Eviction Notice..

Dear Piglet,

I am issuing a 60-day notice for EVICTION. Tenant will have 60 days in which he can either gather his/her belongings and promptly vacate the premises, or wait until the final day. After which, he/she will be physically removed from the property. He/she's being evicted due to breech of contract and destruction of property. Expansions only to the FRONT of the house, within reasonable limits, were discussed. Not only have these limits been exceeded, but additions to the back of the house were also made. Remodeling and gutting of the home was never approved, nor was changing the initial layout and base structure. And due to property damage, there are now leaks in both the upper and lower levels of the home. On top of which, the landlord has received numerous complaints about nightly disturbances. After 60 days from this day that he/she doesn't comply to the notice will result in immediate and forceful removal at my discretion.

You might have noticed...

I don't blog an awful lot. Its not that I am lazy (although I am), its just that I don't actually trust myself to write anything but a big whinge-fest re: my various minor but irritating pregnancy related medical symptoms... heh.

Anyway - I thought I would save it all up and get it out all in one go ;-)...

Things they didn't tell me (or I didn't listen to):
1. You will get heartburn! I have NEVER had heartburn and am experiencing this charming little state of affairs for the first time. I get it mostly when I am hungry, or when I have just eaten... read that as ALL THE BLOODY TIME! If the old wives tale is correct - this baby has more hair than Justin Hawkins riding a Yak, wearing an Afghan coat and an afro wig!
2. You will feel as though you have a concrete ball in your pelvis (dropped from a great height, and suddenly). This one is kind of obvious, but for some reason I thought that you would just expand gradually and barely notice that you have 2 stone of blub cradled between your pelvic bones... let me tell you THIS DOES NOT FEEL NATURAL! :-)
3. You will end up with feet like Fred Flintstone. I know that I had a head start on this one (since I am already Frodo's foot double), but this is just plain silly.
4. If you are already well endowed in the 'chest' area, I thought you would be immune to expansion. I thought that my girls had done their bit for mankind at High School age, and would leave it at that. Oh no no no... I have gone from slightly silly sized to WOOOAAAAHHHHHH MAMMA sized - and lets just wait to see what they do when this milk comes in! I have already decided to try and sell the surplus supply, and pay for us all to go on holiday to Disney when Piglet is five. Either that, or pay for myself to have a breast reduction as soon as I am done having babies...
5. You will never ever sleep again... between getting out of bed to pee several times a night (looking somewhat like Guy the Gorilla when you finally manage to climb over the mountain of pillows and make your escape from the clutches of the sweat drenched sheets), getting kicked from the inside in unspeakable and previously unimaginable places, and being startled awake by sudden random dreadful thoughts, such as "will I ever be able to go to the cinema again???", "how will I know how many times to change the baby's bottom?!?!", "what if the baby is really ugly, and I don't realise?!?!?"... I might be able to snatch a few minutes of nightmare fuelled slumber, whilst perched on my left-hand side as I desperately try to improve blood flow to my poor fat little hands and feet.
6. You will forget from time to time that you are pregnant... and do ridiculous things (like run to cross the road), which bring you concerned/psychotic looks from other people. In fact - being pregnant means that you are not supposed to swear, flirt (ever so slightly, of course), drink anything vaguely resembling an alcoholic drink (not that I have - but have been told off for drinking alcohol free shandy, of all things!), tell dirty jokes... or even look like you might have anything other than baby-related thoughts. Appearing as though you are the Virgin Mary is required at all times... without the shawl and sandals though. Actually... a wedding ring might have helped me achieve this a little better - but hey, who's looking.
7. You get used to being regarded as public property - people have the right to fondle your fat belly and ask you all manner of personal questions... and then flame you for them.
8. You will get unspeakable rashes and pimples in unspeakable places (I hear that many of these are contracted via the illegal export of Australian textiles... heh). The less said, the better.
9. You will no longer remember your name... or what you were doing five seconds ago.
10. You will no longer remember your name... or what you were doing five seconds ago.

