watch tHe skies

So today was a no-show from our kitchen fitters. Unfortunately John the electrician is poorly so another day with only the microwave to keep us in hot food. Not a big deal really, we can live with that. Apparently NEFF have discontinued the fridge that we wanted, which leaves us fridgeless for 3 weeks until the new stock comes in. We have a temporary fridge so we can survive for a few weeks, the only concern will be if baby decides to make an appearance ahead of due date.

Along those lines Jenny is getting heftier by the minute. The normally slim waistline is now up to a monster 41″ and growing. The end result is that she is starting waddle and wobble in comedy fashions, and she is also getting very tired, probably because she can’t sleep through the night.

Anyway John the spark should be back tomorrow to finish off the electrics, which will leave us with a functional kitchen until they return to fix the snags and install the new fridge. This moves us on to the next stage: tiles and floor. Unfortunately we can’t get them to tile until the cabinets have been fitted correctly, so it looks like the whole project will probably not be complete before baby arrives. Not a big problem except that it means that the dining room is going to be full of kitchen stuff for a couple of months. Not ideal.

The border is still to be put up, and some colourful pictures added to the walls, but if baby arrives early, he or she has a place to sleep

Blackout curtains by the way, to keep waking stimulus down and a nice rocking stroke nursing chair to keep mummy and baby happy during those long breastfeeding sessions!

Well Jenny is well at t-minus 6 weeks and counting, baby is still kicking like crazy and everything seems in good order.

Except sleep, that is.

Nobody told me about the sleep thing.

Jen’s having real trouble getting comfortable. All of the books tell her that sleeping on her back is bad for her and the baby, in fact it is uncomfortable for her due to the weight of the belly. However the weeble effect kicks in, where whatever position she assumes, her centre of gravity seems to pull her on to her back.

The end result? Not sleeping through the night. (more…)

So our recent purchases for baby include (as far as I can remember):

• Pram (sorry travel system) - £500
• Nursing chairs - £300
• Cot - £200
• Bedding - £100
• Mattress - £100
• Nappies - how many do they get through??

That’s just a selection of the things that we have bought, not including a new bathroom and kitchen that we would have probably taken our time over doing. The decorating is nearly over, we just need some new curtains in our bedroom and to put the finishing touches to baby’s room and we are all set. Oh, apart from the kitchen which starts in a fortnight. And that will be fun considering that I’ve discovered that the walls need skimming before the fitters arrive due to the previous owner being more than a little overzealous with the No Nails used to glue the woodpanelling in place . Still it all adds to the rich tapestry of life and opens up the hole on our baby savings a little wider. What is that drip drip drip I hear? All this and 2 more paychecks before I become sole provider to my expanding family. Damn I hope that they don’t bring out any more iPods for, like eighteen years or so. (more…)

So to date we have attended everything baby-related together that we can. Ultrasound scans, Mothercare visits, Mothercare visits, midwife appointments, Mothercare visits, heck I am even going to a National Childbirth Trust second hand baby stuff sale tomorrow.

But yesterday I couldn’t make a midwife appointment. I had an important client meeting in Bristol and although it was pencilled in for the morning which meant bar ridiculous Crufts traffic on the M42, I would be home in time for the 3.30 midwife appointment, when the client moved the meeting back until after lunch I knew that I was sunk. (more…)

Well Jenny finishes work at the end of the month and then we really are imminently expecting baby. Apart from the house still looking like a building site (we are in to phase 3: kitchen and screwing squeaky floorboards down), all expected to be finished mid-april, everything is ready and to be honest it’s all dragging on a bit.
Whilst I’m not wishing that the baby be premature, waiting 9 months is a really long time, and I’m really looking forward to meeting him her.

Jen’s antenatal classes are going well apart from one snag; I can’t go, the classes are women only. Feeling left out, I’ve booked us in to a 2 day course with a local company, bump to baby. Run by a couple of ex Childbirth trust employees, it is expensive, but at least it gives us the chance to prepare for the grisly experience of childbirth together.

Hospital bags are packed and ive got myself an extra memorycard for the psp to store some movies on, I just need a spare battery. Apparently women often follow the pattern of birth of their mother, in terms of when they go in to labour and how long labour is. Jen’s mum gave birth to her a week early and was in labour for 12 whole hours, so I think that I can handle that (although accepting that I don’t have to squeeze a baby shaped item out of me)….

Well yesterday’s enjoyment of the Winter Olympics was cut short when I witnessed the uber-nasty fall of Zhang Dan in the ice skating. For those of you who missed it, imagine skidding over the ice whilst landing doing the splits the hard way. Hard to watch and even tougher, I would imagine, to get up and finish your routine, which is what she did, and so I was pleased to see that such perseverence earnt them a silver medal. We Brits have a soft spot for people who are crap at sport, what other country would make a hero out of Eddie The Eagle Edwards? (more…)