The babies in Spain aren't only on the plane

I write to you from the breakfast table at the lovely El Escondite del Viento where we are staying this week. Kirsty is asleep in bed, but I have got up early to go kite surfing. Too early as it turns out, so I have time to write my second ever blog post.

We're staying in Tarifa, an ancient town notable for:

- its historic town walls and ancient castle

- the nightly (and loud) Semana Santa processions

- marking the divide between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic 

- the strong winds (and extensive kite surfing) that result

- the clear views of Africa only 12 miles away

- the large numbers of whales and dolphins that swim nearby (we went with FIRMM)

- the large number of families with babies in pushchairs on its streets

OK, perhaps that last claim is not so well known, but there are definitely a lot of people with pushchairs (and babies) here. Perhaps we came here a year too early.

I have noticed several changes in my reactions to seeing babies in pushchairs:

1. I notice them, rather than just marching past and mentally filing them as "slow pedestrian obstacle." This fact alone may partly explain why there seem to be so many babies here.

2. I notice the make of pushchair and mentally compare it to the one we have ordered

3. I make an effort to notice the mood of the baby. Is it enjoying the ride? Is it oblivious? Is it screaming? And then I wonder how contented our baby will be.

4. If the baby is screaming, instead of getting annoyed with it, I assume there must be a good reason and look to see what the parents are doing wrong.

The last point raises some interesting questions:

1. Who am I to judge what other parents are doing, given my complete lack of parenting knowledge?

2. Does this judgemental attitude mean I am going to become a very competitive parent?

3. I'm blaming the parents for the screaming, so clearly I'm on the side of the baby. How long will it take for that to change once we have our own child? I think the answer will be measured in the number of sleepless nights.

In the meantime, I'm off to subdue my competitive instincts by trying something I will probably be very bad at: kite surfing. 

A few More FAQs

A few more regular questions have been coming up recently so I thought I'd do a FAQs again in case other people were wondering the same things.

-Do you know what it is?
Yes, it's a baby (Sorry, ahem). No, we haven't found out, the sonographer at the last scan asked if we'd like to see the "between the legs" area, but we said no so he skirted around it the vital region.

-Have you had any weird Cravings?
Not yet, tho I still can't stand the smell of coffee or Red wine. Which is probably no bad thing really.

-Have you thought of Names yet?
The subject has come up a few times, but usually over dinner with friends who've had a little more to drink than me and I'm not sure that "Gandalf" is quite what we're looking for . So the answer to that one is a no at the moment!

-Have you bought much stuff yet?
Actually we've been quite good! So far we have ordered a buggy/car seat and bought 2 Merino baby sleeping bags and a towel. All from the baby show. Owing to the space limitations in the flat we're trying not to get too much stuff until we know what is really going to be useful. Our Mums have been doing sterling work collecting second hand stuff tho, so I think they may be better equipped than us at the moment!

-Are you enjoying being pregnant?
Well, at the moment yes! I'm well over the early nausea and the extreme tiredness of the first trimester, tho I am finding I have a few additional limitations! I also had to pay a visit to the GP this week as I have strained something in my hip, but it seems to be on the mend. What I'm really liking at the moment is all the movement. It seems to be increasing all the time now and it's really lovely to know that Smidget is in there, having a good wriggle. It also makes me giggle at inappropriate moments. You can now feel some kicks from the outside and the other night we even had a bit of an "aliens" moment when we could see a little bump popping out of my belly a couple of times, some kind of limb I presume, tho we couldn't tell what exactly!

Right I think that is quite enough blogging for today. We're off to Spain next week for our last pre-baby holiday. It'll be very tame by our standards I should think and I believe the hotel has wifi, so I may witter on a bit more from there next week. I'll also try to get some new bump pics taken as we haven't had time for that the last few weeks.

Kxxx
23+5

Have Bump, Will Travel. Part 2

Or, Who stole the sleep from the "sleeper train"?

Bit of a longer trip this weekend, up to Edinburgh to visit Auntie Jo! The train on the way up was fine, apart from the rather grumpy middle aged businessman in the seat next to me but Fred joined the train in Doncaster and we re-located to some spare seats, much nicer (plus very cute baby at table opposite).

We had a lovely weekend and also managed to catch up with some other friends now living in "Edders" - ooh and had hot chocolate with marshmallows in the coffee shop where Harry Potter was written! I even managed to drag myself up a big hill - tho this led to the discovery that large steps up are no longer practical as my knees are obstructed by hitting my belly! Nice.

The trip back was less fun, we were on the sleeper, which I've done before and was fine with, and this time we had beds and everything! However, for the previous trips I was a good few years younger and a lot less pregnant! oooh not comfy - I went straight from the train to work in the morning, but had to give up, go home and come back after a couple of hours sleep, before giving up again about 3.30pm. Oh well, I guess I have found a limit there! All fine now tho after a couple of nights in my own (stationary) bed.

