This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef...

Well, I guess it was kind of obvious by my size... but this little Piggy is going to be a biggie!

I had my appointment with the midwife yesterday (I won't go into what I think of her here... but lets just say she I am glad she will not be attending the birth!). Anyway... everything looks just great - and she measured my bump (the fundal height - from my pubic bone to the top of my uterus?) for the first time. I am measuring 2.5 weeks ahead of what I should be, which isn't *that* unusual (the uppermost edge of normal). But she gave the bump a squeeze to ascertain baby's position and size etc... and started pulling startled faces. "WOW! That is one chunky baby!"... apparently the enormous bump is not all amniotic fluid, or 'me' (as I supposed), but is 100% fat little Piggy!

Hurrah! That means I might not be the size of an elephant by Xmas this year after all... am looking forward to dumping at least half of my 2 stone-ish (12.7 kg) weight gain on the day it is born. :-)

I know that there are really really obvious drawbacks to having a large baby - but I am trying to be positive and not dwell on those (much!). I think having separate front and back bottoms is over-rated anyway... heh.

I knew what I was getting into... Mark was 10lb 4 when born, and I was 9lb 12 - so it was never going to be 'petite'... am considering taking up smoking or cocaine for the rest of the pregnancy, to try and stop things getting out of hand! ;-) I dont want Norris McWhirter turning up on my doorstep with his clipboard! (ok - so I know he is dead, which makes it unlikely... but its not so funny without Norris involved!!!).

A Very English Affair...

Our weekend, that is! ;-)

Had a delightful, and all too quick weekend. The big extension started in earnest at the weekend - we got the footings poured (yay!) - which is more of a relief for me than you can imagine, since this is the only part of the entire project that I have project managed as such... did you know exactly how many different types of concrete you can get - and how badly it can all go wrong if you mess that up? No... neither did I ;-)

The rest of the weekend though felt like a complete holiday in 1950s England... Saturday evening Mark and I drove up to Lowestoft, and had a delicious BBQ in Tracy's gorgeous back garden. She has done a really beautiful job of it, and created a real Victorian cottage garden look. I did mess it up a little by buying Henry a "Slam Dunk" basketball set for his 6th birthday this week - but it kept them healthily amused for the entire evening! It didn't occur to me that she will be able to get revenge on me this year onwards by buying me all manner of plastic atrocities for my home and garden in the name of little Piglet... heh. We stayed the night at Tracy's, and on Sunday we went to a garden centre in the morning (quelle surprise), and in the afternoon we had an absolutely fabulous time visiting Somerleyton Hall, on the outskirts of Lowestoft. I forgot how beautiful this place was (we used to visit as children), and how much fun the maze was in the gardens. Henry was in his element - although Oscar had a sort of terrible-twos 'meltdown/tantrum/screaming fit' in the maze, which may just have put me off parenthood a little... gulp! In the evening we had delicious fish and chips, again at Tracy's place, and chatted the evening away before retiring to bed (early!).

Bank Holiday Monday, Tracy had to work (in her goldmine of a shop), so Mark and I made our way over to yet another Garden Centre (Woottens?) in Wenhaston, before joining my parents and the boys in The Pit Stop in Southwold. This is an ace little cafe on the golf course in Southwold, which caters for children in so much as it has an enclosed garden chock-a-block with garish plastic toys and tricycles etc... (the boys love it), and for adults in that it serves delicious cakes, breakfasts and coffees. After downing coffee and cake, we took a wander into Southwold, and had yet more drinks etc... on the pier, before meeting Tracy for a delicious picnic (supplied by her shop!). After lunch, we meandered around the fair on the green (picking up yet MORE plants for the garden), and Mark and I headed off, having enjoyed our weekend immensely.

Sunday evening, Mark had Noel over, and I went to pay Robert and Emma a long overdue visit... and of course, as usual was spoilt with Robert's delicious cooking. This time roast chicken with the most delicious ratatouille I have tasted in a long time, accompanied by some 'sea breeze' asparagus I bought at the fairground in Southwold... bliss. Umm... I forgot to mention that we followed this up by slightly less classy fare - strawberry trifle from Tesco, sprinkled with Gü chocolate brownies, and organic double cream. Pregnancy does have *some* upsides ;-)

