8 weeks to go.

Yes, 8 weeks to go. That's all that's left now until this baby comes into the world. I am secretly hoping that he will be like his sisters and make a somewhat early arrival. Marie was 5 weeks early and Noelie was 2 weeks early. So 3 weeks early sounds good enough to me.

 

I am very glad to say that my sciatica has eased a lot. Yes, the place looks like a bombsite most of the time because I don't bend down to pick up stuff as much as I used to. I don't hoover or wash the floors anymore either as it seemed to be triggering the sciatica (good excuse isn't it!). I have to say that Mr Foodie has more than stepped up to the mark on the whole housecleaning side of things. He is now in charge of a lot of the household chores and I have to admit that he is doing quite a good job at it too. I know I tend to be a bit demanding on the hoovering and cleanliness side of things but he does it really well (well, nearly as good as I would ;-P). Things have improved so well on the sciatica front that the physio said that she wouldn't give me another appointment, but to call if things deteriorated. The exercises she has given me have helped and I think that the fact that Peanut has moved up a bit and isn't lying on my back anymore probably has helped too.

 

I still feel like a whale at times. I was weighed in the hospital last week and was quite happy to discover that I was under the 63 kgs mark which I find quite reasonable and puts my weight gain at around 8 kgs so far. I know there is more weight to put on especially now that we are nearing the end. I am and never have been obsessed with my weight. I believe that you can eat anything you want as long as you eat the bad stuff in moderation. I am particularly paying attention at the amount of calcium I eat at the moment. I have had a couple of toothaches lately and I know it's from Peanut sucking the calcium out of my bones and teeth (he has to find it somewhere, doesn't he!). There is even a French saying that says 'Un enfant, une dent' (a child, a tooth).

 

I have been a bit tired lately, but I'm not sure if it is pregnancy related or just the running around I have done in the past weeks that has me like that. We have had a few busy and somewhat stressful weeks and I am sure that hasn't helped.

 

We are slowly getting ready for the arrival of baby and I am already thinking ahead about packing the hospital bag. I know it's early but apart from vests and pjs for Peanut, we have pretty much got everything we need in. The only reason we haven't got vests and PJs is because we are quite picky and we want wraparound vests that we can find in France and not here. And although PJs are widely available here too, I think the French ones are cuter. So we are going to order some soon.

 

Last week, I went for a checkup as I mentioned and I was also delighted to find out that this time around I haven't had as many kidney infections as I did on Noelie. It was unfortunately the bane of Noelie's pregnancy (that and the fact that she was breached, of course) and I was on antibiotics for a week after any check up. This time around I had one and I didn't need antibiotics for it so I am very pleased with that. The doctor in the hospital also gave us another scan which we really weren't expecting and it looks like Peanut is already head down, which would explain some of the weird kicks I have been receiving. I am getting kicked in the ribs and punched in the hips quite a lot and he is very, very active. Sometimes my whole belly seems to move to one side. The rib kicking is quite uncomfortable and seems to happen more in the evening, when I am sitting down. The consultant also confirmed that it was still a boy.

 

Marie is getting really excited and is a great help around the house. She tries to send me off for naps when she gets in from school (I wonder is she doing it for my own good or is she trying to get up to something when I'm not looking). She plays with her sister as much as she can so that Noelie is not constantly looking for my attention.

 

Noelie seems to understand that there is a baby in my belly and if you ask her to give her baby brother a kiss, she will come over, lift up my top and give my belly a kiss. Or blow a raspberry on it... Or slap it depending on her mood. She has also taken to try and give the baby her soother. She tries and stick in through my belly button which is quite funny. Sometimes if you ask her where the baby is, she lifts up her own top and points to it laughing. She is quite a character. And I am not too worried about how she will react to a new baby in the house. I am pretty sure that she will be ok, as she is fascinated by her big sister and tries to do the same things as her. Fingers crossed!