Anyway. Other than that, everything is just great, and I am adoring pregnancy. Ahem. To be honest though, I can't really complain too much... things are going great. We had a scan last week, and Piglet is doing really well (still big!) - soooo cute, he/she yawned and rubbed his/her eyes as if he/she was bored stiff by all the prodding and cooing. Piglet is breech at the moment, and his/her rather large head seems to be wedged under my right-hand rib (charming), so am trying to stand on my head for at least three seconds a day to rectify that ;-) Seriously though... I have read that you can try various tricks to try and get bubba to turn - my faves were playing classical music through headphones pressed on your pelvis (heh), and trying to get the baby to follow a slow moving torch beam - like a moth to a flame. My own other solution was to play some Danish music up around my rib area, and it is sure to flip of its own accord. I got my test results back for gestational diabetes, and everything is good with that - so like I said, things are not so bad.

The house extension seems to be coming along at a rate of knots... I wont go into some of the more tedious details of the actual progress, but needless to say it all goes alot more smoothly when Mark is on site to keep an eye on things (*things* namely being his father and his 'brickie' friend). There has been all manner of debris on the lawn (gasp), and an unprecedented amount of wiping of the kitchen floor. Nightmare.

That's all for now... here is a lovely picture of me taken last week by Sophie in her garden. I am mostly laughing at her children, who thought that the whole concept of taking my picture in my present state was ridiculous as I am "so fat"! Kids... you gotta love 'em! Chloe (her 8 year old) did make me smile when she asked how I would know it was Mark's baby, as he and I are not married... I think he is asking the same question ;-)


Lots of love,
Hayls
xxxxx

ExpectNet!

Guess the gender, weight, length and birth date of our baby! :-)

A Beautiful "Wordle"....

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….

All is Looking Good...

Went for my first midwife's appointment for a long time this week, and all was looking good with me and Piglet! The blood results are back - GREAT results for my triple test (just 1 in 4890 chance of having Downs, and the average for my age is around 1 in 250! So thats great!), great Iron levels, great sugar levels in my blood and my weight is looking ok for the stage I am at... so I am a happy bunny; "Text book" stuff according to my midwife (perhaps she is less of a moron than I originally thought... heh). Despite the fact I listen to Piglet regularly on my own doppler, it was nice somehow to have the midwife listen - and she actually could be bothered to work out the heart rate for me - a nice steady 144bpm... fits in with my theory of Piglet being a boy!

All else is going good. Have got Tracy coming over tomorrow - we are having a sisterly bonding session (I have the afternoon off work) - so are planning on a spot of shopping and going for a nice meal. She is staying over as Sam is having the boys, so that will be nice. We have a few concerns about Henry at the moment (stuff raised by a teacher at his school) - so fingers crossed for a happy ending to that little worry.

Other than that = looking forward to the weekend! I am knitting a gorgeous little sweater for Piglet (hahaha - don't laugh McKee), and we have football on Saturday, so all in all it should be a good one! I am still keeping well... just trying to motivate myself into doing a little bit more exercise - to prevent me from turning into a beachball too soon!

Lots of love to you all
Hayls
xxx

RoutanBabymaker3000

Our baby! ;-)…. the scary thing is that it looks a little like my Nephew, Oscar!

RoutanBabymaker3000

Handy tip: If you want to make your own, don’t just click “New Baby” – start it from scratch by clicking here, otherwise the link will always link back to my baby if you send it on! :-)

Happy Birthday Dear Piggy....

