A quiet week but a happy baby

 Today we are week 34+4 and had one of our now regular visits to the midwife.  This time the midwife was someone new, again, a little older and wiser and definitely more practised when it came to bump measuring as she made me bang on my cm per week of pregnancy.

Baby D is also about the weight of 2 Harrods Christmas cakes!

I had gone to the visit with an aim of discussing raspberry leaf tea vs. raspberry leaf tablets.  Mum took tablets with all of us and they are supposed to assist labour.  Which means they get my vote.  Sadly this midwife was a touch dismissive so having consulted a couple of online forums which offer completely conflicting advice so I am opting to go with my own common sense and have a cup of raspberry leaf tea once a day or so from here on in then start taking the tablets as per the guidelines on the bottle once baby D is 37 weeks and classed full term - and free to pop out anytime...

Everything else about the visit was fine, baby D's heart rate is in the 140's, my blood pressure is where it should be and as the midwife identified a bottom (still up near my right ribs) from a head (down near my left hip) baby D gave an obliging wriggle and continued to do so as the midwife listened to the heart rate whilst declaring that we had a very happy baby.  Jolly good.  So is baby D's mum when baby D resists the need to perform said wriggle at 3am....

Generally this week has been fairly quiet at casa Doherty, Pip has had his first influx of students who, this year, have come out in force and also picked up a cold which he kindly passed on to me this weekend.  However, better now than when baby is first here!

I have been busy knitting and made my first creation from my slightly coveted chunky knit baby book.  I am so pleased with it and cannot wait to make a few more things including a cocoon for when baby D first arrives.

 

I have also steamed pumpkin for the first time and then made some pumpkin parcels - so named from the original triangles as I added too much filling and the triangle fold was not working for me!

Some ceramics we bought back from Portugal earlier this year.

In other news, the baby's room is almost complete, Pip got his man on and finished off some of the little jobs that had been bugging us, door handles on the wardrobe and hanging the coat hooks we purchased on holiday, and I have finally washed all our newborn clothes and have packed the baby's hospital bag.

Cot bumpsters from Granny C

Granny C has also been busy and made 8 cot bumpsters, after I saw them in Kiddicare and thought they were a good idea but was not going to spend "how much?!" on them, she found some quilting material she had somewhere at hers, purchased some more then decided they were a bit bland and bought some motif's to brighten them up. Et voila we have home-made bumpster's.
 At the moment the pictures all face out because I think they look so lovely and I want to see them :o)

Hospital bag!

To end on an amusing note, I was making a carrot cake for our church harvest supper and quiz eve on Saturday evening and grating away my orange rind when it occured to me that actually this really didn't smell like orange.  It wasn't.  It was a red grapefruit that was the same colour and size as a large orange...  

But the cake tasted lovely and no-one would have known, phew!

A pineapple and a bit more Betty

This week baby D is weighing in at over 2kg, approx. the size of a pineapple or just over 4lb depending on which measurement you prefer.

To honour this milestone I have actually made a baked good in keeping with this comparison! A pineapple upside-down cake.  I have vague recollections of my mum making one of these donkeys years ago and have tried a quick pudding version in latter years to use up a fruit we may have had in our veg box. 

However this is a bonefide, glace cherries an’ all, pineapple upside down cake! 

Thanks Nigella! http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/pineapple-upside-down-cake-51

 So, Pip and I may have had second helpings this eve and currently there is about a third of the cake left :o(

As the last few days have seen me continue to struggle to sleep and generally get comfy I have been pondering on the pros and cons of my pregnancy so far. I have tried to approach with the usual humour but I have to be honest and say having to be man-handled off the sofa by Pip has incurred a tear or 2 

– darn hormones :o) 

Top of my list of cons – or perhaps something I look forward to getting back – is the ability to wear heels without my feet expanding. I found I had to stop wearing heels earlier than the advice I had read, on reflection this may have been down to the dancing I was doing and simply the heat but as I sit here, in a pair of my sensible high ones just to make me smile, I will definitely be glad to shove a pair on, walk around and get some posture back! 

Now the top pro has to be growing a life, it is an incredible thing to be able to do and often I can drift off thinking about how amazing the human body (or any being that can reproduce) is. When I think back to where baby D was a few weeks ago or months even, it is truly fascinating to see what changes have taken place. From here on in baby D will just be putting on layers of fat (you and me both kiddo) and finishing up some lung development. 

