Hello world

Still not time for the full story, but here's a quick picture to whet your appetites...

Flicker at about two hours old

Coming early! *Now updated!!*

Waters have broken twenty minutes past midnight. Just back from hospital (2:45am!) - everything's as it should be. If no more signs of labour (or any concerns) they'll induce Wednesday morning. We're hoping Flicker will be with us before then...

I'll update as and when I can.


***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***

Just home from hospital again at 2:26am on Monday. The short version: after coming home as mentioned above, we were back in hospital by 6:30am and baby Treggles was born naturally at 11:12pm - a 6lb 13oz boy. The long version will follow when I've had some sleep. (And when I have some time!)

Twenty-two

I did some counting. Twenty-two.

That's how many muslin squares have appeared in the house. Twenty-two.

Remind me: how many babies are we expecting?

"Full term..."

Having known all along that 40 weeks was when Flicker was "due", I now discover that Mrs T is considered "full term" at 37 weeks. That means Flicker could now, in theory, appear any day. Now, what was I saying about being ready?

We have done some more about getting ourselves educated. Our friend in London who's an independent midwife runs a range of classes, and last weekend we attended her "preparation for birth" sessions. Brilliant. She really knows her stuff. In one morning I felt we learned more than we had in three weeks with the NHS, and we had the whole weekend to learn more. I'm so glad she's agreed to be with us for the birth if at all possible. It's a real privilege as we couldn't afford to hire her professionally.

And now we're just back from three days away at a very fancy country house hotel with its own spa were we'd booked in for our last break as "just the two of us". (I gather such a holiday is becoming known as a "babymoon". Never heard the word myself.) It was a lovely relaxing break - which was the whole point - and we had plenty of time to discuss a few things we still needed to think about and make plans. (Regular readers: remember that name I mentioned? Looks like it's still an option!)

As things are potentially imminent, we need to pack Mrs T's hospital bag. That's the next job. In the meantime, we did our first lot of baby washing today.

It's daft the things that can bring a tear to your eye...

Tiny socks. On our radiator.

Terminology lesson *updated*

This is a cot

This is a crib (Or cradle, but that's quite an old-fashioned term.)

This is a moses basket

Well, that's what we call them in England, anyway. Some recent comments suggest that things might be mixed up somewhat on the other side of the pond. (And Bassinet is not a real word.)

Updated: I'd forgotten about the word cradle.

Fully educated

We’ve completed our three sessions of “Parentcraft” classes (that’s ante-natal classes to you and me) run by the midwives at our local hospital, so we can confidently say that we now know exactly what to expect of this whole childbirth malarkey.

I hadn’t been sure we’d need to go to the classes, and was concerned beforehand that we’d feel out of place as we’d surely be among the oldest present. Our town has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the country so I really thought we’d be twice the age of many of the mums attending. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised: there were ten couples at the first session, and not only were most of them around our ages, seven were married. (The group did dwindle somewhat over the three weeks, and last night at the last final session we were five couples – including one expecting twins.)

So – what did we learn?

Well, nothing new really; just all the stuff we’ve already been reading about, with a few local specifics (like where to park when you come in for delivery!) and opportunities for questions and worries. Last night we moved on to post-natal care, breastfeeding and a little about nappies. To give us an idea of what to expect to find in a full nappy, the student midwife had kindly brought in three full ones demonstrating different kinds of poo at different stages of feeding. And passed them round. How lovely.

Thank God she’d made them up out of various foodsfuffs! (Marmite, pesto, and korma sauce if you’re interested. I’m sure the real things will smell somewhat… different.)

It was nice to get to know a few others in the same boat as us, and we arranged a "reunion" for when all the babies are a couple of months old. I do hope everything goes well for all of us.

Prepared?

There is a cot in the house.



This is beginning to feel weird.

Updated: picture of a cot added for clarification. It's one pretty much like this one.

Stuff

People keep asking if we’re ‘prepared’ for flicker to arrive. Hmmm, let me think... Emotionally? Hardly. Practically? That’s what they usually mean, and the answer’s still no. We have bought a travel system and car seat. That's it. We’ve bought nothing else.

