Seven week update

Okay, it's a day late but who's counting huh?

So, DDs sleeping much better - she managed seven straight hours last night and a further two this morning and is sleeping now. I don't think she's getting all the sleep she needs yet but at least we're moving in the right direction. She's also sleeping in her own bedroom which is great.

Growth wise she's now 9lb 2oz (4.18kg) with a head circumference of 37cm which is apparently fine and dandy as she's following the same line on the growth charts. She's also moved up into the next size clothing so I've got a box full of newborn stuff she's grown out of. She's swimming a bit in some of the clothes (which figures as they're 0 - 3 months) but they're not that big on her.

Day to day we're in much more of a routine now although her feeds and naps are not at totally predictable times during the day we always manage to get to a 6.00pm feed so she must be following some sort of internal routine. Bath time is 9.30pm (Daddy's job) and the final feed is 10pm.

Other news - she was blessed into the Greek Orthodox church last weekend. She'll be christened next year in Greece but in order for that to happen she has to be blessed within forty days of her birth (it was 47 but apparently God is flexible in this matter).

I think that's all really. We're going to visit my family next weekend which will be her biggest trip so far - 100 miles - and there'll be lots of new faces so that'll be a big test for all of us (an likely a big blog entry for me!)

The only other piece of news is that two of my friends have both had little girls in the last couple of days so congratulations to the both and welcome to the world Sofia and Kate! Ten years ago the three of us Mums all graduated from Uni after living together for three years and now we've all had our first babies within a few weeks of each other around the anniversary of our graduation.......

Advice

Now here's a subject I could write about all day.

It seems that the minute you announce your pregnancy you get bombarded with advice from all sides and it only gets worse after you actually produce the baby.

I was determined not to waste time, money and valuable leisure time reading books on babies. The midwife gave me a basic 'you're pregnant' book with all the relevant information in and that was all I bothered with. Any specific questions I had could be looked up on the internet if necessary but as I had such a good pregnancy I didn't need to.

I think that my main reasoning for this was that I had other pregnancy issues to consider (it was a diabetic pregnancy) and I was bombarded with so much extra medical information that I didn't want to even think about all the 'other stuff'.

The real eye opener was the five days I spent in hospital. There's three shifts of staff per 24 hours in the wards and I appeared to have given birth during holiday season as there wasn't any member of staff I saw for all five days.

The variation of advice I got from the staff there was mind boggling. For example, three different women helped me get to grips with breast feeding. The first would grab hold of my nipple, thrust it into DD's mouth and squeeze (you certainly lose all dignity when you've had a baby!), the second used a bottle of formula - first giving DD some and then wiping some round my nipple (this made me think about how they get orphaned baby cows to drink by putting their hands in a bucket of milk and getting the calf to suck their fingers) and the last showed me how to gently rub DD on the jaw bone, just below the ear, to stimulate her sucking (certainly the most dignified option as far as I was concerned).

Now, I don't know whether one of those methods was more successful than the others (although after number 3 DD got what she was doing) but it proved the whole 'there's no one way to do anything' theory right from the start.

At this point I decided to listen to everything and pick out the bits that made most sense to me.

Sleeping has been our main issue (as you'll know from previous entries) and we were falling into despair at DD's lack of sleep. The worst point was last wednesday / thursday when she slept for only one and a half hours. I'd spoken to midwives, doctors, health visitors, friends and family. I'd looked up sleep on the web and read the book a friend lent me cover to cover and still DD wasn't sleeping despite trying everything people suggested (which ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous and this post would be ten times longer if I listed them all so I won't).

So, DBF and I had to make our own help. The first thing we did was put her in her own room. Till then she'd been sleeping (if you can call it that) downstairs during the day and in our room at night (all advice given being have the child near you for the first six months as she finds it comforting)

The first night we did this she slept for six hours solid!!!! Since then (the last six nights) she's managed eight hours, broken for a feed at some point, and this means that I'm now getting all the sleep I need over night so even if she doesn't sleep during the day I can cope as I'm not knackered.