First off - a very slightly belated Happy Birthday to my dearest Piggy Wiggy (it was in fact yesterday) - 42, and you don't look a day over.... 41 ;-)

We had a great weekend - if not slightly exhausting. I went into London on Friday, for my bi-weekly (less if I can manage it!) catch up with the gang there... it was nice actually. I got a few funny looks from people who I guess couldn't work out whether I have been eating too many pies (which in fact I have!) or whether I am pregnant. I confirmed to a few that I was and got some really nice comments and congratulations. I took John out to lunch at Borough Market (it was his birthday too on Sunday - the big 40 for him!!) - we had delicious bratwurst and all the trimmings, and some lummy cakes... yay! On Friday evening I met up with a girl called Louise I met on a pregnancy forum (sad I know!), who just happens to live in my area. She is just a week or so ahead of me and we will be using the same hospital etc... so it is nice to compare bumps and talk of things that nobody else in the world could conceivably be interested in! ;-)

Saturday I went and finished my shopping for Mark's birthday (I bought him some much needed clothes from TK Maxx, and some wooden paddles for his Canadian Canoe), and in the afternoon practically collapsed on the sofa for several hours and watched crap TV... very out of character! I just seem to have been lacking energy all weekend really - perhaps the baby is having a growth spurt or something! In the evening we went to a joint 40th birthday party for twin colleagues of his! His work crowd are a really really nice and friendly bunch - they all love Mark to bits, and were delighted that he is going to be a Dad. Yet again though I found complete strangers coming up and stroking my belly - I get the feeling that as the belly grows this situation will only get worse! I now realise how irritating it is, and feel bad for all the times I have squeezed other people's baby bumps. I am desperately trying to convince myself that I always asked first... ;-) I might invest in one of those t-shirts that says "If you touch my bump, I punch your face" (or similar!) ;-)

Sunday, being Mark's birthday, we had lots of visits from his family in the morning. Caroline and Phil and the girls came over, and we sat in the lovely spring sunshine in the garden and had tea and sweeties. His Brother and Alison popped over with a card at lunchtime, and his Dad came for lunch and for the afternoon. I cooked hot dogs for lunch (with a side serving of buttered spinach - my big-time craving!), and we had carrot cake for dessert (Mark's fave). In the afternoon we went to the garden centre at Fordham, and then on to Wicken Fen for a lovely walk. We got home - all had a sleep in the lounge (hahaha - what a sight), until Mark's Dad' snoring woke us all up... and in the evening Mark and I went to The Plough at Coton for supper. It was a lovely day!

Slightly concerned about Mark's Dad at the moment. He has on and off for some 20+ years now complained of feeling 'low' at times, and seems convinced that there is something wrong with his "blood". His symptoms seem in all honesty to be slightly vague, and more recently more indicative of depression than anything else. However... recent blood tests have shown that he has low red blood cell count periodically, and the hospital has decided to pursue some tests - including a tube down the throat and then up his bottom tomorrow (I have forgotten the name of the procedure!) to check that he isn't losing blood anywhere in his digestive tract, or to see if there are any other obvious problems. He seems to have gotten himself in a right old state about it - and to be honest, part of me wonders whether he will actually go through with the tests tomorrow as he seems so frightened of them. I actually feel little concern about the outcome of the test (anything serious would have seen him off after 20 years or so), but obviously we hate to see him so down about it. I wish that there was something we could do to bring back some of the 'Joie De Vivre' in his life. He has no interest in his garden anymore, and the family rarely see him. It seems that there is no middle ground with him. Anyway... fingers crossed for a successful outcome tomorrow and an end to his worries... let's hope that this September baby will remind him what life is all about!

Have a great week all of you... lots of love
Hayls
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Time to Confess...

So, its time to come 'out of the closet' so to speak. My burgeoning stomach has made it impossible to hide the fact any longer: I am well and truly up the duff, it seems :-)

Mark and I are absolutely delighted. I am currently 14 weeks and 2 days pregnant (like, who is counting... ahem), so am well and truly in my second trimester apparently! We had the scan a couple of weeks ago, and "Piglet" as he/she is more commonly known is measuring a couple of days ahead of what he/she should be, and looks like a very healthy little specimen... Piglet was asleep throughout the scan (must remember to eat breakfast before-hand next time!), and seemed to be laying face downwards "gutter stylee" (as my friend put it)...

