Bump gazing

Al doing a spot of bump gazing... tee hee! Dylan was responding to his voice - it'll probably not last after his born!

Bump Watch - week 35

Another week, and another bluey-purpley coloured top day!

Paranoia and a lot of Bump Watch @ BBC catch up!

Well, I hit the big scary 8 month mark tomorrow, I feel like a beached whale and look like I've eaten one; so I thought it was time to get on the blog, as I've been crap the past few days.

News in brief, still in Bromsgrove but moving Wednesday; went to a rather jolly gig last night in Birmingham (causing much confused looks at the sight of a very heavily pregnant woman standing at the front of the crowd at a Rase/Black Fangs/Them Is Me gig!); and feeling a bit better after a massive I'm-sick-of-feeling-so-crap-and-fat-and-tired wobble that had been building throughout the week, and finally 'burst it's banks' in the early hours of Friday morning. I still feel like crap - I'm exhausted, huge and have a million and one ailments, but after some crying and asking Al if I could give up, I'm at least a but more positive about feeling like crap!

My current 'obsession du jour' is my size. Everyone is back to the old record of 'are you sure there's only one in there?' and 'not long now... your due January 4th...really?...blimey!' It's not helped by the fact my fundal height measured 36cm last Saturday, and 38 on the Monday. 36 was just on the upper acceptable limit at that point, 38 put me waaaay over. I can't stop fretting about it, but I don't want to start contacting my midwife and looking like a panicker (which, of course, I am!) I was hoping my hospital referral would come through, so I could ask them, but no joy. Looks like I'll have to wait a week and ask Ros, my midwife.

I'm just terrified at what's going to happen if he's huge - will he come early? Will they induce him early? Will it increase my chances of a c-section? Aaaaaaaargh! Panic, panic, stress, stress, worry worry.....!

Right, time to distract myself from my unending worrying with a touch of Bump Watch catch up!

24 Nov 2009
"You may have been told you could be in line for a cesarean section, because of the way the baby is lying, or because of the shape or size of your pelvis. If you feel uncomfortable at this suggestion, then ask for another opinion." No mention so far, thank god....

25 Nov 2009
"By now you'll almost certainly have noticed some slight (at least) colostrum leakage – it dries as a yellow patch on your nipples. Just wash it off with plain water. " No sign so far, thank god...!

28 Nov 2009
"The layer of hair that covered your baby's body up until now has been shed completely. The fat the baby stores and the greasy coating covering the skin –called vernix– provide better insulation." He's eaten his beard then! Lovely, that hair will all be eaten and will be sitting in his bowels now, waiting for that lovely first meconi-yummy nappy change!

Should dads be in the delivery room?

...asks an article on the BBC website today. You can check it out here.

I'm totally bemused by this article.

"The presence of an anxious male partner in the labour room makes the woman
tense and slows her production of the hormone oxytocin, which aids the process
of labour, so the French doctor contends. "

Really? I find that Alex is the one person in the world who can tell me shut up and calm down and (very) occasionally, I listen. When I was in agony in hospital in June after the accident, whether it was the torture of being lifted onto the CT scanner with multiple fractures, or the agony and terror of the compartment syndrome, waiting for surgery and fearing I'd lose my leg, the one person in the world who made it bareable was Alex. His support and love (OK get ready to feel sick now folks) made me feel like I could get through the pain, no matter how bad it was. I cannot think how I would even begin to cope with labour without him being at my side. Plus, how could I ever deny him witnessing the birth of his first-born son? Not that I'd get a choice mind, I don't think wild horses would keep him out of the delivery room!

"Some of them are very attuned to the emotional and psychological needs of their partner...."

Oh yes, Alex has always been as bigger a girl as me - only kidding Alex! No, he's always been bloody brilliant - maybe that came from his ambulance-driving grandfather, and one of Dylan's namesakes? I always content he'd make a brilliant nurse if it were not for the fact he'd care too much and probably end up depressed. He's been so brilliant throughout my pregnancy and accident recuperation... I promise you he hasn't paid me to write this glowing report - I'm just a very lucky girl!

