William's First Year

The cold is slowly abating, very slowly. Must add Lemsip to the list of things I miss. Poor Eddie is the one I feel sorry for having to live with a Titanic-esque lump who’s constantly snivelling/getting up/turning over and generally being as unsettled as a gargantuan, gestational female can get. Will try further hibernation today and hope to feel better in time for tonight’s team Christmas dinner at The Bunk as would hate to miss that.

The baby was doing all sorts yesterday, bouncing around all day (it clearly knows I’m feeling sick). Felt my first Braxton Hicks in the night too, I’ve never been quite sure whether I’ve had them or not, but Helen from the NCT described it as your whole tum going rock solid, and that’s exactly what happened. All good signs that my small bod is getting ready to expel its cargo.

Have a midwife’s appointment later on this afternoon which I’m looking forward to. Will be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat which is my favourite thing, and also find out more about how it’s getting on, but perhaps more importantly, if it hasn’t come by Christmas, think about what we do next…

Spent most of the early hours asleep on the sofa in front of Oceans Eleven, having totally given up on attempting to get any rest in bed. Have stinking cold; throat full of razor blades and together with heartburn and having to get up to go to the loo about 6 times, I just felt ready to burst into tears.

Have dragged myself out of bed at last, but am definitely spending today in front of daytime TV with muchos Ribena and chocolate.

No sign of Houghton Junior wanting to make an appearance yet. Yesterday it was my turn to have the NCT ladiees round for tea, which was very nice, but it’s a strange split now that half have had their babies and are glowing with the joy of new motherhood and the other half are still huge and uncomfortable and can’t imagine that their babies will ever arrive.

I console myself with the fact that – worst case scenario – the baby is a maximum of 3 and a bit weeks away. And as De kindly pointed out last week, if it goes to the wire and turns up on 8 Jan, it’ll share a birthday with Elvis!

A true Judge Christmas abberration. We love it!

This was Eddie wrestling it into the house earlier today. Will put more pictures up once it’s decorated and looking beautiful. Feeling very festive and Christmassy (if drowning in pine needles).

Sitting at the kitchen table with a Jamie’s stew in the oven and plum crumble well on its way. Perfect food for a cold December evening.

This week brought more excitement as baby Katie arrived with James and Emma after holding out on them for 6 days. Am becoming even more addicted to this machine – you never know who’s going to appear next. Bumped into Debs in town with Taylor, who’s now 4lb 10oz and very dinky indeed. She’s going to try and make it to Monday’s tea, which would be great.

More scary is the fact that I’m actually hosting tea on Monday and am going to potentially have 3 teeny tiny babies in the house!!! Good Lord. Must start sterilising the house. All good therapy for me in advance of Houghton Junior’s arrival.

On that note, no news as yet alas, but we have 2 weeks to go until Christmas and I’m upping the Rasberry Leaf to 2 a day….Otherwise all aches and pains remain as before – just amplified with each week that passes.

In the meantime, I’ve worked through my list and even survived a Playboy at the merciless hands of Arezoo with barely a squeak. Clearly my pain threshold’s preparing itsself for the onslaught.

The baby has moved back up I think; bowling ball action at a minimum and severe heartburn to the max. The positives are that I don’t have to go to the loo 6 x a night, but my insomnia, exacerbated by the heartburn, has proved too much so I’ve given up on sleep for a while and am sitting downstairs typing away.

Yesterday was the second of our weekly ante-natal gatherings – a strange one now that two of our number have had their babies! All very exciting and it makes me feel impatient for ours to come now, although I know I’m last in the line and am preparing myself to be the one still waiting in January. Two more are due this week so who knows what will happen. Hoping to get together next Monday and maybe meet some of the new arrivals if possible. If I wasn’t freaked out before – I will be then. The labours sounded very straightforward, but clearly we need more detail. But it’s clear that no matter how long or arduous it is, it’s all worth it and forgotton once the baby is there.

They say that women can mentally delay labour if they don’t feel ready. In my case, we have all our Babylist stuff coming today which I’ve been waiting for – especially the travel system and moses basket – there’s a ton of stuff I can hardly remember ordering. I’m going to spend today unpacking everything and putting it in the nursery, then I’ll try to get my head round how to work the car seat/buggy etc, which I suspect you need a phD to figure out…

After today, the other things left on the list are:

1. Finish stockpiling food (my equivalent of nesting I think)
2. Full body wax at Arezoo’s
3. Hair cut and colour
4. Procure Christmas Tree
5. Finish the utility room (one for Eddie)

By the weekend, I’ll be ready – time to up the Rasberry Leaf to 2 x cups a day, eat vindaloos and start bouncing on my gym ball.

Words fail me.

After having deciphered the most complicated set of instructions you’ve ever seen, Eddie managed to erect the cot. So now that the carpet’s down, the nursery is officially finished!

All we need now is for the stuff from Babylist to come on Monday and we’re all set (apart from the leaking shower/pipes, broken radiator of course…).

Went to see the doctor today and everything is OK. He is 95% sure the baby is head down and if not engaged yet, then very nearly. It certainly feels that way – it’s like having a bowling ball sitting between my legs. Nice.

….
Pate
Cheese (as in proper cheese with blue veins in it)
Rare steak
Alcohol
Dancing/Running/Walking – in fact any exercise above a waddle
Sleeping through the night (without extra pillows left, right and centre)
Sleeping on my front
Sleeping on my back
My waist!
My clothes
Heels
Being able to put my socks/tights/boots on

Having said all that, I think it’ll also be very strange to not have Baby Houghton jiggling around in my tum and I may well find that I miss it more than all these things once it’s out in the real world. We shall see.

Sitting at home, replete after a rather scrumptious pheasant casserole a la Constance Spry after a weekend spent at the races. Sue and Jim came down with a friend who owned one of the horses, so a great day was had by all swanning around the owners enclosure and feeling very important indeed. Didn’t do too badly in terms of picking winners, but somehow still managed to come home severely out of pocket. Headed up to the pub for a game of darts and a few pints (of lime and soda in my case – God I’m sick of that stuff) followed by one of The Greenham Tandoori’s finest.

Alas I paid the price today, feeling absolutely exhausted and back aching like you wouldn’t believe. Eventually passed out in the sitting room for an hour and I still feel wiped out. Will heave my bulk up to bed shortly and attempt to catch up on some rest. Finding sleeping very hard now, not just because I’m the size of the Titanic, but my brain races away at around 4am thinking about the baby, birth, parenthood, the universe – you name it.