Lots of love
Hayls
xxx

I’ve Had The Time Of My Life…

And so the manic weekend went on! So, a month or so before Christmas, Tracy and I thought it would be lovely to treat Mum and Dad to a much talked about trip to the theatre to see Dirty Dancing… I know… why would my Dad want to see that? Anyway… May was around the first date that came up with vaguely sensible prices for tickets (still extortionate!) – and it happened to be the same weekend that I had tickets for Morrissey… nevermind I thought! It will just be an exciting weekend! Urggghhhh… my pregnancy body says no!!!! ;-)

To reduce the amount of fannying about on trains etc… Tracy drove the four of us from Lowestoft to Cambridge on Saturday – and left the car at the Station, ready for our late return home. We got the train into London, and hit Borough Market (our first destination) at lunchtime – just in time for all the delicious stalls to start serving finger food! YUMMMMMMMM… I have to say that I LOVE Borough Market with a passion – a fantastic jumble of expensive but totally classy cakes, fruit, fresh fish and meat, sweets and chocolates (fudge!), pickles, jams, and just about about any luxury food item you can think of! My Dad (how does he stay so skinny!) managed to polish off at least four type of cake within thirty minutes of arriving there, shortly followed by fish and chips for lunch! :-D

In the afternoon, we had a deeply pleasant time wandering around Convent Garden (interspersed with lots of drink breaks and toilet breaks for me!), and had a leisurely tea in Wagamama… foodie heaven! By this time my feet were starting to look like a pair of footballs (I do not exaggerate!), and we resisted attempts by my Father to drag us down to China Town and all of my Sister’s attempts to drag us into as many clothes shops as possible. In my ‘former’ pre-pregnancy life I would have been right there with her – but these days there is nothing more depressing for me than looking at racks of clothes I *might* have been able to wear if I wasn’t the size of a barrage balloon!

The show itself was a welcome chance for me to sit down, although as with the Morrissey concert – the need to sit down is outweighed by the frequent need for the toilet! heh… It was incredibly well done actually – almost like watching the film itself! Again, my enthusiasm was tempered by my current condition – but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and my Mum particularly seemed to enjoy it – which was lovely to see!

A long and arduous journey home was made slightly better by the forethought of leaving Tracy’s car at Cambridge Station (thus avoiding the rabble in the taxi queue) – and on arrival home we were met by another welcome sight – the start of our new ‘family’ sized home… Poor Mark had been killing himself digging the footings for the two-storey house extension we are having! Man the trenches… and hold on to your horses!

NB. The picture above was the original Christmas Card we sent to my parents, informing them that they were seeing the show! It still makes me chuckle every time I see it… sometimes I just think I am too funny for this world ;-)

In The Seaside Town, That They Forgot To Close Down…

On Friday, I attended a Morrissey concert in Great Yarmouth of all places with Ricki (very old and dear school friend) and Janine and Simon for a bit of a trip down memory lane. What a fantastic evening – albeit incredibly surreal!!

Having come to terms very recently with the fact that I can no longer hare around like I used to (this concert was booked pre-pregnancy, and my original attention was to belt it down to Great Yarmouth after work), I took the day off work on Friday, so that I could approach the whole weekend at a more leisurely pace. Friday morning I got up reasonably early and drove over to Southwold to meet Tracy and Mum for a lovely mooch around the shops in Southwold, and a delicious lunch in one of the cafes there. I also got to see Marie working in Tracy’s shop – so that really made my day. After lunch we went to the school to pick up Oscar (my first time at St. Felixes), and even got a kiss from an adorable looking Henry – who looked so grown up in his little shorts and long socks – the likes of which would never have been seem in my grubby old school in Lowestoft! Private education not only buys you an excellent standard of teaching, but adorable looking children straight out of a Harry Potter movie! ;-)

Early evening I went to pick up Ricki, and we filled our boots at a carvery in Gorleston (all you can eat carvery for £5!) – not exactly conducive to a night on the tiles, but bloody delicious all the same! We managed to get parked right next to the Britannia Pier (the venue of Morrissey’s choice, bizarrely!), which I haven’t been to since I was a kid – and was dragged to see the likes of Cannon and Ball or Freddie Star by my parents! We had a couple of drinks in the bar on the pier (again, surrealism reigned – and we saw a few familiar faces from the dim and distant past), and then made our way to the theatre. Thankfully, one of the crowd going had queued for an inordinate amount of time and saved us seats five rows from the front – I must confess to feeling slightly guilty when we made our way straight to the front!