 

We don't have much running around to do in the next couple of weeks so I am hoping to recharge my batteries during this time. And I know that after that things will go really fast. Marie finishes school in a couple of weeks. We are going to see the Script in concert in 3 weeks time (I didn't know I was pregnant when I booked the tickets and I am not giving them up. That's if Mr Foodie will take me because technically these are his tickets.). We have another hospital appointment in about 3 weeks too. Then my dad is coming over to pick up Marie and whisk her away to France until the end of August. She will not be here when her little brother is born but she is old enough and she is the one who made the choice. I mean if you had to chose between 5 weeks of sunshine, swimming pools, bike rides and fun with Papi & Mamie or stay at home with a newborn that does nothing but eat, sleep, poo and cry which would you chose? Yep. We would all chose the fun option.

 

I have decided not to go to antenatal classes this time around. It is after all my third pregnancy and I believe I have been from one extreme to the other when it comes to giving birth. I had a completely natural birth on Marie and she was a premie and I had a c-section on Noelie since she was breached (although I did go into labour spontaneously). I am not too stressed about the birth (yet) and as they say que sera, sera. Unlike in the UK, there are no talks of birth plans here. No talks of music playing, no talks of birth pools or anything like that. Check ups etc feel more like a factory than a personalized experience. You don't get to meet the same midwife during your pregnancy, and you pretty much get whoever is there on the day. When you go in a for a check up, you hand in your chart, you hand in your little container of pee and you wait to be called out to one of the 4 or 5 consulting rooms. There you meet a consultant (never the same one) who checks your blood pressure, prods your belly and if you're lucky (like I was the last time) gives you a quick scan. If you don't have any questions, you are then sent on your merry way home until next time.

 

The only thing I am getting worried about is making it to the hospital on time.Marie's labour was only 5 and a bit hours. On Noelie, my waters broke (I was already in the hospital getting checked out because I felt that there was something wrong and I didn't know what it was) and I was wheeled into the operating theater very quickly after that. Apparently I was having contractions but apart from a rather uncomfortable tightening of my belly, I wasn't in pain (and that was before being given any kind of anaesthetics). So I am hoping against hope that this time, I will recognize the contractions for what they are, and that this baby will hold on long enough for us to make it into the hospital! I have already warned my neighbour that I will be calling upon her as soon as I feel something especially if Mr Foodie is in work. Let's wait and see!

Bumps and brains...

I am now 28 weeks pregnant and I feel like a whale. There I've said it. My head says that really I am not that big. If I look purely at numbers, I 'only' put on 3 kgs in 3 months (well, the last time I was weighed), which really is not that much. But I'm quite petite and this bump is without a doubt the biggest bump I have ever had. And I have had 2 before! Even at the end of both my previous pregnancies I don't think I had such a big bump. Going to the hospital for check ups puts things in perspective though and makes me feel quite good, because when I look at all the other bumps waiting for their check ups, I realise that really my bump is not that big. That and the fact that I haven't yet developed any stretchmarks! Don't ask me for a miracle cure, I haven't got one. And if anything I am definitely not as rigorous when it comes to applying cream to my bump as I was with the 2 others. This one is quite a mystery really as my skin has always been very dry and far from being stretchy!  I am definitely carrying this bump differently than the girls. While, with the girls I had a bump that was mainly towards the front, this one seems to be more across. But all this doesn't make it any lighter and bending forward has become something close to mission impossible. Putting my shoes on is becoming difficult as I have to consider both the bump and my back which still acts up some days more than others.

I have gone for some physio appointments which have helped and have been cause for great laughs. I came back from the first one with one of those tubey things that help you support your bump although stepping into it now is becoming more and more difficult! And I came back from the second one with a triangle of elastoplast on my bum! I felt a bit like a broken down truck at the side of the motorway! I have had to take it off though because it was starting to peel off and was getting caught in my clothes and pulling the skin of my arse literally!

