showers and flakes

- gives you some idea of how heavy the little tyke is getting.

Jackie threw a wonderful baby shower for me on Sunday and we had a great time. She put so much thought and effort into it, and the girls were all so kind and generous. It really brings things home when you look at 6 tiny little baby-gro's and realise that your own child will soon be sleeping in them.
A sobering moment.

We didn't pack the hospital bag. And I still haven't written my birth plan, but will make time for that in the next few days.

I finished work officially on Friday and Jackie has taken over the big job I was working on. That is a relief because the client wasn't sticking to his deadline and I had a tick in my eye-lid that reflected the stress I was under. I need to slow down! I still have a few bits and pieces for other people, to get through, but nothing pressing.

Of the 8 couples who attended our ante-natal classes, one has given birth (5 days early) to a baby girl. Again, a sobering moment, as I realised that the ball was now rolling and we are on that ball. It's a bit strange because I'm only due at the end of the month, but you never know - baby will come when its ready.

It's been a beautiful clear morning, and I've just peeked out of the window and noticed that it is snowing, AGAIN. It snowed three times last week, and just made us all wet and messed up the cars. These are lovely big flakes though, so it may make some sort of covering after all.

How is the name-game coming along?
Well, let's just say that we sat and chatted to friends about it last night, and they're as undecided as we are. Our excel spreadsheet is expanding, which can only be a good thing, but we need to actually put names on it that we agree on, rather than names we both like individually.
Another thing to do this week.

Ocho is Eight

Eight years of marriage !

Yes, Keith and I celebrated our anniversary this week in a rather domestic manner: we worked all day, and then spent the evening in the hospital's ante-natal class. Any highlights ? yes, we got to walk through the labour wards. AND had a cheap-and-cheerful dinner at Nandos afterwards.

The labour ward walk-thru' was really encouraging. Seeing all the facilities helps you get a grip on the 'where' and 'how' of labour and birth. The new birthing pool room (recently refurbished) looked nice and I am hoping we are able to attempt a water-birth.

We did get to celebrate our anniversary. We went away for the weekend to Somerset / Dorset. We stayed in a delightful b&b, which sells itself as 'a restaurant with rooms'. The food was just awesome, and we ate like kings. We spent Saturday afternoon browsing around a charming town called Sherbourne. The weather was really bad, so there was nothing for it, but to stay inside and read the paper and watch the Olympic events on TV. Very hard indeed.

Our pram arrived on Thursday evening, so we opened it when we got back from our weekend away. It's a bog-standard Mclaren which folds nice and flat, is light and easy to lift into the boot of the car. We decided against all the glorious Bugaboo and Stokke designs, as they just aren't practical for us. Considering baby grows out of the thing in just 3-4 months, what's the point of spending all that money? We'll go for something nicer once we've found our feet and know what we need to suit our lifestyle. Ah, the challenges of baby-shopping.

Will pack the hospital bag this weekend !

Tomorrow is another NCT mummies lunch in Bethnal Green. We have a favourite spot - The White Cherry. it's an organic / vege cafe and they make truly delicious vegetarian fare. Most of the girls are now a week or two away from their due dates, so it's sure to be an exciting late lunch. I keep resting on the statistics and thinking, "well, some of them could have been early - ie. they'd already have had their babies, and some will be late. So if they aren't all having their babies early, maybe I will ?" heh heh. Wishful thinking. At the end of the day this little peach just needs to get nice and ripe and come out when it's ready. Whether mummy's ready or not is a secondary consideration. We'll just keep our wits about us as much as we can.

Gotta do some more freelance work, so should shaddup here.

Will post pic of [huge] tummy soon. Promise.

lurve

Valentine's Day 2006
Bit of a non-event in the Guthrie house - we're off to an ante-natal class tonight - and anyway, it gets eclipsed each year by our anniversary which is just 7 days later. I'm not complaining - it gives me an opportunity to resist the commercial madness. So, did I do that this year ? Nah - went and bought a card and some choccies just the same.

Went for a midwife checkup yesterday. Boy-oh-boy ! I was early, and I ended up waiting for an hour and half just for a fundal height measurement and 'wee' listen to the baby's heartbeat, oh yes, and a blood test. Most of my 30 minute appointment was spent with the two midwives showing one another how to use the computer system. I'm lovin it (the NHS that is).