Morrissey was fantastic! Whereas in the past (some ten years or so back when I saw him last), he would begrudgingly play one or maybe two Smiths songs with a pained expression on his face, he must have devoted around a third of his set to his old stuff – enough to keep me very happy indeed! I was shocked by how much older he looked, I have to say… although the guy could still move, despite apparently being ill for a week beforehand (several of the gigs in the week leading up to this one had been cancelled!). I was also surprised to see how some of his backing band had aged – although life on the road can’t be kind to the body!

I must be getting old or something though… when he ripped off his shirt (as he normally does on such occasions) I actually blushed for him – it was vaguely like watching ‘yer Dad’ getting undressed. Certainly not the gusset ripping reaction he would have got from me in the past… although to be honest, even Johnny Depp standing on my doorstep in the nude would have trouble firing up such feelings in my achy limbs at the moment! During the build up for an encore (in the past I would have been galloping towards the stage, screaming for more), I was cooing at pictures of Janine’s new baby Martha… see? There isn’t any hope for me, is there???!!!!

This Little Piggy...

Again, as for every other post this year, I am starting with an apology. Life has been a veritable whirlwind these last few weeks – and I hardly know where to start! It’s not like anything in particular has happened – just lots of things that have prevented me having access to a PC!

I can’t for the life of me remember where I left off… so can’t fill in all the gaps, but hey – I will have a bit of a go!

Denmark to Visit Sofie

Mid-April I went to visit Sofie and Jean in Copenhagen. We had a lovely, quiet weekend (just what I needed) – a far cry from my usual hedonistic weekends in Sofie’s company! On the Friday when I arrived, Sofie had cooked her delicious meatballs in curry (honestly – I could live on them!), and as Jean had gone out for the evening playing with his band, Sofie and I spent several hours catching up with other and putting the world to rights over a few cups of hot water on my part, and red wine on hers :-) On the Saturday we went to the out of town shopping centre in Copenhagen called Fields, met Sanne and her gorgeous little boy Sebastian for lunch, and did a spot of shopping for maternity clothes (since I am the size of a house end these days!). I had come down with a pretty miserable virus, so I lacked energy for shopping and we headed home laden mostly with Danish pastries and cough remedies. In the evening we went to a party, which in normal circumstances I would have loved… but on that particular night I couldn’t breathe through my nose, and for some reason Danish banter is not so funny when you are sober and having a little viral pity party of your own… anyway – the people and food were great, but I was sufficiently pouty to prompt Sofie to take me home nice and early so that we could watch American Pop Idol whilst propped up in her electric bed!

On the Sunday we had a fab day at Copenhagen Zoo – just wandering around and eating ice-creams. The Zoo was pretty well kept, although as with any Zoo, some of the animals looked pretty bored and some were displaying that sort of rocking behaviour – reminiscent of me on a Friday afternoon at work ;-) It was nice though – loved the polar bears (one of which was having a whale of a time with a severed sheep skull), and the otters – who were just gorgeous.

Scanorrific!

On the Monday after I got back from Copenhagen (feeling really quite ill and covered in a viral rash), I had my 20 week scan. This was amazing, and should have been worthy of a celebration (if it wasn’t for events later in the day!). Piglet looked just great – wriggling around, and even scratching his/her bottom from time to time! He/she is UNMISTAKABLY a Benstead – a little turned up Piggy nose, and a hint of a bum chin already! ;-) On acknowledging that we didn’t want to know the sex, the sonographer dutifully warned us when she was going to the ‘money shot’ area – but I couldn’t somehow tear my eyes away from the screen. The outcome is that I am more unsure than ever of Piglet’s gender! Having been so convinced that this is a boy from the start, I am now not so sure… I could swear that I saw the three white lines between the legs which apparently indicate a girl, although at the same time I thought I saw a pair of testes! Perhaps we are having a hermaphrodite? The sonongrapher towards the end of the scan was clearly heard to utter (by both of us") - “oh look, SHE has HER hands up to HER face!”… is that just a generic term she uses for all babies? Who knows… anyway, she checked all the major organs and it all looks just great. Mark made me laugh so much after the scan – we are participating in a research program which means that we get extra scans and have to give blood samples etc… and as part of it Mark had to give a saliva sample! Honestly! hahaha… he had to go into a private room to produce it! heh… when he came out I laughed and said - “Is that the most traumatic thing you have had to do so far in this pregnancy?” – to which he replied (to the mirth of the male nurse taking my blood at the time), “NO, I was there at the conception!!!!!”… heh