This bump is also the most active bump I have ever had. I don't know what this baby is doing in there but he must be having great fun! Jumping up and down and side to side and back to front. Every bone and organ in the vicinity is being kicked and pushed and prodded. He is a very very active baby and quite a jittery one too and would sometimes take 'fits' of movement that are quite incredible to feel and even more impressive to look at. We are pretty sure we saw an arm (or leg) rolling across my belly the other night!

Baby brain has also set in and I'm forever forgetting things. I would walk into the kitchen and by the time I get there not remember what I went in for. I think that this baby has also stolen my writing mojo. I have had great ideas for posts and then either forgot them, or sat down to write and haven't been able to string 2 words together that make sense. We have had a very busy week with Marie's communion and a day trip to Manchester to visit the Pampers factory (more about that soon!) and I find it quite hard to get over the tiredness this week which doesn't help either but I am trying to apply the old philosophy of the more you write, the more you'll want to write. Hope it's going to work!

So please bear with me while this little baby is sucking all my brains and energy (and kicking the netbook that is resting on my bump!), I promise you that I will make sense soon (hopefully).

Before our dongle goes...

Hello again everybody! I am back again for a short while. The dongle thingy has to go back tomorrow so I decided it was time to test it to the maximum and see if its powers were strong enough to last through me writing a whole post. I doubt it. I might just throw away my computer at the cows next door in frustration. You see, it's not the most reliable and it tends to not upload / disconnect / not work at the most inappropriate time. So as I am writing this post, I am already dreading the upload. Will I lose everything or not? I'm taking a big gamble here!

So we are finally settled here albeit without phone or TV yet. But it's starting to look a lot less like indoors camping than it was. It's been a pretty busy time for everybody. We managed to move in everything in 3 trips except the girls. They were staying with Mr Foodie's mum and dad while we were shifting things and until the house was to be considered livable and not a health and safety danger anymore. So they spent 3 nights over there. It was the first time we were leaving Noelie for such a long period of time but she had a great time. We were popping in and out of there anyway since Mr Foodie's mum was our designated tea maker / caterer.

Last week was a very busy one. There were so many things to do. Boxes to empty, wardrobes to build and fill. We finally went to Ikea to buy stuff. We had gone there 3 times without buying anything and that took a superhuman effort on my part. So on the first day of the sales, we went there and bought a big TV unit, a wardrobe and a chest of drawers. It took Mr Foodie about 2 days to put it all together, while I was unpacking and putting things away. I'm glad we waited though since we managed to save more than 400 euros on the stuff we bought. Had it not been on sale, as much as I liked it, I probably would have settled for something cheaper. Mr Foodie's dad had gone away for a few days so Mr Foodie's mum came to stay with us for a couple of days. She provided an invaluable babysitting service for us while we explored the area, taking whatever road we came across to see where it lead us, trying to figure out where the nearest supermarkets, shops, post offices etc were. We had to figure out our surroundings pretty fast since Mr Foodie and one of his brother had decided to throw a 60th surprise birthday party for his mum in her own house and we were in charge of some of the shopping. We had to throw a 'fake' birthday celebration in our house (meaning that the house had to be presentable for people we invited over) while his brother was decorating her house and getting the food ready.

Last Friday we also invited a couple of friends over for dinner. They ended up staying the night. Since Marie was away in NoodleVille (just east of NoodleLand) for her first long week end, we had a very very lazy Saturday (meaning I took a nap while Noelie was having one) and basically not getting out of our pyjamas all day.

So only now are we trying to find a routine for ourselves. Noelie is exhausted. She has so much ground to cover now that she has to take a couple of naps a day to recover. Marie is having a great time. She met the little boy next door today and has been playing in his house for the past couple of hours. I went to try and retrieve her but our new neighbour invited her for lunch. So she is staying there for a bit. She has no idea that my cousin is coming over to stay for a little over a week today so that will be a really nice surprise.