"...but if they are shocked by bodily fluids and very agitated by the pain
they see her in, this could play on her mind and stop her psychologically
entering the place she needs to be to deliver the baby - the birthing 'zone', if
you like."

I have no fear of this after a fortnight of blood and bedpans in UCLH... though I may keep him at the head end anyway! Tee hee!

This quote sums it up

"Having a baby together is an intense, life-changing experience that most
couples want to experience together. The father can be an immensely reassuring
presence for the mother."

Plus why should he miss out on the good and bad parts of birth? If I have to go through it, he can sure as hell come along for the ride!


So there

Where Dylan will be born (hopefully!)

Just been having a mooch around on 'the Alex's' website, and found a virtual tour of the maternity unit where, hopefully, Dylan will be born in the not-too-distant future! It looks a lot nicer than Lewisham's! You can have a look here.

Hopefully when I get my appointment to go to see the consultant, I can ask if they do real tours!

Let the 'Optimal Fetal Positioning' begin...

... or put simply, this girl has a fully inflated gym ball and isn't afraid to (look like a tit) using it! Thanks to Al's dad, I now have a fully inflated ball to wobble about like a tw*t on, as per the midwife's advice. She suggested it to try an encourage Dyl to engage better i.e. for his head to drop down further into my pelvis so I can have some of my lungs back, though probably at the expense of my bladder no doubt!

"There's nothing new about trying to get your baby into a good position. Reports of 'maternal posturing' go back to at least the 19th century (Andrews 2004). It's known today as optimal fetal positioning (OFP) because of a midwife called Jean Sutton who publicised the technique in the 1990s. She advised pregnant women to get into upright and forward-leaning postures as often as possible in later pregnancy (Sutton 1994, 1996)...So far, studies into OFP show that adopting a hands and knees position for 10 minutes, twice a day, towards the end of pregnancy can help move your baby into an anterior position in late pregnancy." BabyCentre

So there we go. The gym ball is just another method which I blatantly am favouring over the 'on all fours' version as a) my leg injuries won't like it and b) I'll look like a complete pillock! It is not my idea of fun to look like a grazing dairy cow, even if I have the udders for it! So the ball it is! In fact, I'm sat on it as I type, leaning over they keyboard and rocking like a loony. What a mental image eh...?

What a few days...

Well, it's been a crazy few days and I feel like I've been on an emotional rollercoaster! It all started...

Friday
Drove down to London to join Alex who'd been stuck down there on his own since Wednesday morning, supervising works to get the flat finished. We met for a lovely lunch at Café Rouge (not very original I know!) for a lovely three year anniversary lunch. We then chilled out in the flat for a few ours, in a scene reminiscent of Trainspotting - deserted flat with nothing but a blow up mattress on the floor - we lovingly referred to it as the Birch House crack den! After a spot of lovely dinner at the Hamer-Knight's (thanks ladies!) we headed to the Wickham for night of karaoke and goodbyes at the Wickham Arms. Everyone had a great time except me, who felt like death warmed up and was in agony most of the night with a very tight bump - oh the joys of being heavily pregnant!

Saturday
We headed off to what we thought would be our last London antenatal, but never quite made it there. I'd been feeling sick and dizzy and had horrible stomach cramps since about 4am, so we decided to head to the doctors instead. It was closed and the Walk-in Centre was a Walk-Out Centre...as they won't see pregnant women. So instead we were told to go to the Anderson Suite at Lewisham Hospital. The Anderson Suite turns out to be labour ward, a terrifying place to be when you're feeling ill and not in labour! This was compounded by being ushered into an actual delivery room, complete with scary bed-with-stirrups and what Alex referred to as 'the baby cooker'. The room was a dump - the wall was covered in mouldy plaster where the ceiling had leaked - less than two feet away from where women give birth on a daily basis! Put it this way, I'm bloody relieved that I'm not having my baby in Lewisham Hospital!