The rest of the day didn’t go so well – and seems to have set a bit of a precedent for the past two or three weeks. Because I was feeling so crappy with the virus, I didn’t return to work in the afternoon after the scan and decided to loaf on the sofa. However – when I tried to get up to answer a call of nature, I found that I couldn’t walk because of a terrible pain in my pelvis or lower back and bum cheek. It turns out that I somehow sprained my sacroiliac ligament in my pelvis, and ended up on crutches for a few days (and off work for almost a week)… :-(

From Bad to Worse…

The few days of reprieve after my sacroiliac sprain are a bit of a blur (can’t remember that much exciting happening that week), but on bank holiday Monday things turned a little worse for me health wise! For the previous couple of weeks or so we had been looking forward to watching Histon play Torquay at home in the playoffs for promotion to League Two of the football league. The first leg of the match had been played in Torquay a few days previous (we had lost that one), so we knew that we had it all to do in order to reach the final at Wembley. Anyway… I was due to work on the turnstiles and sell programmes, and I felt fine for that – although I had had a nagging rib pain for a couple of days beforehand, and I had just put it down to pregnancy aches and pains… I had only spent about five minutes in the turnstile, when feeling the urge to sneeze (just as a guy came to the gate), I twisted and tried to suppress the sneeze a little so as not to give the guy an unwelcome shower… OUCH! Blinding, excruciating pain and a sort of ‘twang’ or clicking noise. I managed to carry on for a little bit, but could hardly focus, let alone be pleasant to queuing fans…

Jo (a colleague there) offered to cover for me, and I managed to make my way to the media suite at the football ground… thinking all along that a well positioned stretch would sort it out, and I could resume my position on the turnstile, and better still, make my way to my seat to watch the match. This was not to be… the football club doctor (my saviour) was called, whose calmness and gentle but terribly sensible manner and straightforward manner, made me see that the excruciating pain I was feeling (and by now, ripping muscle spasms) were not going to be helped by attending a football match – and more worryingly, the pains were very likely to be muscle or ligament related, but could also be consistent with other more serious conditions which needed to be ruled out. A rather hysterical paramedic turned up, who (if I had had the strength) would have been punched for his insistent and seemingly ridiculous questions regarding the number I would attribute to the level of pain I was feeling (I was literally screaming in pain while he persistently asked this!) – although I know on reflection that he was trying to speed my progress to the correct department at the hospital. And so, an ambulance was called. To my pleasant surprise, Mark dropped everything and came with me to the hospital without even a hint of a pout – is it shameful to admit that I thought football would come first? hehehe…

The entire evening was spent at the hospital – mostly waiting… and everything was checked over thoroughly. I had an x-ray to check I hadn’t broken anything or punctured my lung, an ECG on my heart, and several blood tests to check for blood clotting and other more sinister conditions… pleurisy and the like. They offered me morphine for the pain (I refused on Piglet’s behalf), and gas and air – which is ironic since I am hopefully opting for a drug free birth! In the end I relented, and ended up taking a strong dose of codeine and some paracetamol – the only real options available for preggos! In the end they concluded that I had torn a muscle or ligament in my rib cage, and the only solution was to try and rest and treat the pain as best I could.

The next four days were spent in bed propped up on pillows and sucking on pain killers… poor Mark had to haul me out of bed every time I needed the toilet, and lower me onto it… feed me, wash me… and generally entertain me. It was a pretty miserable week – but at least I managed to finish knitting Piglet a jumper during this time!

Oscar’s Christening

On the following Sunday, I was up and about and even managed to drive myself over to Lowestoft for Oscar’s christening party (despite much soreness, and having to dose myself up with drugs). The christening went off smoothly – aside from Mark not turning up (he was one of the God Parents!) – but this was pre-known. Mark was heavily involved in the planning of a testimonial match for two well regarded and long serving players for Histon FC – and made it clear in advance that that was the one weekend in May he couldn’t do. As is the way, it turns out that this was the weekend Tracy booked the christening for – which seemed to go down like a lead balloon with some members of the clan. Nevermind… Tracy didn’t seem to mind, and Oscar was more affronted that the vicar called him “Oscar George” rather than “Oscar” during the service – he certainly didn’t seem to dwell on Mark’s absence! Aside from anything, Mark had already missed one match on my behalf, so two was going to be pushing my luck! I have promised not to go into labour at 3pm on any Saturday in September! ;-) Tracy did a lovely spread for the Christening – all sourced from The Black Olive, and a small ‘immediate family’ crowd attended… all very civilised, although totally exhausting for me!

I will start the rest of the catch-up on another post! Blimey….