When people have asked me about my pregnancy, after the inevitable “how are you” it’s always followed up by “did you have any morning sickness?” like it’s the only thing that happens when you are pregnant. Now on this front I have to say no (definite, huge pro) and that I have been very lucky and was never sick, however since about June I have had an issue with pressure in my left ear, which means it regularly “pops” during the day, rendering me slightly deaf and listening to the sound of my own breathing, which to be honest, is a bit creepy. After a trip to the Dr and then the Dentist (in case my clicking jaw was rubbing on something) I googled it, discovered it’s perfectly normal (I have to disagree) in pregnancy and that it will pass once baby arrives. I also discovered that putting my head down below my heart and swallowing a couple of times seems to cure it for a short while. So now, in the office generally, I periodically look as tho I am about to faint but actually I am trying to clear my ear. 

Now needless to say my colleagues find this mildly amusing and are now fairly used to having to shout to get my attention before launching into whatever question they try to stump my baby-brain with! 

Talking of work, I realise I have been very re-miss in the Betty updates. I shall now confess my most recent incident. But will also drop a few others in it as well, so you can be reassured it’s actually not just me! 

I was leading a team call a couple of weeks ago and halfway through a colleagues update managed to empty half my cup of tea (yes large mug) in my lap. Literally. So get as far as “shi…” before realising that 7 team bods can hear me and slam myself on mute before finishing above expletive. Peg it to the kitchen but am too late to redeem any dignity. 

So I spent the afternoon looking as though I had had a nasty accident, and lets be fair in current condition could be considered labour, and spent the afternoon sat on a scarf on a diff chair to stop making the second chair wet. 

Sadly the day before that I also managed to get halfway into work before realizing that I had left my laptop at home, while this is not good it is an achievement as I have made it to the car park before and had to turnaround… 

There truly is no hope for baby D!! 

In the intervening weeks I shall drop TB in it for leaving not 1 but 2 phones at home while trying to be organised (/clever) and take a work call while travelling, in order to miss traffic and actually ended up hitting it all as she had to go back home to collect said phones. 

And also VH who once turned up for an internal flight without ID but did manage to remember his golf clubs and also a certain coffee cup on the car roof incident, that had us all in stitches… 

If my sis was part of the Betty group she would have the moment to end all moments but as she isn’t, and I’d really like her to speak to me again, I shall have to keep silent…

 

Dear Dad...

Dear Dad, 

While I think you would have little opinion on the size of baby D this week and probably thought it was a bit off the wall to be doing this anyway, for consistency I shall oblige to those that are regular readers of my scribes.  This week sees baby D weigh in at about 1.7kg.  After a hasty check in the local Tesco's yesterday I can tell you that that is the equivalent of 3 average sized apple pies.  Apple pie being a particular, notorious, favourite of yours. 

Sadly my baking has been a touch lacking lately but I have had some home grown apples and blackberries from mum this week so I will certainly make a couple of crumbles and freeze one down for us to have in the first few weeks after jr. arrives.

This week just gone has seen the passing of what would have been your 68th birthday, which without doubt would have involved a few humourous cards - some which may have required explaining to mum - and jokes, said at a safe distance, about being way too close to 70...

 

On holiday in Grange-over-Sands, Lake District, maybe 2000/01?

Sadly, instead, I daresay all 4 of us have all no doubt had our own personal ponderings on life without you for the last 5 and a half years or so. 

It rather goes without saying that this year my thoughts have been about this baby and that it makes me sad that you never got to see grandchildren, something that I think you would have had great pleasure from, mainly because you can have them for periods of time and get to give them back!  

On a train, fancy that!Eearly 90's judging by the age of Ali and Rob.

 Needless to say that mum is over the moon and on it in the usual fashion that we may have shared jokes about in the past.  I recall several occasions stood in the kitchen, most probably while you did the evenings washing up - a task that I now realise really doesn't take as long as you would let it - blowing off teenager steam about how "unreasonable/difficult mum was being" or having a laugh over something that had happened that day.

However rather than dwell on things that might have been I thought I would prove my skills as my fathers daughter and share the overhaul of the baby unit that I have referred to in previous writing.

The unit came from Granny Fith's, post war, knock it together quickly furniture that I would imagine was all to familiar to you and Aunty Gwynne way back when.