To cut a long story short, they utterly failed to investigate what was wrong, instead getting side tracked with my 'interesting' heartbeat, which was investigated and deemed OK a long time ago, by Lewisham Hosiptal! We finally managed to escape after 6 hours, none the wiser but happy that Dylan at least was OK. We then tried to race across London to get Al's scooter out of the shop before it closed. We failed. We drove back to Bromsgrove in the rain, very tired and in very bad moods.

Sunday
...was spent doing very little other than panicking about funding the electrical work on Birch House Towers and the move on Wednesday. I slept a lot. Al did some admin. We cuddled. I then had to put my very sad looking monkey on a train back to an empty London flat, with the prospect of not getting home until the early hours, and having to get up a few hours later to pick up the scooter before work. I've never seen my Alex look so sad! He says he got an OK night's sleep though, considering he's now on a mattress pad inside a sleeping bag, compared to the inflatable double mattress, duvet and pillows of last week.

Monday
Spent the morning ill again, feeling very sick and dizzy again, to the point I nearly passed out in the middle of Morrisons. Then Alex rang with the quote from the electricians. I cried. It turns out we will now miss the deadline to get the flat handed over to the council in order to get rent on 1st December, leaving us to find the Alcester rent and deposit, and the money for the electricians to find - around £3k! Funnily enough we don't have that... To top it off, the electricians won't be finished until Friday at the earliest, leaving me without my monkey for a whole week, and him sleeping rough in his own former-home. Not a great day so far.

However, as the day's gone on, we have a light at the end of the tunnel and might be sorted for the money and the estate agents have kindly pushed our move date back a week, so at least our Alcester rent day will always follow getting the rent from Birch House, from January. Saw my new midwife, Ros, too who is a)competent and b)lovely - PHEW!!! She seems to think that my sickness and dizziness is a bug, which makes sense. She's got all my records transferred over and has referred me to 'the Alex', my new hospital AND I'm on fortnightly appointments at last. Dylan is all good, though apparently I have to start using the gym ball to encourage him to start engaging a little more, mainly so I'm more comfortable. He's still head down though, and according to my notes, 2/5 engaged... which is contrary to what the midwife actually said, so I need to get that clarified on the 7th.

To round off the good news, I've managed to transfer our NCT antenatal classes to Bromsgrove, with the possibility of transferring again to Stratford, if a place becomes available - though I'm not hugely worried if I can't, as we can meet Alcester people at the two parentcraft classes we are going to in December.

So there we go, what a few days eh? At least we haven't lost the Alcester house entirely, we'll just be in a week later after some financial jiggery-pokery! And Dylan, as ever, is happy and well and doing grand! I just wish I was with Alex... I miss him already...

Bump Watch - week 34

Just three weeks until I'm full term!!!

Bump Watch @ BBC 18/19 November 09

18 Nov 2009
"Your baby is 42 centimetres in length and weighs about 2,080 grams (4.5 pounds)" That's huge!

19 Nov 2009
"It's not too soon to start packing your labour and birth bag." Er, it's mostly already packed... and it's more bags than bag... *blushes*. There's a bag for Dylan, a labour bag and an overnight bag in case I have to stay in overnight or a few days if I have to have a cesarean... yes I'm probably over-prepared and no, I don't care... lol

Bump care

Whoop! I officially have a Midland's midwife! Spoke to her on the phone today and she seems lovely and damn sight more clued up than Lewisham! Am seeing her Monday at 3.15pm and then she's going to get me referred to the Alex, the hospital where I want to have Dylan. She might try and get me referred to the consultant too, what with my various accident and disability related complications - she's the first person to even consider this, which is reassuring!

Also, am trying to get my NCT antenatal classes transferred to the Midlands. There's a definite place on the Bromsgrove course, and we're on the waiting list for the Stratford course, which would be closer for us. So this weekend might be our last London antenatal!

Houston, we have progress - whoop!

Bump Watch - week 33

Well I'm super late with this this week, at 33 + 2! I have a good excuse though, what with the big Midland's move and all, hence the unfamiliar background! We're currently staying with Alex's parents and hopefully looking to move to Alcester a week today!