Anyway... I just wanted to warn you that this blog could become very boring in the next few months - as I wax lyrical about a myriad of minor yet painfully embarrassing medical complaints (have I mentioned my constipation and excess hair yet?), and then go on to simper over my undoubtedly beautiful and truly angelic child... those of you with a delicate constitution should delete your bookmark to this site now ;-)

In case any of you are wondering (I know I would be - but I don't care even if you are not) - NO, I haven't had any morning sickness at all (yay!), YES I have put on a vast amount of weight already (including one particular area(s) of my body that believe me does not need any help), NO I don't know what sex it is yet (I fancy it is a boy for no particular reason other than intuition, but would be delighted whatever it is), NO we are now rushing off to get married, and NO we haven't picked any sensible names yet. Mark's suggestions so far constitute "Eric Von Hipple", "Jimmy Hill", and "Bungle Gaylord"! I have decided to go back to work after six months or so off, and have even sussed out a nursery I like in my local area. I apologise now if that offends your sensibilities as a parent, but we all do things differently... and as it goes, that's the last apology I make for our decisions ;-) I like to get things straight up front (hormones? me?).

Tomorrow I have my 'triple test' blood test. Wish me luck... I am hoping and praying that all is fine with this long awaited little one. The sonographer at the hospital mentioned that the 'nuchal fold' was small on the scan (this nuchal fold can be indicative of Downs if enlarged), so let's just hope that that is a good indication.

Anyway... am off to pottery!
Speak soon
Hayls
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And The Rubbishy Blogging Persists...

I know, I know... I have been beyond crap at blogging this year. I promise it will improve as the year progresses! I seem to have some form of writer's block at the moment, but I can feel in my water that things will improve on this front soon (heh... like *anyone* is seriously bothered!).

Anyway... so what has been going on? Errrrr.... nothing very exciting really! Mark and I haven't done an awful lot of late. It was my Dad's 60th a couple of weeks back, and we had a lovely evening out for it in a proper 'bistro' a la 1976... a lovely little taverna style restaurant in Kessingland of all places (the tiny village next to Lowestoft, where all of my paternal grandfather's family originate from - a kind of one horse, multiple webbed finger kinda town). I had deleious pork belly for starter (in honour of my own!), and a lamb shank for main... so a real meat fest for me! The others had delicious fish dishes - which we all supped over the chinati bottles with candles stuck in them. It was great! On the Sunday we went for a lovely walk around Walberswick and Southwold - really blew the cobwebs away (and the cream tea really helped!).

I seem to have fallen off the wagon in terms of the gym, so this last weekend (on Valentine's) Lynn dragged me out for a bracing walk around Thetford Forest - absolutely gorgeous! We had a delicious lunch in the 'lifestyle shops' in Elvedon (I treated myself to several kilos of fudge from the deli there), and stopped for hot chocolate and cake in High Lodge in the forest... a lovely day. In the evening Mark treated me to a delicious chinese, and bought me some flowers and choccies... who said that romance is dead (even if he did admit that they were the last bunch they had left in Tescos that evening... heh). On Sunday I met my friend Louise for yet more eating and shopping - we had a fabulous day wandering around Cambridge looking for clothes, and chatting in various eateries and drinkeries (?)... seemed such a shame to go back to work on Monday!

Anyway... had better focus on some work! Can I first though wish Marta, the trickiest Spaniard I know, a happy happy belated birthday for Sunday - I hope your husband and beautiful little daughter spoilt you rotten...

 

I am also really really happy to congratulate Jamie and Adele on the birth of little Angus - a tiny brother for Ella. He is absolutely gorgeous - and no wonder you had such a tiny, cute little bump! He is a tiddler (just 5lb 130z)... well done!

Speak soon - hopefully I will pull my finger out and have something interesting to say quite soon...
Lots of Love
Hayls
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Ensemble!

This made me smile...

And Another for Lola...

Janine's little girl Lola turned three last weekend... she is practicing for the arrival of "Gong Gong" next month (a self-penned name for Janine's bump) with her new cousin Joel.

