back and he said that I should buy one for the baby too (what a fabulous idea ;o)), so I said that it would mean me eating two chocolates a day (I mean I am not likely to object to that am I?) ;o).

He then said that he meant that I buy one for her and to keep it for her so she can see what they were like when she was born...

So that evening on our way home I bought two more advent calendars...

...a milky bar one for Mummy to eat for the baby (so she knows what they taste like) and a Pepper Pig one to save ;o)

third time lucky

On Monday night we went to our first NCT class.

I had decided that the NHS parentcraft class was lacking and decided to go to some other classes where we would learn some more things.

LOL one of the questions that the lady taking the class asked was "where will your partner be in the middle of the night?" because statistically you are more likely to go into labour in the middle of the night!

I had to really bite my tongue not to say "downstairs eating cereal" I mean I dont want them knowing what complete nutters we are...

...well not yet anyway ;o)

Yesterday I wasnt in work because I had a Cardiologist appointment...

...we got there in plenty of time and James was going to come in with me.

So we got there and I was signed in, and I get called about 5 minutes later, so we both got up and the lady told me that I was having my bloodpressure taken, so James went back and sat down.

So I got back after having my bloodpressure taken and sat down and then I got called again so we both got up and I was told that I was having an ECG so James went and sat down again!

I went in and had to remove my t-shirt and bra and she put the electrodes on and she said "thats an impressive scar how did you get that" now surely the fact that I had come for an ECG it would be fairly obvious that I had open heart surgery of some sort, but thinking about it she was trying to relax me ;o)

So I told her about the operation and stuff, and then I went back to the waiting room.

And the next time I would be called it will be to see the actual Doctor!

So a couple of minutes later finally get called and me and James go in...

She asked me about my operation and what aftercare I have received etc, and then wanted to have a listen.

So I sat on the bed and she had a listen and said it sounded ok and there were no murmurs but my heart was beating really fast.

She then said that when some people have been in hospital a lot when they were children they panic at having to go to hospital again...

...this set me off crying (it was a mixture of the memories and all of the hormones flying about at the moment), anyway she gave me a hug.

I was then told that as far as she is concerned that there should be no problem with me having a natural childbirth!  Yikes that means that I will have to go through labour.

But I do have to go back for another Echocardiogram in 11 months time because they couldnt see my heart very well where everything has been pushed up.

Im not sure what answer i would have preferred but I dont do pain too well!

where...

I have been thinking about the urban legend that if your waters break in Marks & Spencer then your baby gets free shopping for life.

So this has set me thinking what is the best deal that I can do for my baby...

LOL I did ask the manager in Starbucks if the baby would get free coffees for life if my waters broke in there?  She laughed and said "it didnt bear thinking about" but they would be able to deliver me once the store had closed ;o)

I am now weighing up the pros and cons of different shops and what I feel they could offer me before taking up loitering in a particular store...

...I know for sure that I will be staying away from the likes of Poundland or any charity shops (just in case)!

If it wasnt such a trek to the local Hotel Chocolat then I would surely take up residence in there ;o)  So I may just have to lower my sights and go to Thorntons and my local one does have a cafe so it wouldnt look so obvious what I was doing ;o)

Those of you wanting to see the video of me waddling ;o)

is that a waddle

That is what my boss asked me this morning ;o)

LOL I will have to watch out if ducklings start to follow me ;o)

I will get James to video motion picture me so that I can see how I look ;o)

not as nice as the gingerbread latte

Christmas has officially started as the Christmas drinks are out in Starbucks ;o)

So I had to try the new praline mocha skinny and decaff (thank you very much) all I can say is thank goodness for decaff coffee ;o)...

...the drink is ok but I much prefer the gingerbread latte or the toffee nut latte...

...so the praline mocha is going on the "if Starbucks ever runs out of gingerbread, toffee nut syrup or eggnog" reserves list.

all of the right ticks

Yesterday I left work at lunchtime as I had an appointment to see the midwife.

She told me that I had all of the right ticks in relation to the bloodtests I had a couple of weeks ago ;o)

My glucose levels and my blood count were all within the normal ranges ;o)