Loustar's Blog

Closed for business :(

2007-03-18T14:11:00.000Z

Well, the PC blew up (processor died) and as DH has decided to have an upgrade at the same time, its going to cost £200 to fix. £200 we dont have... However, we got the car back! Yay! Just need someone who isnt a criminal to BUY it from us rather than take us for a ride... then we will have the cash for the pooter.

Have also deemed Tiscali unfit to be an ISP - they have carried on billing me for the telephone service they havent given me, so I have refused to pay several bills, they have sent me several apologies promising they have fixed it, and then sent me more of the same crap. I've written to them saying I'm not paying a penny and I dont want their service any more if they dont know their arse from their elbow.

Lastly, today is mothers day.

no of mothers day cards received: 0
no of mothers day presents received: 0
no of people who have said happy mothers day to me: 1 (note - this was not my husband)

I am not a happy bunny. Write again soon when I have a PC.

Please sign the petition for cord blood donation

2007-02-23T20:50:00.000Z

While I was pregnant with Amber, I found a link to have cord blood collected and stored on several sites, but none in the UK that allowed donation - only a cryo srvice that saved it for your child only, in case they needed the cells at a later stage. I wanted to donate to help to save someones life, or to contribute to the research to help potentially save lots of lives in the future.

A breif explanation of what cord blood collection is, and why it is useful:

Currently the donation of cord blood for the national register is only available at 5 Hospitals in the UK. Cord blood would usually be thrown away but it could be used to save someone’s life. It is rich in stem cells and it is these stem cells that can be used to treat patients suffering from life threatening diseases like leukaemia. A cord blood transplant is an alternative to using bone marrow. Collecting this blood will not affect your delivery in any way (more information available from the national blood service website). Currently for collection of cord blood at other UK hospitals,the donor would have to pay a substantial amount of money to a private organisation for the collection and storage of cord blood.That cord blood is only for personal use by the donor or their immediate family and is not available on the national donor register.

The link below is to a petition that asks the prime minister to make it possible to donate cord blood in every hospital, rather than only 5...

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Cord-Blood/

Thanks for reading, I hope that this gets through in time for when I have another baby - although I think it will be a few years yet!

Ta,
Lou
xXx

I'm in a place called vertigo...

2007-02-17T21:44:00.000Z

Yes, the dreaded vertigo has returned. And to those who do not know, no, its not fear of heights, thats 'Acrophobia'; I found a good description here:
*

Vertigo is a false sensation of motion or spinning that leads to dizziness and discomfort.

So basically, I feel like I'm on the waltzer 24/7. This is particularly a problem where Amber is concerned. She likes to be rocked, bounced, lifted, swayed... in fact lifting her up and playing aeroplanes was what set this attack off. Grr. I hate my inner ear. I also have a chest infection so I'm on antibiotics for that. Only 4 doses left tho! I also seem to have a memory problem, as I start typing something and then forget it... Antibiotics make me tearful. Why is that?!

Other news:

Lets have a game of good thing, bad thing!

Good: We sold the Rover!
Bad: Gareth gave it to the bloke on the promise of the money the next day...
Good: Its not taking up space in front of the local shops any more!
Bad: When we arrived to pick up the money from the bloke, we discovered he may have done a break and enter on the shop where he worked, and the safe which supposedly had the money he intended to give us has dissapeared and he is nowhere to be found...
Good: The police picked him and the car up!
Bad: They let him go, and they let him have the car back... he told them he'd given us some of the money...
Good: Um, thats it, I've run out of good stuff!
Bad: I've had to send him a letter giving him 2 weeks in which to return either the car or £400.00 cash to the local police station to be forwarded to us, or I will take him to court.

What the hell are the police thinking of to give him a car he doesnt own? We still have the V5 in my name and no money to show for the car... if they phoned the DVLA they would have been able to confirm that it was in my name and not his. The worst thing is, I'd saved, hard, to be sure that I could pay my credit card bills while I was on maternity. I took all my savings out to buy the Mondeo we bought to replace the Rover, and the money he was supposed to pay us for the car was going back into that. Also some of the money in my savings belonged to Amber - presents family and friends had given us, and I havent got around to setting up an account for yet, which really ticks me off - I felt bad about using that money anyway, without having some low life con me out of it. I really hope that he settles out of court, because I'm stressed enough as it is at the moment without this idiot creating more problems for me.

