Feb 4

An insight into my wardrobe:

On days like today, when I don't have any plans, comfort wins out when I get dressed. That, and what will actually fit. I have 2 pairs of maternity jeans, but they're not the most comfortable things for lounging around the house. I have one other pair of maternity pants that are super comfy, brown cordurouy with one of those giant knit fabric waistbands that sit up over your belly. But I like to keep them for when I am going out of the house. So when I am at home, I live in assorted track/exercise type pants. These pink ones were bought in Australia about a week or two before we came to London as the type of pants that are perfect for wearing on 24 hour flights - knit fabric, pretty loose/wide legs, nice wide waistband that doesn't dig in. They don't go out in public much though, because, well, they're pretty bright pink. I actually wore the same style in navy blue on the flight.

The red top is the same one I wore yesterday - yeah, I'm gross, but really, you can wear clothes for a couple days before they start to look or smell worn when the weather sucks so bad. I am a bit in love with maternity tops, not just because they work with a growing belly, but because they are nice and long. Plus, I've bought every single one of them on sale so far...

So yeah, pink and red was already super awesome and I didn't feel the need to match anything, so I just grabbed the first cardigan I saw. I can't actually do this cardigan up anymore, but it's enough extra warmth for around the house (we're not like most English people who keep their houses at some ridiculous temperature, we like to conserve energy)

I kinda like this colour combination.

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Squishy's first hat

Last Wednesday, I made my first ever ebay purchase. Well, kind of. I did all the bidding and paying and all that, but I was using Graeme's username and paypal, because I don't have either of those things, and he was sitting next to me the whole time. I'm not really sure why, but I've always had a bit of an aversion to the whole thing (ebay and paypal), maybe it's all the horror stories I've read. Anyway, I ordered a bunch of bamboo circular knitting needles, for an absolute steal compared to going out and buying needles at the shop. I know bamboo isn't as slick as metal and therefore the needles are supposed to be slower to knit with, but I'm not a very fast knitter anyway, so I don't mind. I bought long ones, because I really want to knit my first pair of socks two-at-a-time using magic loop and this wool:

Well, when the package turned up on Friday, they'd sent me straight needles instead. I literally cried and told Graeme "this is why I've never used ebay", but a few emails between Graeme and the shop owner later and not only were they sending the ones I had actually ordered, but they said to keep the ones they'd sent by mistake - awesome! So, since the circulars arrived on Saturday, I now have 30 new sets of knitting needles for less than it'd cost to buy 5 from the craft store.

Having not knitted anything more complicated than a scarf for a while, I decided to do a little project before I dove into the socks, so I went through my knitting books, looking for something I could knit with the yarn I already have on hand (which isn't a lot at the moment). I settled on a hat for Squishy, knit using the leftovers from my Gryffindor scarf, using the Umbilical Cord Hat pattern from Stitch 'n Bitch.



I started on Saturday and finished on Sunday. I originally wanted to put stripes on the actual hat, but the gold I have is more a thread than a yarn and it's way too scratchy for a baby's head, so I put a couple stripes on the cord. Of course, Squishy is due right when the weather will should be warming up and I have no idea when this will actually fit him/her, but it's tiny and cute and makes me want to knit a whole heap of little things - I might stick to the 6 months sizes from now on though, so I know they might actually get some use.



oh, and in case you didn't notice, this post includes photos from the first 3 days of February

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Squishy's first photo

So, I had my second and third fetal ultrasound today... Squishy was being a pain in the butt (not literally) and wouldn't move into a position where the technician could check the spine, so I had to go for a walk and 'do some starjumps' to encourage some movement then come back in for another attempt. Thankfully it worked and Squishy appears to have all the right bits in all the right places. Once that was sorted, we had to go sit in the waiting room for another hour before we got to see a midwife - sigh. At least from now on, most of my check-ups will be at the GPs, which is easier to get to and never seems to have a very long wait.


Things that might interest you about the day:

Squishy is a wriggly baby - besides laying in a tricky position to scan, s/he didn't stop moving around the whole time and the technician said she'd hardly ever seen such a wriggler.

Squishy is a fatty already :D All the measurements fell within normal growth rates, but the abdominal circumference is at about the 97th percentile, while all the others are right in the middle.

We didn't find out the sex, though we could have if we wanted as the technician was pretty confident that she knew it. Graeme especially is still convinced it's a boy.

I think Graeme appreciated the scan more than I did - I was happy to just hear the technician say that everything looked right, but for Graeme it was more of a 'dude, there's a real baby in there'. I have been feeling movements for weeks now, but they're not strong enough yet to feel from the outside, at least when Graeme is around, so this was like his reassurance that it really is growing and moving.