No picks from Edinburgh yet, but I'll update this if any surface!

Kxxx
23+5

Have Bump, Will Travel. Part 1

Sorry I haven't updated the blog for a few weeks, I've been off on my travels again, tho only in this country so far. The last couple of weeks have taken me and the bump to Emsworth, Warwick and Rutland with Edinburgh, Spain and Devon still to come, before the middle of April, after which our travel insurance won't let me leave the country. boooo!

For our first wedding anniversary (March 15th - where did that year go?) Fred took me to a fab restaurant in Emsworth, a former fishing village on the south coast. This was the bumps first drive in a car for some time and I discovered my belly is now rather more bouncy than it used to be! All the stopping, starting and gear changing of London traffic required a careful arrangement of cushions. We had a lovely meal, and I accidentaly ended up having 3 desserts (oopsie), so it's just as well we were staying over the restaurant and didn't have far to roll home! One slight issue tho, the room was lovely, but the door to the bathroom was a little er, hobbit sized!

Kirsty's belly was suprisingly full after eating the Apple

After a quick suitcase turnaround it was onto the train for 3 days attending/enduring a meeting with work. The travelling was fine, but 3 days sitting in a lecture theatre for 2+ hours at a time and 2 evenings of standing for hours next to our poster took their toll and I was a bit pathetic at the inevitable conference dinner and disco - one little ABBA song then off to bed for me!

After 2 whole nights at home it was a train/car combo to get to the little village of Manton in Rutland (nr Leicestershire) for a weekend away with 5 friends from Uni and Smidget's little Aston cousin Luke. It's seems our girls weekends away have changed a bit - no more cocktails and nightclubs, lots of tea, a nice walk by the lake and more tea (decaf), sometimes with cake!

Getting in a bit of practice

A few days at home now before heading up to Edinburgh this weekend to see Auntie Jo - I'll report back on how I fare on the sleeper train. All in all me and the bump have coped pretty well with dashing about, we even made it to antenatal yoga this week - tho that is another story! I've learnt that there is also something to be said for only owning about 8 items of clothing you can still get into, it's makes packing decisions quite easy! Tho necessitates speedy laundry turnaround when at home.

We also had another visit to the midwife this week for the now traditional, blood pressure and pee in bottle session. All fine there. I'll start seeing either her or the GP every 4 weeks from now on, for a "full antenatal examination". Not quite sure what that involves, tho I doubt it'll be dignified!

Kxxx
22+6
PS. lots of kicks now, but still cant really feel it form the outside.

20 Week Scan!

Well this is quite an exciting week, we've reached the half way point, had our 20 week scan and this weekend will be celebrating our first wedding anniversary (crikey time flies!).

A very enthusiastic Australian chap called Tyrone was our sonographer today and for once Smidget had decided to be in a good position straight off, so we had a good look at the heart, leg bones, ribs, kidneys, etc and measurements were made of various brain structures, the head and belly. I did have to lie on my side for a bit to get Smidget to turn and give us a profile, but for the most part it was a lot more dignified than the 12 week scan. Apart from this bit:

Sonographer: "...and there's baby's bladder, it's quite full, baby needs to pee! and there's your bladder - you need to pee too hey?"

Me: "er, yes" (and you poking me with that plastic stick is not helping!)

Oh and Smidget did moon us at one point!

Anyway the main thing is that everything was normal, so that's great and it's fair to say we're getting pretty excited about it now. Apparently Smidget has very long toes, and a "sturdy" head -I assume that means a large head, any ideas where it may have go that from? Hmmm? I did instruct Smidget to inherit my head size and not Fred's but we seem to have our first bit of disobedience!

Smidget has a bit of a snooze

Feet! - Check out those toes!

Smidget practices the Jonny Wilkinson conversion kick technique / karaoke

Kxxx

20+6

Dubious Scientific Report of the Week

There seem to be a never ending stream of pregnancy related scientific studies being put out to contradict each other and generally confuse the pregnant. Given that I am increasingly confused anyway this is particularly cruel!

Anyway - this one I like and I shall endeavour to follow it's advice - all for the benefit of Smidget of course, one must make sacrifices I suppose ;o)

Women who eat chocolate daily during pregnancy have happier babies:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3604275.stm

My scientific opinion: Who cares, it gives me an excuse to eat more chocolate!

Kxxx
PS. Thanks for that one Dad!
19+2

Bump Pics 19 Weeks

Right then, here are some more pictures taken this afternoon, which is 19 weeks +2 days (+ a large lunch).

Note - another non-maternity top, yay! All these empire line things are very handy, tho I think that they might make the bump look a bit bigger than it really is, or perhaps that's just lunch (it was a very nice lunch). mmm