I haven't disappeared or gone into early labour, just been a tad busy and not had time to blog. Odd really, now that I'm on maternity leave.
My feet have taken on such epic proportion that I now have weekly check-ups to contain with. I'm all thankful that the NHS is making sure I don't develop pre-eclamsia, but with a blood pressure that makes you wonder how come I'm still conscious, there appears to be little danger of the dreaded condition which brought about my own early appearance on this planet.
We've been rather busy socially as well which is great though I'm so tired that my inclination at the moment is towards hibernation inside the house. Which I did one day last week and didn't exactly like either, not helped by mummy guilt that I didn't actually do much with toddler and had her sat in front of the telly for far too long so I could put my feet. Not that she minded, it's just that I did.
The wonders of the internet are rather amazing. If you are my age, from Germany, or some adjacent countries, you may have been brought up to a diet of Barbapapa on the TV. I had my dad in stitches letting him watch Cubling through Skype how she was glued to the TV for the selfsame series, courtesy of youtube and the internet through the Wii. I have since woken up to dreaming about the theme tune, which is rather disconcerting. So while Cubling currently watches too much TV, at least it's educational because it's in German (if I manage to not get the Dutch version) and let's her experience what toddler TV looked like when I was her age.
And yes, we've finally got Skype working with my dad in Germany. It's taken me 3 1/2 years, lots of hours on the phone bugging him, buying him a new computer (that in itself took a year and a half) and finally one phone call to get him through the set up process. Phew. Luckily he seemed impressed by the result (I told you so!!!), even though his webcam wasn't working.
I've been knitting a good bit as well, and nearing finishing stage - one cardigan for baby and one thick winter jumper for Cubling.
As to preparing for baby - in spite of one evening of rather regular Braxton Hicks, I still lack cot, car seat, mattresses, pram, hospital bag (or at least essential contents for it), feeding equipment and a chest of drawers. mattresses appear to be on the way, car seat, pram and feeding equipment will come down from the loft tomorrow or I'll scream the house down (Mr Cartside, you are warned), and cot isn't essential anyway. The chest of drawers has me worried because the delivery has already been delayed twice and I'm starting to get rather unimpressed with Argos. We have two bedrooms with piles of clothes by now and it's driving me bonkers.
On the tick side: bouncy chair (to be reviewed once baby has used it), newborn kari-me wrap, Hop-tye Mei Tai wrap, size 1 cloth nappies, baby bath, some clothes in neutral colours, Boppy nursing pillow, sterilizer, half a birth plan.
That's just the ticks and no ticks for baby. You really don't want to know the other list. That baby had better stay in for a few extra weeks...
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this:
