Week 27: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"

Entering the 3rd and final trimester now... getting closer to kick off... scary stuff!! But am feeling on top of the world at the moment after having spent the weekend with, well - "probably the best baby in the world" (if Carlsberg did babies...) and her lovely parents in Dublin area, where this "the best real life advert for parenthood" lives. If we can have a baby 1/5 as cute and well behaved, we will be laughing all the way to graduation....

Am still having my mother to come over to help out just after shrimp has been born though, and as I am in charge of booking the ticket, I am thinking that her return ticket will be set somewhere around.... 2026.....

Or maybe we can have Queen Prawn a.k.a Maria Poppins stay with us for 18 years???

Week 26: Me, the hostess!

The bubbles/kicks/movements are getting stronger now, and it is very clear that there is a life inside me. Separate from me really, just kind of enjoying hanging around inside me for a while... It is like I am a hostess to this new person, providing somewhere to sleep, and constant supply of food... like a B&B.

My body currently contains two sets of everything.... two brains, two sets of lungs, four arms, four legs, two hearts etc... Spooky.

Shouldn't I then be able to remember more instead of less with two brains - and have a higher lung capacity instead of wheezing away every time I walk up stairs?

Clearly doesn't work that way for us hostesses.

Where is my lollipop?

Been to see the midwife this morning (again, very impressed by the quality of these people at the NHS!) - and everything was fine. The babys heartbeat was there, very fast (normal). Cool to listen to. All my values were normal and I got the comment "all looks perfectly healthy".

Is it just me, or is it normal to feel taller and prouder after having been told that everything looks good at a doctors/dentists office? Makes me feel like 4 years old again, proud to be told I am healthy and looking to get that lollipop or book mark as a reward for being brave/good etc.

Where is my lollipop though?

Week 25: Personality change

Have been in Stockholm over the weekend for a hen do for one of my "wonder woman" friends, we can simply call her "craaaaaazy" :-) Such a fabulous weekend with fantastic weather, lovely group of girls and fun activities. One of these activities was a "Fangarna pa Fortet" type treasure hunt (Fort Boyard or something like that in the English version) at Vaxholms kastell on a beautiful island outside Stockholm. This is highly competitive and involves running between different stations and completing the tasks correctly and within the time limit given.

In my mind I was running at the front egging my group on.... driving to win, whatever the cost... as I always am when there is a competition going on... but my body didn't agree with that... my body said "we need to walk at the end of the group, maybe jog just a little bit, and for some of the tasks, we will have to sit down and rest"... Really weird. My mind is the same as it has always been (except a bit soggier at times...) but the rest of me don't follow its' lead anymore.... Weird.

Also had time to meet up with another group of friends for a lovely picnic in the sun on the sunday. Same group of people as always, but with lots of new, tiny people.... a bit of a different dynamic than usual, dads pretending to be horses with little people on their backs, birthday cakes with a small persons foot print in the middle of it etc etc. Really really nice to meet up with all the great friends with or without the little people additions though and was a bit sad to leave Stockholm this time.

However, when I came home the H and I had a lovely dinner in our newly upgraded garden and looked at the stars, and it felt great to be home as well.

Life is pretty good, even with this new personality!

Damned be that Sun.....

Gorgeous weather in London now, sunny, around 25 degrees... Damned that sun. Cycling to and from work along the river is pure torture as all I can think of is how incredibly nice those pitchers of cold beer and iced white wine looks and all I want to do is hang around the river in the sun with good friends and drink shit loads of cold alcoholic beverages... It has actually been quite ok without the booze the last two months, I've been pleasantly surprised. But with the sun the cravings are back....

Just to let you know I am not all unhealthy in my thoughts - I also really miss running along the river - but that is impossible with my pained hips at the moment. Have not really found any fun exercise to do whilst pregnant but do it anyways... swimming, a bit of weights, cycling, and joined a bouncy "maternally fit" class locally once a week. That is quite fun actually - around 10 pregnant ladies on swiss balls bouncing about for an hour, must look very amusing to an outsider... but not as amusing as we find the "stick men" as we call them... The class is in a youth centre that has all sorts of evening classes going on and at the same time as our "bouncy mama" class, there are about 15 middle aged men with beer bellies, dressed in black, trying to look all hard and walking around a room slowly moving big sticks around... some sort of martial arts but always makes the bouncy mamas want to sneak a peak to have a laugh :-)

Well well. It is not for ever. You will hopefully see me running along the river with a sporty buggy with a baby happily sleeping in it and after the breastfeeding period also stopping to have a drink by the river in the sun.

It can still be very sunny and warm in December right?

Week 24: Music quiz with shrimp

Spent a couple of hours lounging on the sofa today wasting time with a music quiz on my ipod. Had the doughnut speaker with the ipod in it on my tummy, and got some help from Shrimp... there were very strong bubbles when the music was on :-)

I think shrimp will be a music expert! :-)