The council have been in this week and put in a new kitchen and bathroom and i now have a lovely bath! The kitchen looks great too - or they would do if the tiling, painting and flooring was done... in true council style, they've done half the job and cant tell me when the rest will be completed. There is a huge hole behind my toilet, rubble under the bath, dust on EVERYTHING, plaster falling off the walls where the tiles were taken off, and NO DRAWERS IN THE KITCHEN! Where am I supposed to put cutlery, utensils, towels, and other kitcheny things? Argh!

Argh! Not having a good week. Looking forward to not having vertigo (soon I hope) and Sam coming the week after next. Thats keeping me going - am hoping that I am well enough to go to Carole's 60th... Its ok. Gareths bought me a lindt rabbit so I feel better for having chocolate :)

Gareths new job vs new kitchen and bathroom...

2007-02-11T10:29:00.000Z

Yay! Gareth has a new job! Yay! Kitchen and bathroom are going to be done up!

Pity both of them start on the same day... :S

And its looking like me, Amber and Boxer are going to have to bunk up in the bedroom for 3 weeks - ouch!

More on the subject when I have time...

Best buys for baby and me :)

2007-02-04T19:12:00.000Z

This is the definitive list of things I wouldnt be without, with Amber... sure I'll probably add to it as she gets older and into different things, but for now, from newborn to 2 and 1/2 months this is it:

Loola travel system - front and back facing, and a car seat that fits straight on the chassis - and folds compact for small abodes and car boots!
Sleepsuits from Matalan - with fold over cuffs so you dont have to use scratch mits which fall off and get eaten by the sock monster...
Tescos value baby vests - 3 for £1.75 - unbeatable!
long sleeved bodies from H&M - popper up instead of having to pull it over baby's head!
Chicco mamma lullaby nightlight - the key to a good nights sleep! Comes on automatically when it hears baby cry! Priceless!
Muslins - cheapest found at Sainsbunnies, 3 for £3
Bambino Mio prefold nappies (and my new washer dryer) - but NOT bambino mio wraps - they die if they accidentally end up in the dryer! Motherease are better, but there are some others I was given that dont have labels in that are much better than either!
A salt lamp - great for lighting the room subtly when you have a sleeping baby in there and youwant to get ready for bed without disturbing her!
GR8X change bag - has a built in change mat, and folds out so that the pockets are either side of the mat. Handy!

Watch this space for more favourites...

Sleep training...

2007-01-29T22:17:00.000Z

I just read this on the bounty forum, and I reckon Amber must have read it...!

Sleep training...

OK, here's my situation. My Mommy has had me for almost 7 months. The first few months were great - I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, day or night. Then something happened. Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep thru the night). At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only getting worse. I've talked to other babies, and it seems like it's pretty common after Mommies have had us for around 6 months. Here's the thing: these Mommies don't really need to sleep. It's just a habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep - they just don't need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle.

It goes like this:
Night 1 - cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it's hard. It's hard to see your Mommy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding yourself, it's for her own good.
Night 2 - cry every 2 hours until you get fed.
Night 3 - every hour.

Most Mommies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights. Some Mommies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These Mommies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don't give in. I cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!!If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just once, she will expect it every night. I KNOW IT'S HARD! But she really does not need the sleep, she is just resisting the change. If you have an especially alert Mommy, you can stop crying for about 10 minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mommy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it. Last night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it. BE CONSISTENT!

I cried for any reason I could come up with. My sleep sack tickled my foot. I felt a wrinkle under the sheet. My mobile made a shadow on the wall. I burped, and it tasted like pears. I hadn't eaten pears since lunch, what's up with that? The cat said "meow". I should know. My Mommy reminds me of this about 20 times a day. LOL. Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the monitor in the other room. Too hot, too cold, just right - doesn't matter! Keep crying!!

It took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your Mommies' internal clocks.

P.S. Don't let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on them, no milk will come out. Trust me.

Busy Busy Busy!!!

2007-01-21T22:29:00.000Z

Sorry its been so long since I posted. Obviously, I've had my hands full! Amber is getting bigger and more active and learning new things with every day, and she takes up all of my time! I managed to get her to bed at around 8ish tonight, and finally got her to sleep by about 9.30 (a whole hour earlier than last night!). She's going to be 9 weeks on Wednesday - where has the time gone?!

My new life as a Mummy has got nice and busy now! We have playgroup at St Marks church on Monday morning (the killer is it starts at 9.30 - ouch!), health visitor clinic on a Tuesday, Thursday is breastfeeding support group and every other Friday is rhyme time at the library!

Solved a mystery at rhyme time last Friday - met Louise and 5 month old Roxanna - who SO looks like her dad, Sam. Congratulations, if you ever read this! I knew they were expecting and I'd been asking around to see if anyone knew how things had gone for Sam and Louise, but no one seemed to know... but then they sat right behind me at rhyme time and we had a nice chat!

