Scan pics 27 weeks

All very exciting today, we've been up to deepest, darkest North London for a 4D scan. No medical reason for this one, there was a discount offer and the opportunity to see Smidget again, coupled with some fancy technology was fairly easily sold to us!

Smidget was of course not cooperating, and despite giving me a good kicking in the waiting room, was fast asleep, wedged so as to hide it's face when we went in. As an arm and a placenta was not what we were aiming for (placentas - not very cute) we were sent off to take a little walk in the park and eat something sugary. So, after a medicinal ice cream in the sun (oh the trials I have to go through) we returned, and this time Smidget wriggled around enough for us to get some good pictures and some video. I'll put some of the pictures below, Fred is working on the video, so we'll put it up here at some point hopefully.

BTW the blobby thing on the right of the picture is the placenta and the one on the left is the wall of the uterus.

Sleepy Smidget

Smidget tries to hide again

A little smile

All being well the next time we see Smidget we'll be able to have a cuddle!

Kxxx

27+2

Have Bump, Will Travel. Part 3

Well, this is it, the end of the dashing about (hopefully) as of last Friday I am no longer allowed to leave the country (well not on our current travel insurance anyway) and over the next few weeks I reach the point where airlines would require a doctors note to let me fly.

Anyway, as Fred has said, we had a lovely time in Tarifa and I coped pretty well with flying on squeezyjet. As you probably know, you don't get an assigned seat, so it's a bit of a scrum, they do however board those with children under 5 first - so it was quite tempting to go up at that point (they didn't say the child had to have actually been born)! Actually on the way back one lady did insist that I go to the front of the standard boarding queue, which was very kind of her, especially as she had a kid with her herself, but was a wee bit embarrassing!

We've also had a weekend in Devon at my parents house which was lovely and my very clever Mum made me a frock for a wedding we're attending next month. We also took my wedding dress down there to store - slightly distressing to compare the size of the waist on my beautiful, boned wedding dress and my also beautiful but considerably more generous maternity dress! Oh Well.

So that's that, I don't currently have plans to go further than Essex or Guildford pre-Smidget, and tho it has all been lovely, after 6 weekends away in a row, I'm really looking forward to being at home for this one.

One last note on travel - it's finally happened! Coming home on Monday, somebody offered me their seat on a London bus! I was rather surprised, but very greatful after the long ear saga that day- so thank you nice lady!

Kxxx
26+5

How Many Doctors Does It Take To...

Fix an ear infection?

Well so far the answer is 1 GP, 2 Pharmacists, and someone from GSK (the pharmaceutical company). Oh, but the ear infection isn't actually fixed yet!

I've been having a very frustrating day today. Even very minor medical conditions are made that bit more complicated in pregnancy because very few drugs are declared safe. That doesn't mean to say that the others are unsafe, just that they haven't (for obvious ethical reasons) been tested.

Anyway, I went along to the GP this morning with another of my many ear infections, she wanted to give me antibiotic pills, but as these make me very sick she agreed to give me the drops I usually have. Unfortunately when I got to the pharmacist I found out that they no longer make these. So the rest of the day was spent with many phone calls between me and the Dr, the Dr and the Pharmacist and the Pharmacist and the drugs company, oh and the drug research unit at a couple of hospitals too, trying to find drops that I can use.

The upshot of this is that no one wants to give me the alternative drops just in case, so I'm about to start on that odd banana flavoured medicine you get as a kid, (amoxycillin) in the hope that it makes me less sick than adult antibiotics! We'll see.

Meanwhile some poor chap in a basement at Guy's hospital has been tasked with trawling through the literature to find an answer for the future.

Which does the raise the question:
Given that:
1- lots of people get ear infections
2- lots of people get sick on antibiotics
3- lots of people get pregnant

How has this not come up before?

Perhaps it has, Medical friends - do you know any better?

Kxxx
26+3

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