We didn't have any success with the day sleeping though as no matter how tired she was, the instant she was put in the crib she was wide awake and crying.

My Mum and Step-Dad visited yesterday and DD was awake all day apart from a few 10 - 15 mins naps. I was talking to my Mum about it all and I said that I feel DD would be much happier sleeping on her side or on her tummy as she always goes to sleep like that when she's on or around me or DBF but when we put her in her crib on her back she's instantly awake and crying. Mum said that when me and my bro were babies the advice was to put children on their tummies to sleep and we'd always been much happier like that.

So, today I decided to take the plunge and put DD down for her nap on her tummy. I figure that generations of babies survived sleeping on their tummies and so, despite all the advice that says not to (including the standard advice from the government) that's what I've done.

DD has now been asleep for one and a half hours......

I will continue to keep her on her back at night as I don't think I'd sleep that well knowing she was on her front but during the day when I can check on her regularly and keep the baby monitor with me then I think we'll keep trying tummy sleeping and see how it goes.

Understanding your baby

Right from the start I've been told that I'll get to understand what DD's crying means and that, with her body language, will tell me what she wants from life.

Fair enough, I thought, if everyone says it happens, how hard can it be?

Hmmmmmmmmmm, pretty damn impossible it would appear. I've decided she's actually tapped into the Greek half of her make up to do the crying so me as the English parent has no idea what it all means.

I've been reading a book (something I didn't think I'd resort to but more of that next post) and it lists the types of crying that babies do. Great, I can read the book and figure her out.

So, first of all, the hungry cry. It goes waaa, waaa, waaa in a rhythmic kind of way apparently and can get stronger and more persistant the longer it's ignored. So basically sounds like crying no?

The tired cry. That goes waaa, waaa, waaa in a slightly less rhythmic kind of way and gets stronger and more persistant quicker than the hungry cry. So basically that one sounds like crying too no?

The book even says that the tired cry is often easy to mistake for the hungry cry.

Okay, so it also discusses body language, maybe that'll help. For example, if the baby is making sucking noises or sucking it's fist it's hungry.

Unless of course it's not hungry in which case the sucking is just relieving it's need to suckle.

So the book advises you to couple the body language with the crying type. If the baby is sucking and making the hungry cry, it's hungry. If it's sucking and making the tired cry it needs to suckle and be put down so it can sleep.

Anyone else see the fundamental problem I have with all of this??????

I didn't even get as far as the bored cry, or any of the other examples listed as I figure they all must go waaa, waaa, waaa in a rhythmic kind of a way and sound like crying.....

Maybe I'm missing subtle nuances and I should really pay closer attention, or maybe I should do what I'm resorting to at the moment. If she's crying and has eaten within the last three hours, she ain't hungry, she's tired or bored. If she's crying and has eaten within the last three hours and she ain't yawning, she's bored.

Maybe someone out there reading this can enlighten me further on this whole issue, or maybe I'm expecting too much from a six week old relationship and one day soon it's all gonna fall in place.......

Things you never expected to get obsessed with - Number 1

Poo.

No, not mine or DBF's, the baby's....

It all started during the hospital stay (of five days) and has now become something that we actually discuss on a daily basis.

Whilst in hospital I had to let staff know every time I fed the baby and for how long as well as every time she filled a nappy and what it included. Right down to the colour involved. And it was all noted down in her records for reference (so I guess one day she may be able to request access to the notes and see how much she pooed over the first five days.....)

Anyway, it soon becomes second nature to note colour, quantity and frequency which means you can become obsessed by changes. To the extent that you find yourself on the phone to NHS Direct (a free health advice line that, it has to be said, is pretty useless) at midnight because your DBF is in a complete panic that the nappy is full of lime-green poo!

Yep, that was us the other night. I was trying to talk to a health care professional about lime green poo whilst DBF was typing the same phrase into Google and checking out poo online.