Speaking of community church, whats going on there then, eh? Louise said they are taking a break from their outreach... for those of you that do not know, the community church in Southampton has possibly the best outreach in Southampton. They really get involved in the community (hence the name I suppose!) and get the youth in the church via the big story. Recently, it seems that ALL outreach has stopped - they aren't even having a Sunday morning service! They have a fantastic event called the big story, which is a christian concert type thing for teens and anyone else who wants to go (me!) which my brother is very closely involved in. But they have cancelled it, and made people redundant, and not replaced it! Its a very popular event, how can they just cancel? It seems like the church leaders came in and went, 'well, everythings going fantasticly - how can we b*gger it up royally? I know, lets not do ANYTHING for ANYONE and have a bit of a break, and not let on when we are going to get things going again?' Its supposed to be so that they can figure out what outreach to concentrate on, but I worry about what people will do in the meantime without that outreach. Will they go elsewhere? If they end up at another church, fine, but if they end up giving up on Christianity altogether because the services they used aren't there any more, then that's bad.

Rant over, time for bed methinks! Amber will be waking up for her evening feed soon. Night night!

xXx

xXx

Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!

Welcome baby Amber!!! Birth story...

2006-12-09T20:04:00.000Z

Amber May arrived on 22 November 2006, 2.35am, 7lb 2oz :D

Ok, heres the birth story of Amber May Petley... Quite a positive one I think!

On 21st, at 6.30 in the morning (39+2) I realised our electric had run out as it was all dark and the clock radio had stopped working! Got up and put the emergency electric on, came back to bed. Laid down, got all comfy, then whoosh! My waters went, in bed! I prayed a prayer of thanks to the god of inco pads (!) woke Gareth and went to the bathroom for a change of clothing! An hour later, contractions started. Spent an hour on MSN to Sam who got VERY excited(!), and finally called Jill my midwife at about 9ish, who on being told my waters had gone, cheered!

Went to the maternity hospital's day unit for monitoring, where it was well hectic, and they said I wasnt in labour despite the contractions... grr! Was sent home, and thought it would be ages, so we went to Mum and Dads and took KFC for lunch. Hung around there (as its closer to the hospital) til about 3pm, and decided to go home as nothing was happening. On the way home I decided I couldnt do without the muslins and nappysan I'd decided not to buy earlier in the week, so we popped into mothercare. Gareth parked us in what we thought was a mother and baby space, but after 10 mins in mothercare we came out to find a parking ticket on the car!!! It was a disabled space :S I was in tears!!!!

Anyway, after that every bump in the road felt like agony, by the time we got back to our flat i was in quite a bit of pain! Gareth started making us dinner, but before he could finish it I was demanding to be taken back to the hospital! I called the birth centre and had two contractions while I was on the phone. The woman was asking me loads of questions and said I should think about coming in soon. After the second contraction (she must have been timing me!) she was like, actually you'd better come in now!!! Gareth put the cous cous he cooked for me in a box and drove me back to the hospital. We couldnt park very close, but by then it was after 6 so it was free parking on the road nearby (no more tickets, please!!) but it meant a short walk to the hospital. I think it took us about 10 mins to get from the car to the door, stopping every 2 mins for contractions!! Then we realised the main entrance was closed so had to walk round to the other side of the building!! Argh!

Well, the walk must have done some good, I thought, but the Dr examined me and said I was only 2cm dilated! She said I could stay if I wanted, but it could be a while yet and could go home! Well, there was no way I was going back in the car, it was just too painful! She gave me a couple of paracetamol (like that would do anything!) and left us to watch Holby City! A couple of hours later and I was finding the pain difficult to deal with, but the midwives were all dealing with people in more advanced labour, so Gareth went and got the next person he could find! She left me another half hour, then she examined me and discovered I was 6cm! Yay! She asked me if I wanted the entonox, and I was hesitant but I was in so much pain at that point I didnt care what they gave me! She brought the gas and air in, and told me how to use it, but I was having a contraction so I had to ask her to tell me again! It didnt seem to do anything at first, but then it started to kick in... I've never enjoyed being high before now! The pool took AGES to fill, and once they got me in the room with the pool they had to wait for the other midwife to come (not sure why!) before I was allowed to get in the pool.

Then I felt I had to push so I sent Gareth running for the midwife, and at last the right midwife turned up with the student midwife (Harriet, she was really lovely!) and they said I was 9cm! They got me in the pool just in time - well, it felt like minutes before she was here, but Gareth thinks it was more like an hour.