50 days to go....ish

Well, according to my calculations (and not my ticker over there), if Dylan is one of the 5% of babies who appear on their due date, I've got 50 days left of being a walking whale! I've got less than a month until I'm full term (37 weeks.) Up until now, I'd have said 'eeek' a lot, where as now I say 'woo hoo'! I just want to be comfortable again and not have bad shoulder/bad back/swollen ankles/heartburn and indigestion/sleep problems... ok, I'll stop with the list now!

I will sort the 33 week bump pic today when I've stopped running around like a headless chicken!

Bump Watch @ BBC 16 November 09

"You'll probably have a routine antenatal appointment this week. If you've made a birth plan, it might help to look at it again and make sure you're still happy with your ideas and choices."

Ha ha haaa haa haaaaa.... Lewisham give me an antenatal appointment when they should! Ha ha haaa ha haaaa... Despite NHS guidelines saying antenatal appointments should be fortnightly after 32 weeks, I was rather rudely informed I would be seen on 4th December and no sooner, whether I liked it or not! Lets hope the paperwork for Stratford Road comes through soon, then I can register with a GP in Alcester and see a decent midwife!

Midland's move update

We have a house! Stratford Road is a go-er! Check it on the Map - it's literally spitting distance from the High Street. And we haggled it down to £645 pcm - bargain!

It's the house with the green door

The kitchen... obviously!

The lounge (from a bad angle)

The master bedroom - needs curtains to hide those blinds! What you can't tell from the pic is that the room is huge!

Spare room and from next summer, the nursery.

Al's office

They're not great pics off the estate agent's website (they make the rooms look tiny!), but it gives an idea. We just have to drop off our application forms and admin fee on Sunday and the ball is rolling - whoop!

Review: NHS Antenatal class

Well, due to circumstance, it's safe to say that last night will be our first and last NHS antenatal class - not that we'll be missing much. It was massively oversubscribed and was more of a vague question and answer session than structured antenatal class, though with 50 odd people in the room, it could hardly have been a hands-on class!

I didn't learn that much. The midwife went through what to expect in labour (in short, a lot of pain over many hours...) and briefly covered pain relief options. Rather than learning stuff, it basically inspired me to write a list of questions to ask of my new midwifery service when I move and what sort of things I need to clarify in my birth plan. The big issues are:

1. Pain relief at home - I've never factored in what pain relief I can use at home before I go into hospital, as that's obviously not an immediate thing. I've decided I'm going to try a Tens machine, in addition to the good old hot water bottles and baths (though obviously I won't mix the bath and Tens, I don't fancy an electric shock! I've looked into them, and to hire they are about £25, which as Lloyds Pharmacy has one on sale for £30 which will do the job, I might just buy one! For the sake of £30, it's worth a try (Tens doesn't work for everyone) and I can always eBay it afterwards.

2. Epidural - It seems I can have that as soon as I want in hospital, despite what the woman (I'd say midwife but she never introduced herself, so you can't be sure!) at my last appointment said! Also, apparently Lewisham now has mobile epidurals. I've never heard of these, but apparently it allows some movement and walking around, and is patient controlled - which sounds a lot better as being static and bed-bound does slow the progress of labour. I'm going to look into whether this is an option in the Midlands and if so, it's going in the birth plan!

There are loads of other little questions such as ward visiting hours, how Dylan is going to have vitamin K and whether I want a natural placantal delivery etc etc. Basically my new midwife, once I've moved, is going to be barraged with a billion questions!

All in all, the main thing the antenatal class showed me, other than these questions, is how good it is we are moving. The midwife simply couldn't hide that fact that they are dreadfully understaffed - to the point where women who want home births are often forced into hospitals as they often only have one rather than two midwives available for home delivery. I was so shocked that the NHS promotes choice with one hand, than takes it away with another! As the move is 99% go for Saturday, I need to find out how I get my maternity care transferred, as I'll be staying with Alex's parents in Bromsgrove (thank you!!!) and then moving (hopefully) in a few weeks to Alcester. As they are in different counties, will I have to register twice? Can I just register in Alcester, even though I won't have an address there? Hopefully, if our offer is accepted on Stratford Road, I can just give that address next week, even if I'm not living there... who knows!

