Well after Nine months, its finally time for an ...after post!

Well, it's been a whole two months since the birth of our beautiful darling daughter, Abigail Bella (Abi, Abster, Abilicious, Abigabi as she is also known) and life has been wonderfulexhaustingamazingtiring (that is one word isn't it?)...

Although Abi seems to be on New York time at the moment, meaning she does not go to sleep much before 2am in the morning. But hey, we love spending time with her so...who needs sleep? Our sleep deprevation levels are not akin to torture....not yet anyway!

We are settling well into life together as a family, and it has been great to get my mind back and be normal again, although baby brain has long since gone and sleepwhoneedsit brain has kicked in now instead - and even though it's slightly less amusing, it's still an occasional source of some amusement. Although we did not laugh at the time when walking off, away from the car in the carpark, with changing bag, wallet and even buggie - but Abi still in the car seat - IN THE CAR!!? Don't worry we literally got about 4 foot away from the car before we realised, and Abi was none the wiser.

So we are managing to look after and care for our precious girl and have survived numerous baths, yoga sessions and two trips to the swimming pool without causing any harm or long lasting damage, and she still smiles at us, so she must be impressed with our efforts at parenting right? And again, she was completely oblivious when in a fit of road rage a now suspended london bus driver purposelfuly, and once noted we had a child in the car, drove into our car a traffic lights in Penge, the side that Abi was sitting!!! Not looking forward to reviewing any CCTV footage of me getting out of the car and telling him what for! We were all unhurt - but VERY very angry...

Next installment when again my wonderful husband takes things into his masterful hands and settles her at an incredible 9pm!! It won't last, she's bound to start crying again soon, but I'm signing off now so I can enjoy a rare cuddle on the sofa with the bestest man in the world!

Week 40 - and counting!

Just reading back on my last post I had to laugh...why did I believe that the baby would be AVERAGE? Although of course Bof is still safely tucked away inside, the midwife tells me 'it's a big-un!'...two weeks ago she reckoned it was 8lb already...let's wait and see though shall we?
So Now officially a lady of leisure, well until 2 becomes 3 in any case, although leisure time has thus far not been all that leisurely, but of course made ever so much easier with parents arriving from Israel, and literally off the plane began to tidy the flat, paint the flat, and take me shopping....what WOULD I DO without them...

It's a good thing I am off work too...for a number of reasons;

1) I was still running for trains when I was late, one time scaring the wits out of an entire carriage as I was heavy breathing from bounding up the stairs and holding my tummy...I must of looked like I was in last stages of labour to them!

2) I am now at that balling my eyes out at least once a day stage, much to Matt's amusements, once he has determined YET again that there is in fact NOTHING AT ALL the matter..

3) Baby brain has now completely taken hold, and it was not until we had reached Cornwall for the wedding we attended this weekend, that we realised that although we had: baby seat, baby bag, hospital bag with breast pads and nursing bras galore, all for a baby that MIGHT put in an appearance, we had left behind in London: outfits to wear for the wedding along with other such necessary items as contact lens case/solution and my daily medicine for my over active thyroid (which bof needs too of course) what fun we had on Sat am replacing all these items before the wedding began!

33 week scan

Can you see what it is yet?

This is hot off the press, the latest pictures of 'The Bof' at our 33 week growth scan. An official 4lb 3oz and that's NORMAL - AVERAGE/// i.e. Good! ...NOT TOO BIG (Phew)...Hurrah, not that anyone was really worried!

So whilst Bof is growing away at a nice 'Average' rate our lives outside that wonderful bubble of security and warmth are upside down, we are what they refer to as "NESTING" after 6 1/2 years at 6a Cintra Park, we have started to change everything...wooden flooring, carpets, painting, new bathroom, new front door and hope of hopes...making room for a nursery! Its great fun though, and the other night, as we simply could not get to ANYTHING in the kitchen apart from the fridge, and there was exposed concrete floor in the sitting room, with no TV connection etc, we camped out in the bedroom, and had a nice picnic of bread, cheese and coleslaw on the bed watching Fraser, what a great memory to have!

August and in the THIRD TRIMESTER!

Now I know I look HUUUUUWGE, but it REALLY is just the fact that I got confused with the European sizing in France and SOMEONE told me that 40 was 14...It's NOT it's 12 - booby and bulging or wot!

So apparently 'The Bof' is now a whopping 40cm, I can believe it, as I now have to stop eating BEFORE I am full up, which would be great IF everyone in my lovely family weren't such great cooks!

France was lovely, great time away with our mates, and totally and utterly made the most of the time we had to relax, in fact every time I had a couple of hours where I could just laze by the pool and read my book I did think to myself that it would be approximately 20 years before I would be able to do this again.

Developments since last post:

- Full on jumping out of chairs when kicked/thumped in ribs by 'The Bof', which sometimes is so forceful it makes people in the same room as me jump as well.

- Ribs have started the slow discomforting journey outwards - seriously, my RIBS MOVE?! No one told me that!

- My brain is continuing to reduce in size, examples FAR to numerous to mention, but at least it's been proven to actually happen in 'small clinical trials' - and it's NOT JUST ME!

- Realised I am completely mental, when I ended up in floods of tears when NO ONE offered me their seat on the train one evening on the way home last week, and I had to stand up till Streatham (15 mins from Clapham. One bloke I even caught, looking up, seeing my huge bump and then quickly closing his eyes pretending he was asleep! The problem is, when I DO get a seat I think that the world is a wonderful place and that everyone in it is lovely and sweet, this time I went entirely for the opposite viewpoint, and thought the world to be the most horrible place, and everyone in it inherently evil! I got so upset in fact that I JUST ABOUT held it together (although tears were welling) till I got home, collapsed on the bed in floods of tears, only just about managing to tell Matt it was nothing for him to worry about before he got on the phone to the midwife, or worse national rail?