They said I did a really good job (was studying birthing vids on utube the night before, think that was the best idea I had!!) and I had a small tear that only needed a few stitches (ouchy!) but tore a blood vessel so I lost quite a bit of blood. Gareth said I looked extremely pale after, and I couldnt stand for a day after! We didnt get on the ward until about 7.30, and Gareth went home for a sleep.

Its now 2 weeks and 3 days after Amber's birth, and we are enjoying her so much! She is quite a happy baby, and she sleeps 4 hours at a time most nights which is good for sleep! We had a small problem yesterday when we realised there was a weird thing on her thumb which turned out to be a Paronychia Nail Infection, and the Doctor wouldnt prescribe her anything and referred us to the hospital. Then followed a four hour wait there, and we eventually came away with antibiotics which I'm not even sure she needed, because only a day later the worst of it seems to have cleared up! Plus I checked it out with the Bounty Mum's, and other peoples babies have had the same thing, and one was given a cream (much better idea!) and another wasnt even treated, and it cleared on its own!!! Ah well...

Will keep my blog updated with Amber's progress, and my thoughts, ideas and as many funny things as I can! Bye for now... :)

2006-11-14T15:55:00.000Z

Still seem to be having problems. When I upload new blogs, and then view my own blog, its still showing the old dots design and not the new pink design. poo. Hope its not happening for anyone else. If these issues dont resolve themselves, I may have to move my blog :( Grr.

11 days to baby's due date...

2006-11-14T15:09:00.000Z

Well, here I am. I've been on maternity leave for around about 2 weeks now. I'm not bored, I have plenty to do. Today has been grey and dreary though. Yuck! Its only just after 3pm and I'm thinking about turning the light on already!

We went to the cinema last night to see Children of Men which was really good! Unfortunately for the last 45 mins I was having Braxton Hicks contractions - not sure if it was because there was a baby crying thru some of it, or while Kee was in labour maybe it was sympathy contractions (!) but they were making me quite uncomfortable... Theres not much leg room in the cinema we went to. I thought we had missed the movie as it wasnt being shown in any of the big cinema's, but then Gareth's Mum said she'd seen it advertised at the Harbour Lights cinema, and it turned out that the last ever showing was Monday night - excellent!

Unfortunately Gareth found some large chocolate bars on offer in the shop before we went last night, and as we couldnt finish it all last night there was a considerable amount left today... well, there isnt any more!!! After waking up with horrible hip pain this morning - so bad I'm still not out of my pyjamas mid afternoon - and feeling really tired, I've been looking for an energy boost and pain releif... Paracetamol didnt touch the pain, luckily it doesnt hurt unless I stand or walk so if I stay sat down I'm ok...! But after being really good and eating raisins & an apple for a snack, and having some pasta and pesto for lunch, I ended up chowing down on two lines of dairy milk orange crunch... as if I havent put enough weight on with the baby! :S

So this close to the end, I thought I'd be thinking about relaxing and chilling, reading books and playing sims2. No, I'm still trying to get the flat sorted! We've done all the furniture moves we needed to - Gareth was great about that. We've got rid of bags of rubbish, recycling and paper, moved the furniture around and got rid of some other boxes, and we have the swinging crib up together, as well as the changing unit in the bathroom with the baby bath on. It's by no means tidy, but we have all the essentials, and I've washed dried and ironed all of the baby clothes so if she came today we'd be prepared!

However, a friend mentioned to me the other day that after you have a baby, it is possible to go and stay at a birthing centre with midwives so that you can get help and support with breastfeeding and stuff. Ever since, I've been thinking about doing that. It would mean that Gareth would be able to finish off the tidying and preperation at home, and I would be able to relax somewhere nice and clean and tidy, with proffessional help at hand if I needed it. Goodness knows I've missed out on a lot with regards to my pregnancy and the NHS. The midwives for Thornhill all left when I was about 20 weeks, from what I can gather they all walked out because its such a hard area to work in, but I have no idea if thats the real reason. The NHS got one midwife in to cover the 5(!) that left, and eventually got a second one in who is now my current midwife. Unfortunately the shortage of midwives has meant that Gareth and I have had none of the parenting or antenatel classes we should have done, and at 38 and a half weeks I still havent had a tour of the maternity hospital or any of the birthing centres. I have no idea where to go when I'm in labour, I'm 'booked' into the princess anne but goodness knows where I'm supposed to go when the big day arrives! I've called myself to try and get a tour, but they just havent bothered returning my calls and I'm starting to feel again, like I am being ignored by the NHS because theres nothing wrong with me! Which is great that theres nothing wrong, but they really dont have much going for them in the way of customer service... ah well!