So much to do, so little time... better get packing!

Alex's Tuppence Worth @ 11th November 2009

If there was ever an activity designed to make a man paranoid then it's NHS ante-natal classes, particularly over-subscribed ones in South-East London featuring many young women with noticeably absent partners (plenty of stern-looking mothers in attendance with their blooming daughters it must be said). Mix all that up with the overwhelming theme of this evenings session - "how much will labour hurt" - and it's no wonder that 2 blokes were attempting to hide inside their hoodies. How one guy managed to sleep through most of it is beyond me...

Am attempting to wind down with a glass or 2 of wine, enjoying the calm before the hurricane that will be the next week-and-a-half. This will be our official jump from the London ship, although I'll be spending more time in New Cross than Bromsgrove (temporary residence until we get our new place sorted) over the next week-and-a-half, wrapping up a few spots of work and a ton of admin in-between fitting in Faber duties and getting as much sleep as an inflatable mattress in a deserted flat 127 miles away from my beautiful fiancee will allow. Am I going to miss London? Not really - I'll be in Bloomsbury on a weekly basis anyway. Am I going to miss New Cross? Am I bollocks. Bring on the countryside, the beautiful small Warwickshire town that will shortly be our new home, the absence of nightly police cars and helicopters, no more major flava's bleeding from the windows of every big-bored chav-waggon rolling past, no more dog-fighting wannabe yardies, no more walking up 3 flights of stairs to get to my front door and DEFINITELY no more sodding Lewisham NHS. Yes, I'll miss my London friends terribly, although most of them seem to quite rightly see our move as basically providing a rural holiday home in which they'll always be welcome - the more frequently the better as far as I'm concerned.

Hopefully we'll be getting a definite answer about our intended new residence in Alcester over the next day or so, in which case Helen will undoubtedly be providing a better description of the house and town we want to start raising Dylan in than I could. She's just got out of the bath and looks all wet and lovely, so I'm off to give her a cuddle. Night night!

Alex aka Babydaddy

What a difference an hour makes...

In the past hour we've pretty much decided, from looking at the calendar, that the best time to move to the Midlands is... this Saturday! Oh. My. God! How short notice is that?! If we can round up enough help, the plan is to hire a van and move Saturday afternoon, as we have NCT antenatal in the morning! We must be INSANE! This is all dependant on getting some volunteers to help. We already have the marvellous Mr Kearn lined up, and possibly an assortment of parents but if you fancy helping a fat pregnant woman move this Saturday, let us know" If we get a big enough posse/chaingang together, then we can move! If not, we're going to have to wait until the last week of the month, which is going to be a nightmare!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!!

General news update

Thought I'd update on non-baby news, so I can remind myself what's going on! lol

1. New solicitors regarding bike crash are FAB and will hopefully take the case. Old solicitors are sooooo bad that they want to settle liability without having even seen the police report, which they want ME to pay for! Insane! New chaps are brilliant and realistic - fingers crossed they can extricate me from the old solicitors!

2. No news STILL on the rent offer on the Stratford Road house - the landlords are in Germany, not on Mars - sort it out!!!

3. First NHS antenatal class tonight - woo hoo! Will post a report tonight/tomorrow.

4. New physio this afternoon - I'll get a new set of exercises... marvellous...

5. Dylan is fine and bouncy... hey, I had to get at least one baby bit in!

Bump Watch @ BBC 11 November 09

"From this time onward, it becomes more likely your baby will become 'settled' in a particular position. Most babies are cephalic (head first) at this time, but if yours isn't, there's still time for this to change. Ask your midwife about exercises to encourage your baby to turn." He was this time last wee, and I think he still is... fingers crossed! I think he must be settled as it really feels like he has NO room left to move in!

Poor boy!

My belly has a life of its own!

It's really strange how different Dylan's movements have been the last week or so, compared to before. I still get kicked and punched, but I think he's starting to run out of room now, as I'm increasingly getting pushing. He sits and slowly stretches his arm or a leg out and gently pushes my belly out. I assume he's trying to get a good idea of what space he has. It's very cool and alarmingly 'Alien'-like! He's so big now, I can feel him so clearly sometimes. It almost feels like there's only a layer of skin separating us and nothing else. I'm constantly getting little hand prods and elbow prods... my belly has a life of its own!

