time off for good behaviour

Blood pressure better so am in midwife's good books. Seems like the world is due a baby in cheltenham in November as they are seriously busy, just hope they don't all want to give birth on the same day as me as we may be in the corridors of Cheltenham General!


No news on the woodburner delivery so it's entirely possible we will be having our fireplace knocked out at the same time as having a newborn child in the house, Hey ho - people have dealt with a lot more commotion with a newborn I'm sure.

My early hours online competition entry obsession continues, just you wait and see.... I'll impress you with my pointless and unnecessary winnings before the year is out :-)

another 4am post

well U decided a week or so ago to make the most of my insomnia time by watching DVD's and entering crappy competitions on the internet. It seemed a sensible way to while the sleepless hours before this baby arrives, and assuming I don't manage to carry on when it comes, at least there is a chance I will win something from my MANY entries this month. I'll let you know!

my blood pressure has been monitored over the past few days as it is a little high (although it always has been) - and today I was threatened with being made to go in for monitoring if it remained high. I tried to stay nice and calm before my appointment, not easy when you go to the wrong surgery and have to then drive half way across town! But luckily it had come down so I got released without charge temporarily, just haev to make sure I don't get any swelling or headaches.

herein lies the bump....

blood pressure up a little so I'm under watch by the midwives but nothing too major....

just haven't met you yet....

I'm not the biggest Michael Buble fan. I like his music, in fact, had him as the first dance at our wedding but that was simply because I liked the song rather than him in particular. however I have to admit I really like his current song " I just haven't met you yet". Its such an upbeat song. Being single had is moments but generally it was a bit crap, and, without wanting to get too soppy, the sentiment of the song is a great one which really applied to me.

Took P bloody ages to turn up, but he was worth the wait :-)

Well after a day of me worrying Millie is back and seems much more content, despite not being overly impressed with her stitches. She now happily curled up on the top of the sofa and is much much brighter.

As for me, well I have a clear (ish) day ahead, and had a much better nights sleep so feel 100% more human. Have been surfing the web, reading reviews of last nights Question Time, wacthing Helicopter Heroes and updating Facebook - does that make me a well balanced human being or a bit of a nutter?

Right, better go write a list of objectives for the day. You can take the HR Manager out of the workplace but.....

Millie with attitude

Millie has to go in for an operation today, she has problems with her thyroid gland which luckily have been caught early but require either a tablet a day or an op. given that she is only about 12, an op seems the better options as hopefully with luck she'll be about for a fair few years yet and at about £1 a tablet that cost racks up, the other motivaor is that after 2 weeks of trying to get her to eat the bloody tablets I would be a nercous wreck if I thought I had to do this every day for the rest of her life!

For the first week or so I managed to hide it in soft food she was delighted with the new diet, as it is much more interesting than the dried stuff she normally gets. Jess was over the moon as she got the interesting food without the tablet (she has put on weight over the past 2 weeks!). but very quickly she sussed out the plan and started to eat round the pill, and then not eat at all. Either due to the tablets or the illness she has been throwing up, and not eating, so I went to plan B which was hiding it in cream, salmon paste, anything basically that she might be interested in eating, But this also failed, So for the past few days we have had to hold her down and force the pill onto her. easier said than done, and a harsh lesson in parenting guilt for the both of us - although I'm hoping any child of mine won't leave me covered in scratches and bleeding quite so much!

At one point this evening on the 3rd attempt we thought we'd cracked it, with her having swallowed the pill and been released to go sulk. she meandered across the kitchen and after a fair few seconds she spat the pill across the room in such a derisory manner that Paul and I just pissed ourselves laughing at her attitude!

I'm obvioulsy nervous about her having the op later on today (probably part of the reason I am awake - as well as lying in bed obsessing about ice-cubes) but I hope that it works ok and she is back to her normal self - with attitude maintained of course, but her appetite also back......

another 2am post

I have absolutely no desire to say anything nice about my former boss and his decision to turn me into a lady of leisure, however one thing I am saying to myself regularly is "thank god I am not working". Obviously my preference would have been to have chosen to finish work and start maternity leave slightly earlier, with the ability to return to my paid employment in 12 months time. But I guess that option was jsut not destined to be. whatever the case, I am glad that, given it is 2am on a monday morning, I am not sitting here knowing that I have to get up in 5 hours to go to work and worry about being capable of logical thought and speech.

I don't feel I have suffered from the "pregnancy brain" that many people seem to expect from an up the duff person, however this inability to get a full nights sleep is something I am struggling with. I know this is only the start and that it is practice for the nights when I have a screaming child etc etc, but I long for the day I sleep all through the night, and can lie on my stomach again.

I had intended to finish work on the 23rd so I would have had another 2 weeks left. I may well have coped as I think you probably do just get on with it when you have to, but as it is, I can lie in tomorrow or I can sleep on the sofa in the afternoon - thank god!

anyway, back to other stuff. well we spent a lovely weekend here at home. went to the Literature festival, saw Alan Davies and Chris Evans, both of whom were plugging their books and were very entertaining. Also went to Westonbirt along with half the population in Gloucestershire. I love this time of year when it can be sunny but also crisp and cold. Just wish I had enough energy to go for some long walks :-)

Yesterday I pointed out to P when driving that there was a cute caterpillar on the car windscreen. Before I could get the next words out of my mouth he instinctively pressed the windscreen wiper and it smudged it across the windscreen.

To be fair I know he did it to nudge it off as a reflex action but I was so mad at him..... These maternal instinct hormones are hard work.

His catholic guilt is also pretty hard work too though, so I didn't stay mad for too long as he'll beat himself up for long enough. Obviously I am now calling him "caterpillar-killer" though.

my counter says 38 days till the little one is due. yikes

struggling once again to sleep, hey ho. Have resorted to watching High School Musical and blogging to pass the time without spending money in the internet!

We've returned from a lovely couple of days in wales, the sun was shining away on Monday, and we checked out the beach and a few shops. Then yesterday the weather was horrendous, although in true Brit form we carried on regardless. We were really lucky that the rain had stopped when we reached the beach so we had a quick wander, but then had to resort to tea shops in the afternoon, but lets face it my size doesn't really enable much active tourism anyway.

I'm trying to enjoy this time as an unemployed layabout. Only problem is I seem to have gone a bit backwards in this pregnancy to the early days where I felt sick and tired a lot. This is mainly only during the night, when I can't sleep properly but feel really queasy. I can't complain too much though as everything else seems ok. i have a fair bit of heartburn, and seem to have developed a craving for ice cubes. But other than that all is ok.