Since all my results are now normal and all that, the 'shared' part of the shared care that I am supposed to be getting kicks in. Over the next 18 weeks, I am expected to visit the GP's 7 times for check-ups, get another blood test at the hospital (but I don't have to see anyone, just go in, give the blood and leave, basically, it's just to check my iron) and see the midwife again once in early May. If I'm still pregnant at 41 weeks, I go to the midwife again. That's lots of peeing in cups, since they want a sample every time you see someone to check the protein levels for signs of diabetes. This also means that I am now responsible for my own Maternity Record, an expandable booklet that has all my test results and notes in it. It has to come with me everywhere I go, including when I turn up at the hospital in labour. It's quite interesting to flick through, mainly for bits like the breastfeeding page, where there are a million questions and points for discussion that the midwife is obviously supposed to go though, but mine just kind of has this squiggle next to the first couple of questions because as soon as she asked if I was planning to breastfeed and I said yes, she seemed satisfied - the rest of it is clearly the stuff they're supposed to say and do to convince you that breastfeeding is a good choice.

So yeah, you probably don't care about all that information anyway - you can just go back to looking at the photo :)

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A random thought...

In book 7, where were Crookshanks and Pig?

I will expand in the comments - don't read the comments unless you have read all 7 Harry Potter books, because there will be at least one fairly significant spoiler in my own comment. If you have read the books, please discuss...

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Jan 25

Graeme went to fifteen for lunch today with work. I got to make my own sandwiches, which I didn't even finish eating because one and a bit sandwiches filled me up. Of course, I was hungry again like an hour later...

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Jan 1-15

Finally catching up on those photos I owe you. As I just wrote in my description of this set on flickr, the real purpose of this exercise is to document my year, more than try and take a masterpiece every day. Though hopefully there'll be a few great photos along the way...

Click through to the photos for more description.

1. Jan 1, 2. Jan 2, 3. Jan 3, 4. Jan 4, 5. Jan 5, 6. Jan 6, 7. Jan 7, 8. Jan 8, 9. Jan 9, 10. Jan 10, 11. Jan 11, 12. Jan 12, 13. Jan 13, 14. Jan 14, 15. Jan 15

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January 16

I do have a photo for every day this year, but for today, you just get to see the 16th, because I got my butt in gear and uploaded those ones. This is another 'Day in the Life' series. Click through to see the full set.

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21 weeks

I always thought I'd get really into the whole pregnancy thing - taking way too many photos of my growing belly, keeping a journal as soon as I found out, bugging everyone around me with constant talk of the baby, that sort of thing. But so far that hasn't been the case. I was feeling bad about it but I'd still keep putting it off because it felt really dumb to start doing something like that at some random point. Then I decided to start at 20 weeks, you know, kinda the halfway point and on the day it ticked over to 20 weeks I felt like rubbish and didn't want to say anything to anyone, let alone the world at large or this little thing growing inside me. And finally, sometime last week, I realised it really doesn't matter and it's not worth stressing over. Maybe this is part of my attempt to get more prepared for motherhood - I am trying to be a little less of a perfectionist and not let the small things bug me so much. It's a fairly new goal for me, so no real idea how well it'll work out. Anyway, on Sunday, when the little counter thing I have told me I was 21 weeks pregnant, I made Graeme take a photo, and here it is:

We have attempted to take photos before this, but none of them came out that great - at least now we've found a spot in the house to take them...

Uh, yeah, so some random things I am discovering:

Morning sickness can last much longer than you think, especially if you let yourself get hungry or tired, and then, when you finally think it's gone, it can randomly hit you again one day for no apparent reason and you will just chuck your guts up. Thankfully, by this point, you will have become an expert at knowing when your body plans to projectile vomit and can make sure you are in a suitable room.

Your brain simply does not function the way it should. I usually have an awesome memory and some days I forget things 5 minutes after I've heard/read them. Words and sentences do not come out the way you think they should. Everytime I have cut up tomatoes in the last couple months, I have referred to them as strawberries :)

One day, your top (t-shirt, jacket, whatever) will fit. The next day, it won't. The problem won't just be your tummy, but also your boobs, which have suddenly become massive.

Maternity clothes are hard to find, often ugly and usually way too expensive for the fact that they definitely have a limited use. H&M is my new best friend, especially after the sales.

You get really sick of trying to work out how to refer to the baby. 'It' seems way too impersonal, but you don't want to label it with a gender, because then people will assume you know what it is. For the record, we don't plan on finding out the sex, but we still usually refer to it as 'he', since the odds are high that that is what we'll get. Either that, or Squishy :)
"I shall call him squishy, and he shall be mine, and he shall be my squishy!" -Dory in Finding Nemo

The fact that you have passed the first trimester doesn't really do much to alleviate your fears that something will go wrong. Much better are the little kicks that tell you the baby is having a party in your uterus (or, as Graeme said, building extensions), even if it prompts a sudden urge to pee. I am also hanging out for my ultrasound and midwife's appointment next week to get some extra reassurance that everything's fine. I'll also have a picture of Squishy to show you then.

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