You know you've got swollen ankles when...

... you've been wearing your fiancés socks (he has size 12 feet) and your legs end up looking like this:

Oops! Looks like I officially have hit that 'swollen ankles' point of pregnancy now, well actually I did a few days ago. Marvellous, I'm a cliché!

Bump Watch - week 32

32 weeks

Raspberry leaf tea - day one

Woo hoo - it didn't taste too bad considering:

1. I hate raspberries

2. I hate fruit teas; and

3. I left the tea bag in for 15 minutes instead of 5 - doh!

Let's hope it's doing it's stuff with my uterine muscles! Just 58-odd days of the stuff to go....

32 weeks today

Eeek! 8 weeks officially to go, and just 5 until I'm full term! It's been a busy few days and I'm absolutely knackered. Everything is exhausting now, though I don't know how much of that is pregnancy and how much is my M.E. Plus I spent half of Saturday night throwing up, so I think I'm still recovering!

We got back from the Midlands yesterday from my dad's 60th/Alcester house hunting expedition. This morning, I trekked into Lewisham to grab a few more baby bits. I finally got round to picking up my free changing bag from Boots. For the price of a pack of nappies, it's an unexciting but well made bag with travel change mat and bottle warmer. It's quite small to use as a changing bag, but it's going to make a brilliant labour bag, so I don't have to rummage around in my suitcase for stuff during labour:

I also picked up some maternity/nursing nighties from Mothercare - an early Christmas prezzie from Mum, so breastfeeding should be a little less chilly. I'm going to keep one to wear now, and pack the other in my hospital bag, once they are washed and dried.

Right, I'm off to make my maiden cup of raspberry leaf tea - I'll report back on how nice/foul it was later, and also will hopefully get a bump watch pic up!

Bump Watch @ BBC 8 November 09

"Your baby is 42 centimetres long and weighs about 2.2 kilos (four and a half pounds)."

Wow, that IS and FEELS huge! Oh Dylan, is there any chance you're going to be a small 'un?

Bump Watch @ 7 November 09

"A baby born now has an excellent chance of survival, but will still need intensive help with breathing and feeding."

Yes, but if you could stay put until we've moved please Dylan, that would be jolly nice!

Bump Watch @BBC 5 November 09

"Another antenatal appointment. This is a chance to ask the midwife for advice on dealing with all the niggles of later pregnancy – backache, indigestion, sleep problems and emotions."

Er, I think for the sake of my temper I'd better pretend I haven't been to the midwife's today... grrrrrr (see previous post.)

HAAAAPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYY!!!

Lewisham Council made a mistake and are taking our flat after all - WE CAN MOOOOOOVE!

HOOOOOOOOORRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

Right, I'm going to call some estate agents and see if we can view some houses tomorrow.

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Back from the midwife with a boat-load of misery...

OK, I'm going to admit, I'm in a bad mood. By the end of this post, you'll probably see why. Dylan's fine by the way, it's just me being cursed as usual...

Firstly, my trip to the midwife was, as usual, pointless. I had yet another new midwife, two in fact - I assume one was a student, they didn't bother introducing themselves so I don't know - polite eh?. I was rushed in and out in 15 minutes with an 'everything's fine', so I assume everything is! The one bit of good news is that Dylan's still head down. I just hope he stays there, not that I'll know as I don't have another appointment until December! I apparently am not going to fortnightly checks, despite this being the NHS guidelines - why am I not surprised? If they miss anything because of it, it's very simple, I'll just sue them!

I popped into the breastfeeding cafe whilst I was there, and got some more literature and met someone from the Health Visitors who is going to try a put me in touch with a specialist breastfeeding nurse, as I'm likely to struggle with breastfeeding if my ME/CFS is bad after birth. She's based in New Cross which is fine, as we are likely to be here now.

