Bah Humbug

After a week of increasing backache, a sore hip and random pains low down I thought, SURELY pupo is on his way down.

Nope! Still not engaged. Lazy sod. It could well be August at this rate... hubby and his gran were both born on the 3rd of August, so it would be a good date - but I'm not sure I want to hang on quite that long.

It's our fourth wedding anniversary today and we had thought of going out for a meal. We probably would if we were in Scotland, Italy or Canada, but it is soooo expensive here that I don't want to eat out unless I am sure I can enjoy it. Right now, I just want to sleeeeeeeep. If I'm feeling really energetic, we might go to the pictures (a grand 5 minutes walk, so I will need to get a good rest this afternoon to prepare).

On the bright side, whilst I still have some research to be getting on with and some student meetings next week, I handed over my admin job to my colleague yesterday, and the university is shut in July, so no more boring admin or brain addling meetings till January :) AND we got our parental leave pay assessed and all looks well (though it looked v. bad at first, because they gave us zero personal allowance; this will be sorted once they get our tax cards. oh ok, maybe this is all nonsense to non-tax-law-bores, but the personal allowance alone is worth about 250 pounds a month, so don't knock it!).

The sofa beckons.

37+4

Counting Down

It seems my dear friends had a good visit, despite rubbish weather for much of their stay. They are currently enjoying the delights of Reykjavik, though if they have any sense, they will go out into the country as often as possible.

Pupo continues to enjoy the comfort of the womb and has still not engaged. I am officially due in a little under 3 weeks, according to me, 3 weeks tomorrow. But I have my doubts. Goodness, I will need to start counting in days.

My friends brought with them our mammoth supply of cloth nappies, which are fabulous. I spent the weekend washing which has left me stiff and grumpy (something that my friends will tell you rarely afflicts me, ahem...). My hip is quite sore, which is probably because of all the traipsing up and down the stairs with the laundry but may (fingers crossed) be a sign that baby is finally on its way south. Or maybe not.

Woah, what a boring blog. Just NOTHING of interest to report. Tired, grumpy, friends have left, sore to stand, sit down, lie down, get up....

37+1

Relaxing

Orders from the midwife today are to "relax." Given that I had just spent 10 minutes describing all the places in my body that hurt, I should hardly have been surprised, but I still was a bit! She thinks if I take a few d
ays and do nothing I might feel better again. But how does one do "nothing."? What is "nothing"?

Hubby is willing to do everything in the house, sort of... he says if I "can't" do something, then just to tell him and he'll do it. But what is "can't"? I mean, I can do the dishes, it just takes me 3 times as long, 'cause I get big contractions and can hardly stand up. But I still can do them. I don't want him to think I am being lazy or "playing the pregnancy card" 'cause I just can't be bothered. My back is really sore now though, so maybe I'll just have to ask. (Given that last weekend, I not only did my whole share of the housework and went to the university graduation ceremony, but I also decided to empty and clean the fridge - which wasn't dirty - and dust the skirting boards, maybe this weekend I should just glue my butt to the sofa.) Tomorrow is Independence Day, not that anyone bothered to tell me, but I noticed that the swimming pool was to be shut, so sensibly inquired of my office manager and yes, hurrah, I do have a day off. So, relaxing it is. Maybe. hmm... Is it still relaxing to wander about the town and see what is going on?

Stretchmarks decided to double in intensity between last night and this morning. Midwife tells me they will become "beautiful memories." Yeah, right. And I am going to relax for 3 days.

Got some friends coming on Sunday for a few days which will be brilliant :) They are old friends who will not expect me to play "host" and are quite capable of finding their own way around the kitchen, so they won't make any extra work for me. Should be really fun to catch up too. Weather is rubbish, but hopefully will brighten when they arrive.

35+4

Ding Ding.. the Final Lap

In truth, I am surprised and feeling fortunate that I made it this far feeling great. But on Friday, within the space of a few hours, I went from feeling great, to feeling exhausted, stiff, sore tired and, frankly, very pregnant. The weather got hot, my feet and legs swelled up right up to my knees like I have never seen before, my back got stiff and I got aches and pains in places I didn't know I had places. But such is life. Only 5 weeks to go and for some women this all starts much earlier. This is it then. I can't sit for any time, because my uterus squashes everything else. If I stand for any time, my feet swell up. So that leaves lying down. It is great for my legs to lie on my back with them raised: but after 15 minutes my back will throb. It is good for my back (or at least better) to lie on my side. Doesn't do much for the legs though.

Er pupo, on the other hand, would seem to be very comfortable indeed. At least he displays no intention of showing his face any time soon. He has been head down for a while, but has not begun to "engage" (when the head goes down into the pelvis) which can happen a few weeks before birth. So it looks like I've still a while to go.

Still, I know I am truly blessed to be in this state, truly lucky to be prepared to welcome our baby into the World in circumstances where we can give him everything he could need.

35+1

So I have fat thighs

Apparently...

Hubby had nightmares the other night. Real flipping about like a fish out of water and screaming nightmares. So he told me last night what they were. He was attacked by a bag of sliced carrots and celery. Now, in my opinion, celery is a nightmare in itself. But I did find it rather less than worthy of the full on screaming-and-waking-up-my-wife nightmare than his preferred mother-with-no-head or witch-trying-to-eat-me regulars.

Apparently said bag of carrots and celery was really heavy and someone put it on top of him and he couldn't move. So I sat on top of him and asked him if it was as heavy as me. Then I told him I was a skinny as a stick of celery. OK, got that snake swallowed a watermelon look, but, as I pointed out, my legs were still skinny.

"Not there, they're not," says he, bravely, pointing to my thighs.

I could feel the humour draining from my body. Hmmm...

He could feel any chance of sex in the next 3 months slowly draining from our marriage.

"Oh, it's just the pregnancy, it's just water. It will go away as soon as the baby is born," he frantically adds.

"It's just when you cross your legs, I can see it," says he, continuing to dig. Make that 6 sexless months.

My thighs are NOT FAT!!! They could only even conceivably look slightly water retentative if you were comparing me at 27 with skinnymalinky athletic 20 year old me. Sadly, the latter is what hubby met and will, I fear, always be the standard against which I shall be measured.

Bollox. Why couldn't I just have been fat to begin with? Diet starts in 6 weeks.

34+2

So that's what they're for

Muslin Squares. I discover at least one of their multipurposes. But let me start at the beginning.

We had some friends over for lunch yesterday with their baby girl, nearly four months old. She needed a nap and rather than them go home, I suggested she nap in the carrycot part of the pram. It was quite exciting giving it a "shot" :) (I am sad and have no life. I've been pregnant for 8 months, for goodness sake, of COURSE I have no life.) So I stick a sheet on it "just in case" and she has a wee nap for about 45 minutes. And in this time, manages to barf on the carrycot! Right through the sheet to the mattress cover.

No harm done, I handwashed the mattress cover at 30' as per instructions and there is no stain. BUT, I have learned the virtues of muslins squares. Fold one up, stick it under the head and bob's your uncle. And here I had been worrying about leaky nappies. Babies, it seems, emit noxious substances from every end.

Here endeth my lesson.

Off out to enjoy the sunshine on "seamen's day" - probably the biggest holiday in Iceland, but sadly no day off work tomorrow.

34 weeks today