We weren't that successful with either option providing reassurance but as DD was otherwise fine and dandy we decided she was ok and stopped short of taking her and the full nappy to the hospital for a face to face diagnosis (although I think if I'd suggested it DBF would have been out of the door asap).

The Health Visitor came round the next day and DBF showed her a nappy (not the original, I did manage to persuade him we didn't need to keep that for her) and she said it was fine. It turns out that some formula milk turns baby's poo green and, as we'd included a bottle in her feeds the day before because I was so exhausted I needed to sleep, that was the source of the issue.

So panic over and another piece of useless information for us to store away for future use should one of our friends mention lime-green poo at any time!

Writing this all down it seems totally ridiculous and obsessive (and pretty damn funny really) but at the time the source of the colour really was the most urgent issue in our lives. LOL

Not quite a smile....

but cute nevertheless......

Sleep Part 2

Well we reached what I hope was rock bottom last weekend with DD sleeping for a total of three hours a day and at one point feeding on and off for sixteen hours solid.

By Monday I had to ask DBF not to go to work as I was so exhausted I was afraid I’d hurt her – not by intention, I never felt close to harming her, but I was scared I’d fall asleep with her on me feeding and I was so tired I wouldn’t wake up again so anything could happen. Also I’d left a message with the Health Visitor to seek advice and if we’d needed to take DD to the doctor I needed DBF as I still couldn’t drive after the caesarean.

Anyway, DBF had her asleep on him for three hours so I got some sleep too. That at least cleared my head a bit and we started to talk about what our options could be to assist the situation.

Basically, I knew that one of the main reasons she’d been extra unsettled was that DBF’s family were here for four days and I never feel entirely relaxed around them at the best of times so DD was obviously picking up my stress from that. She was also passed around like a prize and her personal space was constantly being invaded as everyone wanted to coo over her.

So, that problem was easily solved as they left on Sunday so there was no more stress and over-stimulation. The main problem was still there though so we decided to buy a much firmer mattress for the moses basket and also a rocking frame for it. Our reasoning was that the foam mattress we had didn’t seem to support her that well and she likes being rocked but I can’t hold her and rock her for very long as my stomach starts to ache.

Those two things have seemed to help a bit – especially the rocker as she’s now happy to be in the basket whilst awake and her movement causes it to rock which keeps her contented. She doesn’t sleep easily in there still but at least I can leave her for a while and get on with other things, even if it’s only for fifteen minutes.

Anyway, with things a bit more settled during the day we finally noticed a distinct pattern in the evenings. Basically we had her settled during the day but she was unconsolable for two to three hours at night, wouldn’t feed, tummy was all hard, all she did was scream…..

Yep, colic.

I have a book on getting a baby to sleep that a friend leant me and the symptoms they listed in there all fitted. We checked it out on the web and got even more symptoms we could tick off the list so we were left in no doubt about it. So, we’ve invested in colic drops, have been using them for 24 hours and can already see a difference. It’s not a miracle cure but at least the three of us all feel better and are slowly working out a solution.

First Smile

So all the books say the first smile comes around six weeks old but the Health Visitor told us it can be any time from three weeks onwards. I've been the one constantly saying 'it's wind' for the last four weeks when DBF and others have been cooing over DD 'smiling' at them and I certainly wasn't looking for the first smile yet (although it was in the back of my mind that she could any day).

So, it was a complete surprise when tonight, at exactly four weeks old she looked me straight in the eye and gave me the biggest grin!

My life now revolves around when she'll do it again and DBF is anxiously awaiting his turn. I hope over this weekend we can get some pictures and I'll certainly be posting an updated photo here, smiling or not.

Sleep.......

Who needs it?

Not my daughter it would appear.....

Now I'm not stupid enough to think I'd have a baby and still manage a good 8 hours uninterrupted sleep a night but I figured she'd sleep enough during a 24 hour period that I'd manage to get about that much during the course of a day.

No such luck.

At the moment she's averaging about 10 hours sleep out of every 24 which means that by the time I've settled her down, fed myself, digested, had a shower, etc I'm getting about 6 hours sleep, some of which is in bed, some of which is on the sofa.

It also doesn't help that she appears to be able to sleep anywhere but in the moses basket - on Mummy or Daddy, on a cushion or pillow, in our bed, on the changing mat, you name it she'll sleep on it but the minute you move her to the basket those big blue eyes open and she's demanding food.

I guess I could forgo some of the additional activities I do so I get a bit more sleep but I have to eat and as we're currently experiencing a heatwave here I have to shower as having a hot little body next to you for several hours at a time makes one rather sticky and uncomfortable.

I guess you're wondering why I'm complaining but am also managing to blog right now. Well I'm eating too so multi-tasking - oh and I look at it as a means to maintain a bit of sanity by doing something totally unconnected to feeding or nappies.

Everyone keeps telling us that it passes and they settle into a routine but when you're in the middle of this initial sleepless stage and feel like you've given birth to a mini vampire that is awake all night slowly sucking the life energy out of you it doesn't really help to hear that.

But then, just when you're at the lowest point and feel like selling your child on ebay, she looks up at you with those big eyes of hers and it all seems totally worthwhile.

I'm off now for what is hopefully more than 30 mins sleep before she wakes for the next feed.

So here she is...

The Birth!

So, here's the first part of the catching up blogging.....

The Birth

I went into hospital on the evening of Monday 30th May in order to be induced. The induction process is done in three stages, first a pessary to open the womb, second your waters are broken artificially and third you are put on a hormone drip to start off the contractions. All in all induction can take up to three days depending on how you react to what's going on so as you can imagine I was a little stressed about what I was going to experience. My only real thoughts on the matter were that 1) it would take some time and 2) it was likely to be painful as everything I'd been told about induction pointed towards it hurting more than natural labour.....

So, about 7.00pm they give me the pessary (a drug called Prostin) and we then start what is supposed to be a waiting game. DBF and I were just in the assessment room at the delivery ward and we'd been told that I could possibly go home overnight if I wanted and come back the next morning to see what was happening. However, by 8.00pm I was having stomach pains so they hooked me up to the foetal heart and contraction monitor to see what was happening. Baby was fine but I was having contractions already!

According to those in the know, these were 'Prostin pains' as sometimes, in rare cases, women react to the prostin and the uterus goes into spasm. These are dry contractions as nothing else in your body is telling you that birth is underway so you get all the pain but none of the benefit from them. I was told that they should calm down as my body gets used to the drug but if not they could give me an injection to stop the whole thing, we'd wait and see what happened! This line was spoken numerous times over the next four hours but trust me, nothing was calming down as far as I was concerned.

At midnight they gave me the injection and some painkillers and the contractions slowed, but didn't stop. I sent DBF home at 1.00am as he was due back in at 9.00am for the next part of the induction. At 2.00am they finally took me off the monitor and left me in the assessment room to try and sleep. I don't remember much about the night except that I had to get up every hour or so to go to the toilet and that I managed to sleep for a while in between the pain.

DBF arrived on time and I was still having the pains. They hooked me back up to the machines and over the next few hours the pains got more frequent and stronger. Around midday I was visited by my consultant and when I moved so she could examine me my waters broke naturally. She assessed that I was 3cm dilated and said I should be moved to a delivery room. This was easier said than done as I was on gas and air by this point and the contractions were coming pretty much one on top of another so walking down a corridor was not the easiest thing I'd ever done!

I'd always said that I didn't think I'd want an epidural but I'd maintain an open mind about it as I had no idea what to expect. By 1.30pm I demanded one as I couldn't cope with the pain. The standard number of contractions towards the end of labour is four every ten minutes. I was having six which meant that there was very little time (seconds) between them so I was not getting any respite from the pain.