Got a text from Alex. Our flat has been rejected by Lewisham Council so we can't move house unless we can find friends to move in. To recap, we can't afford to rent out the flat through an estate agents, as they'll want £850-1100 in fees which we don't have. We then thought we'd rent the flat back to Lewisham Council for them to use as social housing. At £800 a month, we'd have only lost £50 and the flat would have been managed by the council. However, despite being in a council block, with council tenants living opposite, we've been rejected for the scheme as the flat is on the 3rd floor - HELLO!? THERE ARE COUNCIL TENANTS LVING ON THE THIRD FLOOR THROUGHOUT THIS ESTATE! That's probably nearly 50 flats! Why is ours a problem? I wouldn't mind, but there is a major housing shortage in London at the moment. It was only this week that the news was full of stories about a massive housing summit between councils in London to try and shorten their waiting lists - why not take our nice flat? For the say of 10 steps it's a f*cking palace compared to the standard of Lewisham council flats!

So we are left with three weeks to try and rent the flat privately which, unless we find friends, means renting without agency support, to strangers. Really f*cking risky for us, great for con artists. Plus, the ants seem to be be making a reappearance, so no-one is going to want the place anyway. So it looks like we're staying put and I have to raise Dylan in New Cross. I won't be able to go out with him, as benefits don't stretch far enough in London, plus being on the third floor with more surgery on the cards for the new year, I'm not going to be able to get a baby up and down the stairs. It's going to be horrible, noisy, isolating and miserable.

Right, I'm off for a lie down and a cry...

My latest Freecycling triumphs!

Yes, I've been at it again - though I must add to do give stuff away too. There's a chap loading half our old kitchen in a hand cart as we speak - the mad man is going to haul it all away, in three loads, all the way to Woolwich - that's at least 30 miles he'll walk today!

We've had two lots of stuff, one lot a desperately needed changing table. With my dodgy knee, there's just no way I can do what I planned to do, and that's just sling the changing mat on the floor. Plus it's a place to store all the real nappy stuff. I haven't got a photo at the mo, as it's stored in the scooter shed at the moment, before we ship it up to the Midlands. It's a nice simple wooden frame which I'm going to strip down and paint (I'm thinking purple!) after the move.

The same lady also gave us a changing mat and a Winnie the Pooh baby gym (the latter I haven't photographed as it's still drying!)

Yesterday, I picked up a vibrating rocker chair from another lady. She also gave me a bath support, a top and tail bowl (for quick washes) and a few bits of clothes. Here's some pics:

Vibrating chair

I love the bath support - it just looks so odd!

Coat, sleepsuit and Dylan's first skinny jeans!

On a related aside note, Lucy Hamer-Knight's sister kindly gave us some gorgeous clothes too. I think Dylan has enough to last him until he's 1 now - fabulous!

Terrifying pictures of a heavily pregnant woman in her underwear...

Seriously, I wanted to record just how bloody huge I am, even with 9 weeks to go, so I got Al to take some pics of me in my bra and pants! I won't post them here, as they are not for the faint hearted - I'm hardly modelesque at the best of times. If you want to have a nosey, I've uploaded them here.

Here's what Dylan's done to my belly button!:

Alex's Tuppence Worth @ 3rd November 2009

Finding personalised gifts for Dylan might not actually be as difficult outside of Wales as I suspected. According to the office of national statistics his name was the 17th most popular choice for a boy in England and Wales in 2008, up 2 places from 2007 and up 28 places from 1998 (and, incidentally, only 2 places in front of my own name). It would even appear that one of his middle names ranks fairly well in the popularity stakes - Henry sits at no 38 in the 2008 rankings (-3 from 2007, +18 from 1998), although there's no sign of Ivor in the top 100.

On the flipside it would rather seem that my son and I are the family commoners from a naming point of view. No sign of Helen or either grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles or even pets names in the 2008 top 100 - only aunty Becky manages to join us at no 65 in the girls names list (-18 from 2007, -56 from 1998, and in joint place with Mohammad in the boys list interestingly enough). Mind you it could also be said that we're the fashionable ones as far as our names are concerned!