We're now well on the road to being prepared. The pram arrives tomorrow, and I'm borrowing a car-seat from friends. The cot is up, needs a bit of work on the sliding mechanism, but at least the bub has somewhere to sleep. Basically, I guess we're ready.

Physically, I'm feeling good. Tummy is as hard as a rock, and I can feel the baby's bum sticking out on the left side. Thankfully the midwife said the head is down, so nothing to worry about there! Hallelujah ! Baby is still quite active, mostly when I sit or lie down (there are 2 reasons for this - no sloshing around because I'm not moving, and the 'house' is slightly compressed by my pelvis and ribcage when seated), but I'm expecting it's getting quite cramped inside.

We're still debating whether it's a boy or a girl. Heh heh - so are all the friends. And of course the name discussions continue.

I'm hungry, so better go have a bite to eat. There's so little space inside for food these days.

will you lactate ?

Funny how the debates about breast-feeding rage on, and for some of us, there was never really any question about 'what to do'... I guess it's mother's milk. My mum did, so I plan to, too. There seems to have been a generation of mum's here in the UK, Europe and Australia who were actively encouraged NOT to breastfeed. It means that today, there's an awful lot of lobbying going on, from the World Health Organisation to the La Leche League. There's is no shortage of information or volunteer-driven assistance. In our borough, there are drop-in centres 5 days a week, where you can go for advice and support. Who would've thought ? !

Our breastfeeding workshop on Tuesday night was held in the Bethnal Green, and poetically in the house that Emily Pankhurst lived in. Things don't get more empowering than that!

Like so many things in life, I've discovered that this is one of those "personal" decisions each mum needs to make and most people have very definite ideas on it. Alot of what we discussed at the workshop were preconceptions about breastfeeding... eg."my friend told me that..." or "I've heard that..." - because none of us have done it before.

I suppose all that can be said is that I'll try - I know that fundamentally it's a good thing, but that doesn't mean that it's easy or "natural" (ie. you just know how to do it). Time will tell.

Dad's away

Eish ! Keith is away in New York city for just a few days on biz, so bub and I are keeping ourselves busy with the usual - work, biblestudy, laundry, and a few ante-natal classes for good measure.

It's kinda busy inside there today - not sure why - loads of kicking and boxing, and jumping. Perhaps it's a blessing that baby's only gain a voice when they start to breathe oxygen, otherwise I'd have a raucus gestation accompaniment following me around. Imagine the funny looks I'd get!?!

Tummy is hard and feels very very very full. Not able to eat very much and eating so much slower than before. Feel tired, and should get more sleep instead of falling into bed at 1am (which has become a bit too regularly of late).

Spoke to Cindy on her birthday yesterday - she and Walty were walking around the Botanical Gardens in Singapore. I'm guessing she's about 25 weeks now, so due in early June. The time goes past so quickly !

Tomorrow night is ante-natal overdose, so best I take a bit of time to prepare. Good night all.

NCT classes : 1 of 3

Yesterday we spent the day at our first NCT ante-natal class. It was great! There were 8 other couples, and we were all of an age except for one older couple. We covered quite a few topics including birthing options (pain-relief, positions for relief, when to call, when to panic, pros and cons of different drugs), coping with 'coming home' - feeding, bathing, sleep-time, crying babies (ideas on what to do), the physiology of the birth process (dad's had to put together about 16 cartoons showing phases 1, 2 and 3). Basically the big highlight for us all is meeting other mums who are due around the same date as us. Keith and I will have the youngest if our baby comes at term, all the others are due in early March. It was also good (for the ego you understand) to compare your bump with other bumps. Boy, do I still have a way to go, and it's all going to happen in the next 4 weeks. Whew!

We have a breast-feeding workshop on Tuesday night, followed by another full-day of ante-natal talk next Friday. I must do a bit more research so that I'm sure I've covered the questions I have right now. Talking to Mandy last night, she pointed out that 'you don't know what you don't know', and it's only after you've had the baby that you know what you should have asked about. yes - too late.

I also spent a wonderful afternoon on Thursday, with the girls from our biblestudy at a nearby chinese restaurant. It was so good to chat and gather information. If you've seen 'Defending the Caveman', you'll chuckle at the "gathering" reference - it's a chick-ability. There is so much to learn, and 'notes to self' to file away. You just really want to know about the resources that are nearby.

Very pleased things are coming together in this way. My only concern at the moment is the work-situation, as there's more trickling in from clients, and I need to start clearing the way for stopping at the end of this week or early next.