I had the most wonderful anaesthatist who got the epidural in despite it taking nearly half an hour as she had to wait for a break in contractions to do her job. I also had to curl up on my side as much as possible and that was the worst as the more curled up I was, the more it hurt.

Still, once the epidural was done and kicked in I was a happy girl. I was still having six contractions every ten minutes but I couldn't feel a thing so as long as the baby was fine (which she was) I didn't care! In fact, the only thing I cared about at this point was being able to clean my teeth :) Anyway, they started off the hormone drip so finally the contractions could start doing their job and I was left alone with DBF and a dedicated midwife, Jemmie, to let things take their course.

By this time DBF and I had lost track of all the Health Care Professionals we'd met so we started keeping count, Jemmie was number 22 (I reached 58 before I left hospital!)

I was checked on at regular intervals but it became clear that I wasn't really progressing any further despite constant reviews of my medication. I was really starting to not enjoy the whole process as I was hooked up to four drips, had the epidural in my back, a catheter and a cable attached to the baby's head to monitor her heart beat to make sure she wasn't in any distress. I couldn't move at all but the epidural wasn't strong enough to stop my bum getting numb lying in one position for all those hours.

By 10.00pm I was visited by another lot of medical people (the night shift) and when the doctor checked me out I was still only 4cm dilated with the baby only stage 2 engaged. The doctor did a scan at this point and we discovered that the baby was facing sideways. They told me that there was no way she'd come out like that as her head wouldn't fit the birth canal (babies should be facing downwards) but I was so determined that I didn't want a caesarian that they agreed to leave me another couple of hours to see if there was any change.

There wasn't.

So, just before midnight I consented to a caesarian. It turned out that the doctor was Greek so I had DBF (who is also Greek) check him out and then I threatened him with DBF's Grandmother if I didn't have a good operation and a neat scar. Only Greek men can properly appreciate the brevity of that threat but it worked, everyone who's checked my scar has commented on how good a job he did. LOL

The caesarian was not pleasant but all the Health Care Professionals were totally brilliant, especially the anaesthatist who did a wonderful job of calming me down and explaining everything that was happening. DBF was in with me as it's a local, not a general anasthetic. He sat next to me and held my hand throughout, talking with me and telling me it was all okay. For some reason I was totally convinced that he shouldn't look at what was going on and so all I really remember is telling him 'don't look' every couple of minutes. I have no idea why this was so important to me but I was determined that I didn't want him to see anything.

He saw plenty though (there was no way he wouldn't from where he was sitting) and so saw our gorgeous little girl enter the world at 00:41 on the 1st June and he got to hold her next to me whilst they did the hard part of stitching me up. Finally, about 1.30am they gave me my daughter and we went back to the delivery room as a family.

I've got a baby!

Apologies for the break in service but I was busy having a baby :)

She was born at 00:41 on Wednesday 1st June and weighed in at 7lb 15oz. She's fine and healthy with a shock of dark hair.

I had a bad reaction to the drug they gave me to start the induction process and ended up having a caesarian because she was lying in the wrong position (she tried to enter the world sideways!) but other than that it was plain sailing.....

I'm trying to catch up with all the details so there'll be a few postings that cover the whole event until I'm back up to date and can then keep on with blogging about day to day life with my new baby.

Noisy Neighbours (a long rant!)

Okay so it was 10.00am but I was fast asleep after a night of ups and downs due to a very active baby and The Twitches so being woken up by extremely loud music from the guy next door was particulary unwelcome this morning.

We live in a terraced house that we bought six years ago and it's pretty much perfect in every way for us at this time of our lives EXCEPT for the neighbours. It wasn't always like that, for the first six months it was nice and peaceful with only the smell of strong curry drifting through the walls every night being a minor issue. Then the family moved out and started renting the house to a series of the world's worst tennants and we've spent five years or so battling noise polution and generally crappy behaviour.