And I'm here typing a post, praying that the dongle won't die on me and enjoying the silence while Noelie takes a nap. I have to stay in today as I am waiting on our bins to be delivered. Tomorrow, it should be Sky and sometime before the end of the week it will be Eircom. So a lot of waiting around but then everything will be sorted and complete. Well apart from the Internet. That will be another 4 weeks or so. I hope you'll all still be here when I come back.

X
Foodie Mummy

I'm still alive

I thought I would just pop in here and let you know that I'm still here! I'm still alive! I haven't been buried under a pile of boxes only for my body to be found sometime next year once all the boxes are finally unpacked. There is still quite a bit to do. The move went really well. We met our new neighbours who sounds really nice. The old house has been cleaned to the best of our abilities. The new house has been cleaned too and most of the boxes have been unpacked. But there is still quite a bit to do. So this is only a flying visit. Mr Foodie has borrowed a dongle thingy so I could catch up on the blogging world and let everybody know that I'm not dead (how considerate was that!). I will let you know more soon. Promise. But for now I have to get back to my unpacking while Noelie takes a nap.

Talk to you all really soon.
X
Foodie Mummy

Back into the swing of things

I have to get back into the swing of things. I have to start writing again. I thought I'd gotten my voice back, but it looks like it was only one of those last breaths moments, you know, the ones that makes everybody jump in the movies. You think he's dead, but he's not. He still has enough energy to make you jump. That's how I felt for the past weeks. I posted a couple of times, Mr Foodie helped too. And then, blank, millions of subjects swarming in my head, but no way to express them. I couldn't find the words to let them out.


Mr Foodie took some time off, not because of my blogging crisis but because we had a million things to do. We had decided to rearrange the bedrooms. We were going to move the girls into our bedroom, we were to move into what was the spare bedroom and the little bedroom that used to be Marie's would become the spare bedroom. It took about 2 weeks and 4 trips to Ikea. But we did it. We bought a great unit with buckets for the girls bedroom. It seems to have taken ages to sort through Marie's toys. We took a bin full out of rubbish (broken toys, pieces of paper, old magazines half cut up, you name it, it was there). I turned the en suite bathroom (which is now located in the girls bedroom) into a sort of storage closet. That way they cannot reach for the taps, shower etc and do not risk flooding the house. Of course, all that moving of furniture created an incredible amount of dust which I cleaned up. Mr Foodie's mum decided to stay with us as his dad had gone away for the week end. Of course, the spare bedroom was nowhere near ready. So I took another trip to Ikea, on my own and bought a sofa bed. Which I loaded into the car on my own and put together on my own. And yes, Mr Foodie, I deserve a medal.

Noelie's first tooth cut through, quickly followed by her second one the next day and she is on the verge of crawling too. Mr Foodie's dad came over to paint the spare bedroom and the hall. As you can guess, more furniture moved, hence more dust around. So a lot of my time was spent cleaning top to bottom again. Last week was just a nightmare as you probably know from my previous post. And this week, well, this week I'm drained. I'm just tired. I have a creek in the neck for the past few days. I think that all the stress from the past few weeks is catching up on me. Stress at the amount of things to do. Stress at the amount of dust around. Stress about the judge's decision. Stress about Marie's reaction. Stress at trying to make the right decisions. Stress, stress, stress..

I haven't found my blogging mojo again and I've lost my cooking mojo too. Now that has to be serious. But I'll get through this. I will find both mojos again, sometime soon. In the meantime, I have decided to try and relax, to take things easy and try to look at the bright side of life. I have bought some books and I intend to lose myself in them for a bit. A bit of escapism has never hurt anybody. And I'm going to look after myself. Because if I don't look after myself, how can I look after other people. I'll be back, sooner rather than later. Back into the swing of things!

How do you cope with stress? How do you start the engine back again when you feel like you've stalled?