Happy third birthday Lola!
Lots of love, Aunty Poo Poo
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PS. Happy Birthday to Mark's nephew Sam too...

Belated Happy First Birthday to Benjamin!

How cute is this little chap?! Here is Ben looking very grown up on his First birthday last week (15th January)...

Happy Birthday Benny-boooo.....

How Rubbish Have I Been?!

Goodness me - my blogging year has not got off to a good start! I really want to keep this up as it is such a good record of my life... nothing gives me greater pleasure than looking back at the minutiae of my life two or three years hence!

So... what has been going on? Not an awful lot really... Last weekend was the anniversary of Mark's Mum's death (can it really be a year?). I feel like I focus on that alot, but it has really had a huge affect on our lives in the last year. Hopefully though we got a little bit of closure at the weekend. We finally laid a gravestone and interred the ashes... giving us all somewhere to go and reflect, and lay flowers at appropriate junctures. I think that that is going to be a really positive experience for us all - in particular for the members of the family that find it hard to vocalise their grief or show it in ways that are understood by others. Amusing in a really macabre and depressing way was the arrival of the ashes on Friday in something resembling a green shoebox. Honestly... we were expecting a cask or something at least vaguely 'respectful'. On Saturday I undertook the sorry task of trying to 'pep' the box up, and so took it to a rather dismayed florist in the village and asked her to wrap it for me... poor woman. She actually did a rather god job (it did look a little like a rather extravagant birthday gift when she had finished), but it was an improvement on said shoe box effect (which made it look like we were burying a pet hamster). I did lots of cooking for the family party we were having on Sunday in Haslingfield - not least a rather delicious "Banana and Walnut Loaf", and (even better) an "Apple Muffin Cake With Pecan Streusal Topping"... good old Delia ;-)

The rest of the year has got off to a good start though. I have started back at pottery classes (my little window of sanity on a Wednesday evening), and went to see Australia at the cinema with Lynn last week. Absolutely fabulous film (Jen, it made me miss you more than ever!). I am a new Hugh Jackman fan... my God, that man is beautiful!!! And the shots of him having a shower on camp will live with me for a very long time! ;-)

We also booked a 'family' holiday in Cornwall in July... this will be Mark and Myself, Mum and Dad, Tracy and the boys - and joined partway through the week by Mark's Dad. I am REALLY looking forward to it! We are staying in the same caravan park as last year in Harlyn, so am looking forward to more BBQs on the beach, and teaching Henry to surf once again (provided I am not mistaken for a beached whale!).

Anyway my lovelies... I promise a few more updates than of late! Be prepared to be bored stiff...
Hayls
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Happy New Year

Well, we had a lovely and quiet Christmas (mine was mostly spent working) - but had a really nice time all the same. Mark spoilt me with an Ipod Touch for Christmas (I never used to be a gadget girl - perhaps its something you develop in your mid-thirties?!), and I got lots of lovely bits and bobs from my family and friends. Really nice... Xmas day went quite well considering - I cooked a rather decent Christmas Lunch for MArk and I, and Christmas Eve in Haslingfield was not *too* distressing - in fact the church service was really rather nice, and very Christmassy.

The New Year was also nice and quiet. We went to my Sister's place, and sat in with her and the boys and Mum and Dad. I cooked a delicious (even though I say so myself) beef stew, consisting of beef, onions, garlic, guinness, port, carrots and pickled walnuts. I cooked more than enough for a small army, and by 9:30 we were all almost asleep - heh. We really know how to party! We did make it to midnight (just) - and set off lots of party poppers, much to Henry's delight. New Year's Day was spent walking along the seafront, and eating a delicious roast that Mum cooked. Lovely...

We are back to full capacity at work, and I am trying to push myself into doing some light exercising to start the new year... although that is not as easy as it sounds ;-) I simply cannot be bothered! Am feeling more drawn to my bed than ever ;-)

Anyway... Happy New Year to all my friends and family (especially those of you in foreign climes). Lets make 2009 a year to remember for all the right reasons.

Lots of love and kisses
Hayls
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