Along the way we've encountered:

Big Scary Guy who had a penchant for Abba and The Corrs which, whilst vaguely falling into the category of music, is not exactly pleasant when listened to at top volume accompanied by seriously off-key singing. He was also slightly deaf and so had three alarm clocks that would start at 6.15am and go off alternately for about an hour.

Drunk Guy who would come home off his head most nights, stick something on to cook and then pass out. Even the smoke alarm wouldn't wake him so we had to pray that there was someone else in the house that would eventually go see what was going on (thankfully it never got bad enough for us to have to phone the fire brigade).

The Two Couples who shared one room and periodically would have sex in the garden as they couldn't all be doing it in the room at the same time.

The Spanish Girls who would come home at 2.00am and proceed to spend a couple of hours drunkenly screeching at each other.

The Screamer who would row constantly with her Italian boyfriend and when she wasn't getting her own way would scream like she was being murdered. They left shortly after I called the police at 3.00am and they arrested the guy because he got narked that they were interfering and started having a go at them.

Mr DIY who would start sawing and banging at 10.00pm and was so loud that the people on the other side of us complained to us about the noise we were making!

Various Interchangable Eastern Europeans who get louder and louder in direct proportion to the amount of alcohol they consume.

I could go on and on and on with the list, we've endured seriously loud music at all hours of the day and night, bonfires in the tiny back garden, debt collectors and other unsavoury characters knocking on our door asking about people in the house, screaming rows and general abuse when we request they be a bit more considerate.

They've also disturbed half the street with the noise from the house and various car stereos, etc. and we're definitely not the only ones who have complained.

We've complained to the landlord and the council and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The problem is that there's four rooms in the house that are rented out individually and so there is a constant turn over of tennants. We can never be sure of who is in there, where they're from and generally whether it's safe to be causing a fuss. DBF occasionally gets worried at me going round and having a go because he's convinced at some point they'll retaliate and damage us or our property.

To be honest, I'm pretty sure none of them would go that far as most of them don't want to draw attention to themselves and the one time another neighbour got mad enough to mention calling the police three of the four tennants vacated within a week. Mainly they don't stay because the house is a dump but I like to think that our moaning at them encourages them to move on as well. The only downside with that is that pretty much every new tennant is as bad as the last so once a new one moves in the whole process starts over.

So this morning I did what I'd said I wouldn't do in my condition and went round to try and talk to the guy making all the noise. I thought that maybe he'd take pity on a 39 weeks pregnant woman and realise he was out of order.

He didn't even answer the door.

He did however turn the music down.

A victory of sorts I suppose but he turned it up again later and we'd endured similar on and off all day yesterday so it's not a victory really. Still, once there's a baby in the house that's it as far as I'm concerned, if there's a continuing problem and he won't even speak to us then it's back to the landlord and if that doesn't work, the council. I can be reduced to tears of despair now but if I'm dealing with a new baby and our lives continue to be disturbed then I think I'll end up cracking up.

We're hoping to move house sometime in the next 12 months and the main reason for doing so is the noise. We've spent six years basically rebuilding our house and we've got more than enough room for this baby and another (should we be brave enough) but we've been worn down so much by the neighbours that I can't face the idea of any longer here.

Next house is definitely going to be in the middle of a field where the only noise pollution is the dawn chorus......

What a Wonderful Day!

Despite my nocturnal wanderings today has been absolutely lovely!

The weather here has been gorgeous, nice and sunny with the temperature around 27 degrees. Admittedly I was a bit hot and uncomfortable when I was out but on the whole it has just been nice and relaxing for me. I even managed to lie on the sofa for a couple of hours and watch hunky men playing tennis without getting The Twitches.

Other than that I went and met DBF for lunch on his last day of work before becoming a daddy. This served several purposes - a reason for me to get out of the house, a free lunch on him and a chance to head to a craft shop just outside Maidenhead where he works for a bit of pre-baby-induction S.E.X.