Okay, so it’s fair to say that other people have given us a few lovely things (babygrows, soft toys, photo albums and other assorted bits of ‘stuff’), but we certainly don't feel ‘prepared’ in any practical sense. People even ask if we’ve decorated “The Nursery” yet. The what? Oh, you mean the guest room. Well, no. Why would we do that? When Flicker’s old enough to let us know what colour he/she wants it then we’ll think about it*. We have just been offered a cot, which we’ve gratefully accepted even though we’ve not entirely decided how much use it’s likely to get. (See earlier post for co-sleeping suggestion.) I guess we should get some nappies in at some point, too...

When I took the blog down after Christmas, I lost my list of blogs from the sidebar, so I’ve just re-instated it from various sources. Some of you are on there only because you’ve commented on my posts and I’m hoping to catch up with your blogs at some point. If you know you used to be on the list and I’ve missed you, do let me know. (Also if you’d rather not be listed.)

*Actually, that bit’s a lie: we are planning to decorate it in the summer. But when people do ask, that’s what I tell them.

The Power of Prayer

A couple of months ago, I bumped into Edith while walking through town…

Edith: We’re so pleased about you and [Mrs T]. We’ve been praying for this for years!

Me: Um, well, thanks, but wouldn’t it have been nice to ask whether we wanted children before praying for it?

Edith: Huh?

Me: Well, if you believe that prayer works, which I know you do, isn’t a bit presumptuous to pray for something for someone else without thinking to ask whether that person wants the thing you’re praying for. Did it never occur to you that we might not want children?

Edith: (Looking a little uncertain whether I’m toying with her or not.) But we always thought…

Me: Well, thanks for asking.

A slightly awkward pause, then I grinned at her, and she smiled (with relief, I think!) and we went our separate ways.

I was toying with Edith, but only to some extent.

And then this week I saw Edith at church, and she asked if everything was okay with Mrs T, then whispered to me “Are you happy?”

“Of course I am, Edith.”

“Oh, good. You really had me worried after we met in town.”

Oops: I hope I didn’t toy with her too much. I did have point though, didn’t I?

At last: a new post

Hi folks.

Sorry I've been away. Regular readers will know that I had to take the blog down for a bit and it's taken me a while to work through deciding which posts to re-publish and edit. (The blog is now limited strictly to stuff about the pregnancy and isn't allowed to digress into family stuff and other areas.)

So as it's been a while since my last "new" post, what's been happening? Mrs T has finished at work and is able to relax and enjoy being pregnant. She's finally started to let herself read about pregnancy and try to learn something of what she'd let herself in for. (Birth seems a pretty daunting prospect!) We've signed up to "Parentcraft" classes with our local midwives (what used to be called antenatal classes) and also for a private "Preparing for Birth" class run by an independent midwife in London. A 30-week scan showed everything as it should be.

We had Three in a bed recommended to us by very good friends whose son has shared their bed since day one. (He's now about 16 months and is beginning to use a cot-bed.) I was intrigued and have nearly finished reading it through; it's a well-researched and passionate argument for co-sleeping, and suggests that babies who share the family bed do better in just about every area. They sleep better, feed better, grow more confident, become less clingy and more. And the parents sleep better, too, allegedly. Sounds pretty miraculous, and our friends did admit they've found it had work but "wouldn't want to do it any other way". Reading through, I've become increasingly enthusiastic about the idea, although many clearly have big reservations. I'll maybe try to post a fuller review some time. Mrs T certainly isn't sure about the idea; she's going to read the book when I've finished it.

In the meantime she's been reading The Baby Whisperer solves all your problems, which seems a much more mainstream parenting guide - although I say this before I've read it myself. (Mrs T did notice that it doesn't reject t he idea of co-sleeping outright, which many books seem to do.)

And we've continued with the excellent The Rough Guide to Pregnancy and Birth, reading it week by week the pregnancy has developed. We've read on to the end now to get a clue as to what's ahead!