Pics courtesy of Matty!

Feeling the baby....woweeee!

NO WONDER I CAN FEEL IT.....It's almost as big as my arse....and THAT's saying something!

So, now almost viable (at the end of this week...24) So can breathe a sigh of relief for having reached another landmark.

Was sitting on the sofa last night, and had my hand on my tummy when bof (more of that name later) started the nightly aerobics session I have come to really look forward to. I had been biding my time for when Matt could feel bof too, as I have had the bubbles/inner farts for weeks now and the occasional sharp pinch. BUT I had not been thinking I wonder what it feels like on the outside, even though by this point Matt had felt movement. So when I felt the usual bubbles last night at the same time as REALLY FEELING the baby move around on the outside, it was a bit of a shock - but also so so WONDERFUL! And so much LESS ABSTRACT than the whole bubbles thing! A real bonding moment between me and the bof!

Ok - BOF, a brief explanation: Matt and Rhyd are working in Luxembourg this month, driving for a film production, and they have been sampling the local beers... Boffading has become a favourite, not because it's good, in ANY WAY, but purely because after hours and hours and hours of driving with only themselves for company, the name makes them giggle...not laugh....GIGGLE, and so when I said I was trying to stop calling the baby HE all the time...not because I think it's a boy, just because 'IT' is not appropriate, and 'The Baby' is a term people with a nanny use, before and after birth; 'please take the baby, it needs it's bath....' sort of thing..Anyway, BOFADING, BOF, THE BOF has evolved, and it's sort of stuck, so there you are!

20 weeks....they tell me I'm half way...half way what - to insanedom??

Ok so it was amazing, Matt was back, albeit briefly, from Luxembourg (where he's driving for a TV production for the majority of June)...and we’re sitting in the waiting room - with NO worries (or hardly any) waiting for HAPPY SCAN NUMBER TWO, except the nurse was not happy, and every time I laughed at something; the way the baby was moving, or how funny it's mouth looked doing fish impressions, she tutted as the monitor reflected my shaking mirth, and she was not able to ‘do her job properly' but who cares about her - this is OUR BABY, and the experience of seeing it move at the same time as feeling it move - was AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL, and the whole thing made us both so happy we cried, not at the same time, or even when we were together, but it was intense nonetheless!

So now we're half way, and half way I feel, both in size and in my journey to completely motherhoodcrazy...

The other week I saw a woman on the train station, with her child in the buggything, and JUST as her train was pulling in she decided to make a phone call, so with her phone under her chin, and bags hanging off the back of the buggything swinging wildly she attempted, failed and got offered assistance in getting on the train...this might seem like a 'nothing occurrence' and to all parents out there a drop in the ocean of the normality of insanemotherdom, but to me it was an example of things to come. Kiss goodbye to the featherlike grip I've had on sanity/practicability or even normality for most of my life and say hello to crazymum.....oh dear god!

So, my sister-in-law sunk to MY level of dizziness when she first got pregnant with number one 6 years ago, and although there have been hints of it passing (in between pregnancies etc) & now with three children she has never quite got back to the sane woman she was before (I know she's gonna read this, and will take no offence at this whatsoever - in fact I know she loves who she's become and is cool with it!) BUT that's not the point, I STARTED at this level - so what depths of crazy am I going to sink to?? HELP!...NO really - HELP!!!!

Signs of Crazy so far:
1) Some small (really small like 4'3'') guy came up from behind me whilst I was walking to work to ask directions to PC world, and I screamed – LOUDLY! (pregnancy? or fact that I was mugged...not sure), think I scared him more than he made me freak out! But I feel jumpy and overly protective of my unborn child – and not much is required to make me go into HIGH ALERT these days…
2) Went into Mothercare for bra yesterday, & they did not have, could not order the size I needed, assistant then sat on hold to a diff store for 20 mins, whilst I was continually being asked 'are you in the queue' and moving to various positions to show that i was not in the bloomin’ queue! (lots of tutting!) and THEN the assistant hung up - cos SHE was bored, proceeded to tell me this - I looked at her with THAT look....and walked out the store in a huff, doing a wheel spin out of the car park for the benefit of the two MCare employees having a fag in the car park...then called my sister and when asked 'are you ok' simply burst into tears. 'no...ooooooooooooooooo' and told her what happened....completely normal of course, she did the same, but swore and it was in front of our parents!
3) Had a cherry last night, accidentally bought s’bury’s basics, and bit into one, saw a white wiggly thing and rushed into the bathroom, completely ‘removed’ dinner, and was VERY worried for a long time, until my pal Rhyd kindly informed me that NO, the baby was not going to be fighting off an army of white wiggly things with it’s bare hands…my stomach acid would see them off before they got anywhere near! I knew this; of course I knew this – but the image of my poor baby having to defend itself against horrible creatures invading its space, due to the ineptitude of the farmers who provide basic fruit – which I WILL NEVER buy again…was just too much for me to bear!

Note from my father

As I know many people do not tend to read comments on blogs I wanted to share with you the comment made by my father.

" Naturally we are more than delighted about the reason for this blog, the smallest member of our family (as of now). We want you to know that we remember how we felt when we were in this position and YOU were the object of our amazement, and are overjoyed to share your feelings that so closely resemble ours then "

Thanks Dad!

On another note, I have had a pretty hectic day, and the bump was really digging his heels in, and on a full bladder too...and in a moment of madness I had harsh words and told my unborn child to 'stop it!' My goodness am I a disciplinarian in the making? What a thought!

Baby now 6' from head to bum - not sure what piece of fruit that relates to though? Answers on a postcard...