Pre-sand

Anyway, I have sanded, primed and glossed it and spent (too many) hours looking for materials to cover it with, eventually deciding upon some classic pooh fabric for the drawers and what ended up being a strip of wallpaper (I won't tell you what that cost) of Beatrix Potter images.

Post sand

post gloss, pre-fancy bit

After a slight wind incident which left one of the doors in 2 pieces Pip and I ended up with a slight "nail incident" but thankfully Pips dad, much like you left a garage full of, quite frankly, God knows what and this weekend Pip picked up 2 tools to attempt to remove said nail from said door.

The room is starting to look a bit more child friendly now we have some books and toys out!

Thankfully this evening his efforts proved successful and we have now attached the door back onto the unit and all is finished.

It's starting to fill up with baby essentials!

I am sure by now you would have had several visits to ours to advise/oversee and probably hung the shelf and given half the chance re-vamped the unit yourself on the sly and maybe even created some epic baby item at home in the garage.  I don't doubt for a second that my handiwork would have been scrutenised, feedback offered and quickly retorted too.  I do remember telling you years ago that you had to teach me how to hang wallpaper not simply get cross when I didn't do it how you wanted it done.  A skill (the wallpaper hanging part not negotiating) that is most handy now!

Goodness knows I miss you, but it hits me more when I realise how longs its been since I actually spoke to you, shared a joke, had a joint winge about mum!  Who incidently has been an absolute trooper and gets by in her own quiet way, we did discuss the house the other day and mum mentioned that you and her were pretty in tune when it came to decore, however I did point out that the kitchen wallpaper she has put up would probably have gotten a look, probably not much more being a man of few words/stayed quiet for the easy life, and she did conceed that it may be a touch brighter than you would have gone for :o)

Taken I think at your 60th birthday treat, to crew a steam train down in Swanage. I think the phrase "pig in muck" best describes this day...

 I was possibly more of a dad's girl than I had realised but I think because we were similar in the ways that meant we got on easily, whereas mum and I clash due to our similarities - I have a distinct memory of mum being cross with me and telling me there was "no Fithyan (her side) in me, I was all Cole (your side)" and my response being a slightly petulant "that suits me fine" or words to that effect!

My only hope now is that Pip and I will be half as proud of our impending brood as I know you were of us 3.

Love Jill xx

The babymoon!

So this week see's us move into week 31, baby D is approx 1.5kg in weight and I am starting to feel it now!  

Again my cake comparison is slightly lacking this week, however i have found a 1.5kg bag of cake mixture, how big a cake would that make?!??!!

There is def no escaping the bump anymore and I have already had incidences involving my tum reaching objects sooner than the rest of me, the first one, involving the kitchen worktop amused us both greatly.  I am also massively underestimating how much room I need when moving around/squeezing through smaller spaces.  I feel like I need a wide load light (flashing orange).  

Baby D continues to move around and enjoy the now decreasing space, and is still maintaining the 1, 3 or 5am wake up calls - deep joy.

I have had a couple of "oh my" moments over the last few days, the thought that Jr is 6 weeks away from being classed as full term and 3 short weeks later we will (being late is not an option) finally be meeting him or her are the main ones.  The time now feels like it has whizzed by and now our final pre-baby annual leave has just finished both Pip and I feel like this is the home run, which means it will fly by I am sure.   

Purchasing continues, with trips to Boots being high up on the list, I never knew I would have so much cotton wool in my house, and we still have a few essentials to get, changing mat and bouncer being the key ones I think.  I am still weighing up the "its baby number 1" vs "how much!" for a beautiful cellular blanket from The White Company, I have a feeling I will cave!

This week, as mentioned, we have had a week off from work and enjoyed a few days down in Highcliffe at mums van.  We had very little planned for this week other than reading, knitting - in my case at least, snoozing - again more me than Pip and plenty of ice creams (and/) or cream teas!

Thankfully we managed all of them and more and have had the best few days, below are a few photos for you...

Christchurch Priory

One of the windows in the Priory

Swans are not so elegant out of water..

Just chillin' on a plastic hippo...

Feeding the swans (and pigeons)

The man makes it into a photo

Highcliffe Castle

Hurst Castle

Tea anyone??  This is taken at a tearooms is Milford on Sea where we found the most amazing wine bar called The Cave, we shall def be heading back there post-baby!

Us!  Please not the hubs is smiling (a rarity), looks sober and wide awake (a first for a photo)

Puzzle time!