Home straight
Mar. 21st, 2011 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
j438 weeks yesterday; Friday was my last day at work. The code I'd been worrying about was finally released on Thursday: far too last-minute for my liking, but (touch wood) I don't seem to have messed anything up too badly. Friday was mostly spent eating (and mostly cake): cakes for Comic Relief in the morning; lunch at Green's with a friend from Cambridge who was visiting for the day & whom I hadn't seen for ages; cake for my leaving do in the afternoon. I got colleagues to bet on the date the baby would arrive (£1 a guess, for Comic Relief). Went to the pub with a small group of nice colleagues after work -- I suspect that may be my last 'grown-up' pub trip for a while...
I do feel very odd about leaving work, but I think it still hasn't really sunk in that I won't be going back for a year. I am worried that I'll forget everything, that they'll forget about me, that I won't want to go back, that I'll end up torn between wanting to go back and wanting to stay at home ... all sorts of worries, but nothing I can really do about any of them for the time being. We'll see what happens.
On Sunday![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
addedentry's parents came to visit, and took us to Mothercare (and Boots and Tesco) to buy baby stuff. Mothercare was big and confusing and full of unnecessary stuff, but it was still good of the inlaws to take us there and buy us useful things (a changing mat, some baby wipes, a nursing bra). They also brought us some bottles and a sterilizer (second-hand from addedentry's sister). We're getting slowly closer to actually having bought everything on the list (though to be honest we'd be fine even if the baby arrived now).
Today (my first non-working work day, if you see what I mean) my mum came to visit, also bringing baby stuff (muslin & towelling squares, and a blanket that my grandma had knitted) and some plants for the garden. We went to the Magic Cafe for lunch and then she helped me sort through the boxes of baby clothes again (they should now all be sorted by size) and dug our vegetable patch so we could plant the broad beans & mange tout plants she'd brought. I'm pleased with the garden at the moment -- we did a fair bit of weeding on Saturday too (andaddedentry mowed the lawn) and all the trees/bushes I was worried about seem to have survived the winter, even the ornamental nectarine. Also, the broccoli that I thought had died of snow/neglect seems to have overwintered and is now a) sprouting florets all over the place, and b) bigger than me! The house is slowly getting better too -- we got the rest of our SHELVES finished on Saturday (I still think of them in capital letters), filled them with books, got rid of two bookcases via Freecycle yesterday, and got rid of two video-storage towers via Freecycle today. It's amazing how much more space there seems to be... still not quite there but it's definitely getting more manageable. At this rate we might have space in Sprocket's room for a bed by the time she needs one...
As for me, I'm doing OK, just getting more and more tired and achey. Knees and ankles ache (but don't seem to be swollen, I think they're just tired of carrying that weight -- baby is quite a heffalump now), more vicious leg cramps, shoulder is in pain every morning (because I can't turn over in bed so I get stuck in a bad position all night), and I'm getting lots of, er, twinges elsewhere (a bit like period pains) which keep making me think "is that something starting to happen?" (Answer: apparently not.) Sorry to be so whiny, but the constant aches and pains and lack of proper sleep are making me grouchy and fed up.
On the plus side, though, the results of the last blood test finally came through & the iron supplements seem to have worked (hurrah!) -- now up to 10.6 g/dl, so they won't make me go into hospital on account of anaemia. And baby is still in the right position (though not 'engaged' yet). So I really shouldn't complain... all in all, though, I have had quite enough of being pregnant: any time Sprocket feels like coming out now is fine by me. And if the amount of kicking she's doing is anything to go by, she's as fed up as I am, so hopefully I won't have too long to wait... fingers crossed!
I do feel very odd about leaving work, but I think it still hasn't really sunk in that I won't be going back for a year. I am worried that I'll forget everything, that they'll forget about me, that I won't want to go back, that I'll end up torn between wanting to go back and wanting to stay at home ... all sorts of worries, but nothing I can really do about any of them for the time being. We'll see what happens.
On Sunday
addedentry's parents came to visit, and took us to Mothercare (and Boots and Tesco) to buy baby stuff. Mothercare was big and confusing and full of unnecessary stuff, but it was still good of the inlaws to take us there and buy us useful things (a changing mat, some baby wipes, a nursing bra). They also brought us some bottles and a sterilizer (second-hand from addedentry's sister). We're getting slowly closer to actually having bought everything on the list (though to be honest we'd be fine even if the baby arrived now).Today (my first non-working work day, if you see what I mean) my mum came to visit, also bringing baby stuff (muslin & towelling squares, and a blanket that my grandma had knitted) and some plants for the garden. We went to the Magic Cafe for lunch and then she helped me sort through the boxes of baby clothes again (they should now all be sorted by size) and dug our vegetable patch so we could plant the broad beans & mange tout plants she'd brought. I'm pleased with the garden at the moment -- we did a fair bit of weeding on Saturday too (and
addedentry mowed the lawn) and all the trees/bushes I was worried about seem to have survived the winter, even the ornamental nectarine. Also, the broccoli that I thought had died of snow/neglect seems to have overwintered and is now a) sprouting florets all over the place, and b) bigger than me! The house is slowly getting better too -- we got the rest of our SHELVES finished on Saturday (I still think of them in capital letters), filled them with books, got rid of two bookcases via Freecycle yesterday, and got rid of two video-storage towers via Freecycle today. It's amazing how much more space there seems to be... still not quite there but it's definitely getting more manageable. At this rate we might have space in Sprocket's room for a bed by the time she needs one...As for me, I'm doing OK, just getting more and more tired and achey. Knees and ankles ache (but don't seem to be swollen, I think they're just tired of carrying that weight -- baby is quite a heffalump now), more vicious leg cramps, shoulder is in pain every morning (because I can't turn over in bed so I get stuck in a bad position all night), and I'm getting lots of, er, twinges elsewhere (a bit like period pains) which keep making me think "is that something starting to happen?" (Answer: apparently not.) Sorry to be so whiny, but the constant aches and pains and lack of proper sleep are making me grouchy and fed up.
On the plus side, though, the results of the last blood test finally came through & the iron supplements seem to have worked (hurrah!) -- now up to 10.6 g/dl, so they won't make me go into hospital on account of anaemia. And baby is still in the right position (though not 'engaged' yet). So I really shouldn't complain... all in all, though, I have had quite enough of being pregnant: any time Sprocket feels like coming out now is fine by me. And if the amount of kicking she's doing is anything to go by, she's as fed up as I am, so hopefully I won't have too long to wait... fingers crossed!
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 09:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-21 11:36 pm (UTC)A's baby arrived in the small hours of Sunday morning - both she & he are doing well :) If you/Owen would have any interest in my (moderately unsorted/brief) notes on the birth partnering thing, let me know - I've been writing down Stuff I Learnt as it occurs to me since. Also on the immediate aftermath/recovery. (If no interest, that is of course fine!)
no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 09:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-23 11:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 08:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 10:55 am (UTC)I should hope not, at her age.
(The above is shorthand for "I have nothing useful to contribute, know nothing about birth/babies, and have no advice but am interested reading what you write and sympathise with the aches and grouches.")
no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 11:28 am (UTC)Glad your bloods are looking good, here's to a good homebirth!
no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 01:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 01:53 pm (UTC)At least you get to have your own baby and they won't do that for you... I've given you lots of practice in saying "oh, that's very nice" when you haven't the strength to argue, so I'll buzz off and start decluttering the codpiece.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-22 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-23 11:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-23 08:49 pm (UTC)