lnr | Entries tagged with crochet

Well, I'm now just over 39 weeks pregnant - which means about a week to go until my official Due Date. Apparently most babies are born within a week either side of that, but first babies are often late. All I can do is wait and see, but there's no sign of this one getting ready to emerge just yet.

I can't believe it's now four whole weeks that I've been on "maternity" leave (technically I'm using up normal annual leave at the moment, and my maternity doesn't start until my due date). The time seems to have flown by and I'm still really enjoying it - and not in the least bored yet. I've been enjoying some crochet, and done a bit of a jigsaw, and found time for more reading than I've done in ages - not to mention some baking (flapjack again this week - less overdone this time) and plenty of time just chilling out at the computer. I've even been to the garden centre and bought some plants for the newish border in the back garden, and it's looking much nicer.

It's been a lovely weekend being able to share some of this time with Mike though. Yesterday we had a brief potter to the shops in the village and wandered over to have a look at the river, and found a map showing some permissive footpaths/bridleways we weren't really aware of before - so today we went out for an explore. A bit of a grey day but lovely and warm and it was a nice little walk of about 5 miles. Feeling good - if a bit tired. Here's a map:

Map

As for the intermittent BT broadband problem - well since the second engineer we've had a few dropouts still, but it's mostly been better than it was before that. It does still seem to go when we're on the phone though - that probably needs more testing - and I won't be convinced it's definitely completely OK for a while yet.

I think next week I don't actually have *anything* in my diary in terms of meetings or appointments - so will have to try and make the effort to be a bit more sociable and go see a couple of people perhaps while I still have the chance!

So what did I do with the rest of my first week of maternity leave?

Tuesday: went swimming, celebrated Same Sex Marriage Bill passing second reading, did some more crochet of baby blanket.
Wednesday: helped man UCU stall at university induction event in the morning, UCU general meeting at lunchtime, SW class early evening, followed by NCT breastfeeding class. Long day!
Thursday: a bit of gardening, and melted chocolate and cream together in preparation for making chocolate truffles, started trying to choose pushchair (big thanks to everyone who offered advice). Ordered useful boxes from ebay.
Friday: Exciting Ocado delivery - quite a bit of shopping covered in fabric conditioner. Wandered into village to replace some of it from Co-op (some of it was rescued by washing). Finished making the chocolate truffles. Tried a couple of course :) Boxes arrived so sorted through two chests of drawers and managed to considerably declutter as a result. Found a taker for the chests of drawers too!
Saturday: Another 10am to 4pm NCT ante-natal class. Then mum and dad came to visit. Made apple crumble. Sorted big pile of baby clothes and other goodies from Steph and Dave. Early night.
Sunday: cooked breakfast, then into Peterborough with mum and dad to look at pushchairs. Home via Pizza Express in Huntingdon. Waved mum and dad off then actually ordered pushchair online. Still too full from lunch to have much more than cheese and crackers for tea - though I did also eat the last slice of Christmas cake. Finished baby blanket!
Monday: lazy morning reading in the bath and then chilling out, then midwife appointment in the early afternoon (see below for more details). Gym in the evening for Pilates with Clare.

As for the midwife appointment: Urine tests still fine, baby measurement still good, blood pressure good - all excellent. Less good> baby appears to have moved into a fairly breech position. Midwife called Addenbrookes and they should ring me back tomorrow to make an ultrasound appointment to check for sure - and if so then probably arrange to try and turn the baby some time next week. There's about a 50/50 chance that will work apparently. If not they'll probably want to book me for a C-section at 39 weeks because they don't like to attempt a breech birth especially in first time mums. Obviously it isn't really ideal when I've been hoping for a nice natural birth at the midwife-led unit - but hey, if it's unavoidable then there's no point fretting about it. In the meantime I should stay active, choose upright sitting positions where possible, and try doing some kneeling down with my chest lower than my hips - they suggested doing a jigsaw on the floor, which sounds like a plan :) I probably won't try moxibustion though the student in with the midwife suggested it as a possibility.

At least in the meantime I have a haircut to look forward to tomorrow, and coffee with Gail - and then on Wednesday the pushchair should arrive and Joanna's going to come round for a cuppa too. And Friday we've booked ourselves a night away at a nice hotel to celebrate a slightly belated Valentines - in Cambridge :)

Pushchair: