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Last week at work!
The most obvious thing this week is that it's been my last week at work. Very little actual work remained that still needed doing - though Caroline had me having a go at the written test and programming test they've devised for the interview candidates for my maternity cover, to get an idea as to whether they were aimed at around the right level and would take the right sort of time. It was surprisingly fun. She also found me another useful little bit of perl script to write for her too so I spent rather more time writing code than usual - nice easy stuff :) My maternity cover job has now finally been advertised too - closing date 18th February if anyone might be interested. The week finished on Friday with my lovely colleagues surprising me with a big tray of pink and blue cupcakes and a lovely card and box of chocs. Obviously not knowing which colour bun was the right one I had to have one of each :) I shall miss them over the next year definitely, it's going to be very strange not getting up for work tomorrow morning!
Yesterday, despite it being the weekend, we were up fairly bright and early to pack up some lunch before heading into town (into a mildly fierce headwind) for the first session of our NCT ante-natal classes. It was quite a long day really 10 til 4 without only half an hour (by agreement) for lunch - but we packed a lot in. It was lovely to meet 7 other couples all of whom are also expecting their first babies in March. It looks like we're all hoping to give birth at the midwife led birthing centre at the Rosie hospital too. Lots of information to take in, but Sian, the class leader, has promised to email us all lots of info. We've got a breastfeeding session to come on Wednesday, and then another long day next Saturday too. With it being a class right in the middle of town there's quite a spread of locations around Cambridge for people to have come from - but it's nice to know that there'll be at least one mum in Shelford that I'll know in advance :) Have promised to let her know the details of the bumps and babies class that apparently runs in the village once I manage to get hold of them myself.
After our class we had a bit of a wander over to the retail park not far from Mill Road to take a look at pushchairs/buggies. Steph and Dave did offer us their Silver Cross pram, but we've decided it's a little big to be practical for us, and Mike really quite fancies spoiling us with a new one anyway. We're a bit torn between going for a simple buggy, which works out the lightest and most compact option - not to mention the cheapest, or going for something which can do front and rear facing positions and has nice big wheels for off road use. The Quinny Buzz 3 is quite tempting. We also need to think about whether we need to get a car seat even though we don't have a car - possibly just so we can get baby home from the hospital in a taxi! Though one of the couples yesterday did very kindly offer us the long-term loan of one which their brother-in-law had given them, as it was spare. Sending me home in a taxi and letting Mike walk with a pushchair would be one solution, but a bit weird :) Does anyone know if there are local taxi firms who can provide car seats themselves? Though if so would we trust them?
Bump is now 35 weeks old, and reportedly around 46cm long and 2.4kg in weight - about the same as a honeydew melon. Of course by this point the weights are all going to be very much averages - as all babies come out a bit different. I still seem to have a pretty compact bump for this stage of pregnancy really, but am measuring the right size for my stage, and everything else was well at my last midwife appointment on Monday too. They're coming thick and fast now with only just over a week until my next one - and I'm waiting to hear back from the GP practice nurse as to when I can have my whooping cough jab too.
Not much more exciting has been happening this week. We saw very few birds in the garden for the birdwatch - probably because the weather had got so much nicer they didn't need our food supplies so desperately any more. The bedside tables have gone, leaving us with more space in the living room, and we enjoyed our haggis :) We bought a new shower curtain too - so exciting :) Mike and I have been mostly chilling out, watching DVDs and reading (him) and knitting (me). I finally finished my giant fuchsia pink mohair shawl which has been going since 2005! And I've just started crocheting a pram cover for baby Snape too. I expect I shall spend much of next week crocheting and reading and playing computer games - though I'm going to try and make it to the gym for a swim a couple of times too if I can. Got some union stuff on Wednesday too which I will still go to since for now I'm only on annual leave not maternity.
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I haven't made a long car journey since Nico was born, and I'd rather like to avoid doing so for a while longer. He hasn't much liked the journeys we've made so far, and I worry that he may share Charles's carsickness.
Anyway, I'm happy to lend you our seat to get you home from hospital, or you may find it easier to take up your NCT-friends' long-term loan (as we will need ours back eventually).
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Thanks for the offer though!
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It's also worth noting that, whilst you may not be happy with this idea, legally you don't need a carseat for babies/toddlers when you're travelling in a taxi (you can take them on your knee or maybe even in a sling). Quite handy to know though if you're ever caught out and need to get somewhere.
I would definitely recommend front and rear facing. It's really nice to have baby facing you early on - Josh is almost 9 months and I still have him facing me most of the time. Also I found in the summer it's handy to be able to have it facing either way to avoid the sun (parasols are great in theory but a faff in reality). Also, I found as they get older it's handy to be able to have them facing you rather than being able to look at everything as they sleep better then with fewer distractions!! Also, without a car, like me, you may walk a lot in which case nice big wheels are more comfy and easier to push.
As for which model, we had the Quinny Buzz 3 with Luke and I honestly wouldn't recommend it. A few issues:
1) It's really quite big and heavy to push. Almost all other prams I've tried have been lighter and turned more easily.
2) As Luke got heavier we found it really didn't push/turn that easily - getting the double front wheel i.e. the Buzz 4 adaptor helped a little.
3) It's very big even when folded down and won't fit in all cars. Also, we found something funny with the folding mechanism that when pushing it quite often seemed to click out of place and you have to pull up the handle to click it back in again. Another friend of mine with the same pram also found this. Not the biggest deal, but a bit irritating if it happens all the time.
4) Thinking ahead (!), if you are ever planning a 2nd, it won't convert into a double buggy. If we'd known at the time, we would have brought a single for Luke that had the option of upgrading to a double later and saved ourselves lots of money on having to buy a new double when we had Josh!
5) The shopping basket which fits underneath really isn't that big and has to be bought separately, so an added expense.
Now we have the Baby Jogger City Select and i LOVE it. It can be either a single or a double, can take the carseat, carrycot (handy for early on) and buggy seats and had a myriad of forward/rear facing combination options. It has an ENORMOUS shopping basket (great when you don't have a car as you can just chuck everything in and don't have to have bags handing off the handles) and it pushes/turns really easily - it feels quite light really, certainly compared o the Quinny. You don't see that many of them over here as it's a US make (you see a lot in the US and Canada) but John Lewis do sell them. It's similar to the iCandy Peach (Blossom?) but a) cheaper and b) seems to have bigger seats which is useful when you have large children like mine!
Just my 2p worth!!! :)
Clare
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* Not one of the suitable-from-birth ones, but in retrospect I really wish I had got one of those (Quest, Techno XT, etc).
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Our other pushchair was a Graco travel-system, which was handy for the car-seat aspect (we have a car, my husband drives, I don't (eyesight)), not relevant to lnr. But I did like the baby-facing-me aspect to it as well, and the decently sized basket, again both very useful to me as a non-car-user therefore doing quite a lot of walking/shopping with just the pushchair. I also quite liked having the 'mummy section' by the handle, with drink-holder and keys/small things compartment: not essential, but did come in handy at times :-) In lnr's position I wouldn't get this pushchair, but would look out for similar features in the ones she's considering.
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I also had a Graco travel system and second what you say about the useful bits of it for more or less the same reasons. Not being able to put Major Amounts of Stuff in the bottom of a pushchair renders it utterly useless, from my POV. :)
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