Alex(ander), aka Babydaddy

Elsie the blogger

Looks like Elsie wants in on this blogging malarky too!

Bump Watch @ BBC 31st October - 2nd November 09

31 weeks today and once again, I've been seriously slack on this:

31 Oct 2009
"Your baby is looking a little plumper every day, as more fat gets laid down under the skin." Just like me then! We can be fatties together!

1 Nov 2009
"Your weight gain tends to be faster at this stage – you're probably putting on about a pound every week." Only a pound...?

2 Nov 2009
"Boys' testicles start to descend from the body toward the scrotum." Tee hee hee *snigger*

Bump Watch - week 31

A particularly gormless-looking 31 week bump pic...

Yesterday's shopping

Washload two of Dylan bedding is just finishing, so I'll finally get all the pics up!

Dylan's cot bedding and 2 x moses basket blankets

I bought 2 acrylic one of eBay, which still had the tags on, so I exchanged them for cotton ones whilst in Mothercare! I am the cheekiest! However, they have created rather a lot of washing - *sigh*

Ah well, at least it's given me time to update my shopping list (which is now considerably shorter!) and to start packing my rather snazzy hospital bag:

It's not as big as it looks - honestly! I've updated my hospital bag lists (one for me, Dyl and Al) and they are probably about half packed. I want to have it ready as soon as possible, but I know some things, like snacks and clothes, can't go in until the last minute. I still might get it as fully packed as possible by about 36 weeks though, I'm so paranoid!

The there's all the fun bits we bought. Al is a MAJORLY bad influence! All the clothes bar the grey hat are a result of "but we HAVE to get this 'len, it's SO cool!" He's right, but... oh sod it, Dylan's worth it! We bought stuff in quite a variety of sizes though, so he has stuff to grow into:

Grey bear hat (for his coming-home-from-hospital outfit; baby flannels; skull hoodie (size 1-1.5 years, but was on sale in Sainsburys;) blue leggings (£3.50/2! and desperately needed;) woolly hat and gloves set (because Alex fell in love with them!;) stripey hoodie (ditto;) and blue sleepsuit (3-6 months and we both fell in love with this one!)

I got a couple of things for me too! Alex bought me this lovely jumper (and it's non-maternity so I can wear it afterwards! Whoop!) I found an old Office gift card in my purse (thanks Chiara!), so I finally got round to getting some more winter-proof shoes... yes they are fabric, but they are more rain friendly than my current slip ons! I'm not sure what prevents me being able to put on shoes more - the leg injury or the bump!

and finally, my pink coat arrived - hurray! It's sooooooooooo pink! And the price label says £25, I paid £15!

Pregnant prat models pink coat

So there we go! Just got the second load out of the machine, and the flat looks like Widow Twankees laundry now!

Alex's Tuppence Worth @ 1st November 2009

2 observations to make:

1. This is it! The month we have to be moved back to the Midlands in! Am hoping to f*ck that Monday's visit from the Lewisham Private Sector Leasing dept proves fruitful. Failing that it's overpriced estate agents or the lottery that is DIY leasing; either way I want to have the ball well and truly rolling by Friday...
2. It's just struck me that, in a way, Pregnancy would seem to be a rather extended form of lent for women. No drink, drugs, smoking, interesting or pleasantly undercooked food, physical excitement or extreme sports. Which means that, technically, the ideal candidates for pregnancy are Nuns. Oops...

Alex, aka Babydaddy

More bad maths - the ticker gets even!

I just decided to add the countdown to my calender, of how many days I have left... and the ticker to the right is wrong! It's two days out in terms of days. It says I have 64 days to go, but I actually have 66 days until the 4th Jan! For once it's not my bad maths - I even got Al to check! The week/day counter is correct, I am indeed 30+6.

Right, I will get started on the photographing and washing soon.... I will.... maybe another cup of tea first?

7 months today

7 months today - wow, that's a scary-big number!!!

31 weeks tomorrow - eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

Right, now to get photographing my purchases and get them on here. Then I have several baby bedding wash loads to get cracking on... who said all the washing starts from birth?