So I managed to stock up on some scrapbooking materials for the baby book I'm planning and some Anchor floss that I need for some Michael Powell designs I'm stitching (Handmade Houses 1 - 5). I also had some S.E.X. with the postman as he brought me a package of the most gorgeous hand-dyed floss from Polstitches.

So, my total haul was:

14 Skeins of Dragon Floss
1 piece of Hand Dyed Jobelan from Polstitches
8 skeins of Anchor Floss
1 two needle perforating tool for papercraft
10 assorted baby related sticker and rub-on packs
A spring loaded, 3 size eyelet setter
A Paper Pizazz book of 8 x 8 Baby Papers, tags and motifs
A 12 x 12 Baby Girl Paper kit that includes 10 12 x 12 papers, 21 sheets of die cuts, frames and borders and 2 sheets of stickers.

I also pushed the boat out and ordered some stash from the net. Some floss-away bags, a couple of rubber stamps and some gel pens.

I figure that's it for quite a while and seeing as though today was payday (another reason it was a great day!) I figured I'd splash out.

The Terrible Twitches......

So, I'm 38 and a half weeks pregnant and have finally reached the 'I just want it all to be over' stage.

Before the moan starts I should say that I know I've been incredibly lucky with my pregnancy and have endured very few of the symptoms that can occur. For one thing I didn't have any sickness and have not put on any weight at all over the last nine months (don't get too jealous, I wasn't that small to start with). No back pain, indigestion, varicose veins, high blood pressure, nothing.

But what I have been experiencing is what is has become known in our house as 'The Twitches'.....

It started around month four when I'd be sitting quite happily and my right leg would start to feel odd. It's very difficult to explain exactly what I mean by odd as it's not a sensation that I've ever encountered before but the result of this 'oddness' was that my leg would twitch periodically.

Now to begin with this was a source of amusement (especially to DBF) and was cured by either shifting position in the chair or, if particularly bad, getting up and walking around for a bit. It was also intermittent and I could go days before experiencing an attack so it wasn't something I worried about too much. How wrong could I be?

It didn't take too long before my left leg joined in the fun, the attacks became more frequent and I'd have difficulty sitting or lying down for more than 15 - 20 mins at a time. As you can imagine this is not a particularly useful state of play and it certainly curtailed any leisure activities. Worse, it started being a problem when I was trying to sleep as there was no escaping The Twitching. The only good thing was that DBF was finding it less amusing when he was being kicked at random intervals during the night.

Work was also a nightmare as I'm a Web Developer so my daily routine consists of sitting down at a PC. I ended up having to go for short walks about once an hour just to cope with it so my Maternity Leave starting was a huge relief.

So, for the last few weeks the situation has gotten steadily worse. I've managed with the help of six cushions to find a position I can sit in the armchair and cross stitch which has been a godsend but it involves leaning forward slightly so I always have some backpain by the end of the day. I can lie down for short periods and maybe, if I'm lucky, get a couple of hours sleep at a time but for some reason lately when I'm lying down I also get The Twitches in my right arm. This did lead to a rather amusing incident (well at least for me) a week or so ago when I broke the monotony of kicking DBF during the night by punching him in the head but on the whole it's a total nightmare.

I do try to see the funny side and the fact that, apart from walking around, the only known cure is to spend time on all fours (this moves the baby from whatever nerve endings she's squashing) does help but the amusement value of that wears very thin very quickly (and is a killer on the hips).

Still, I have a maximum of four days left of this torture as I'm due to be induced on Tuesday if baby doesn't make an appearance of her own accord so I guess I'll tough it out. The only thing that really bothers me at 5 in the morning is the thought of what life will be like if the baby comes out and The Twitches don't go away......

My new blog

Hello and welcome to my new blog.

The main reason behind this blog is the fact that I'm due to have my first baby sometime in the next week and I want a place to store events and memories of this time for myself and friends and family.

I'm going to be experimenting with all of this over the next few days so if you've just stumbled across my site please be patient with me