Right, I'm off to cheer myself up with a game of sims2. I'll probably be here tomorrow again, hopefully in slightly less pain though!

I am an unwilling passive smoker... are you?

2006-11-11T13:52:00.000Z

Why does smoking exist? It really pisses me off. It has absolutely no good features at all. As a non smoker, I believe it is my right to breathe clear air (or as clear as it gets in this polluted world!) when I want to. As it is, when I am not pregnant I have to pay for my inhalers to control my asthma which enable me to breathe that clear air, which is bad enough, but lately smokers seem to have more right to smoke around me, than I have to say 'put it out please!'.
Even some of my friends who smoke seem to think its ok to smoke around me - even though I am now 9 months pregnant and make it VERY clear I am a non smoker. And the worse thing is, I feel bad about asking them not to! Its such an injustice...

So here's my solution. Get a big room - perhaps this could be a new plan for the millenium dome when the casino fails (!) - Every smoker has to go into the dome for a smoke. That way it keeps the smoke in, and non smokers can once again breathe clear air with less pollutants in!!!

I personally cant wait until they bring in the non smoking rules for bars etc - if only they could just make it so it's illegal to smoke in public - its illegal to drink in public in some places, so why not?! I dont go to pubs any more, because I wake up the next day feeling like I've smoked a whole packet myself! Not nice!

Then, theres home... I live halfway up a tower block in a not so lovely area. I love my flat, but there is one drawback. Smokers! Although my Mum and I scrubbed the place from top to bottom before we moved in to get rid of the nicotine stains and smells, it still lingers. I am convinced that smoke comes in through the vent in the bathroom (theres no window so theres a vent that comes in from outside). If I leave a window open, or the balciony door and someone somewhere on our side of the block is smoking, it comes in through the opening. If I hang wet washing to dry outside on the balcony, the smoke smell gets into them. Therefore I have to resort to using the tumble dryer or trying to dry things indoors - not fun! We've also had problems with people dropping their fag butts off their balconies or out of the windows - they land on the window ledges, and because our windows open inwards, we have to wait for the wind or rain to get rid of them because if we opened the window we'd end up with the lot on our carpet!

Then, theres pregnant smokers. Smoking is one of the most selfish habits I can think of. This is because smoking affects other people unless you care enough to keep your smoking to yourself... but even so, smoking whilest pregnant means that your unborn baby is also smoking. This has been PROVEN to harm unborn babies. Its true, some smoker-mothers-to-be seem to get away with it, for example there is a trend among some teen mums that if you smoke during your pregnancy it will make the baby smaller and therefore easier to give birth to. Well, I've never heard of anything more irresponsible!

Most women I know who have smoked and then discovered they are pregnant have given up more or less straight away. Only a couple of people I know have smoked through their pregnancies - and their babies seem fine. But nevertheless, a link has been proved between smoking and harm to unborn children. Therefore, surely it is sensible to stop smoking when you are pregnant?! But to my horror, on Bounty the other day there was a thread started called 'secret smokers' where pregnant mothers admitted to smoking through their pregnancies. The thread was not in a part of the forum I use, but someone posted on one that I do go in, to express their feelings about it. Apparently some mothers had posted that their midwives/doctors had stated that it was better to cut down on the amount they smoked, rather than quit altogether. How ridiculous! II can see in extreme cases why someone would be told this - for example one woman was on anti-depressants and all sorts of other meds, had all sorts of problems and smoking was her way of coping with life - therefore the stress of giving up might be harmful to the baby. Even then though, I have never heard of a baby dying from the consequences of giving up smoking...

The result of the thread was that 3 opinions came out of it.
1. Smoking is bad, and you should give up if you are pregnant (non smokers, and quitters)
2. Smoking is bad, but I'm doing it anyway and you shouldnt judge me for doing what I want(smokers)
3. Smoking is bad, but I'm still doing it, and I'm dissapointed that I'm still doing it (smokers)

The thing that gets me, is that everyone agrees that smoking is bad, yet people still do it! If you know something is bad, you dont do it!!! Anyway, my Christian upbringing and morals say that I shouldnt judge people for what they do, and I am sure there are plenty of things that I have done wrong in the past I could be judged for. I am not judging these people, thats not my place. I'm just voicing my opinion and trying to make some sense of the situation. Some people disagree with me, and I accept that. But I find it so upsetting when someone is harming someone else, be it the person stood next to them at the bus stop, the people they live with, or their unborn child. No one deserves to have the effects of smoke inflicted on them.

Anyone who smokes and is reading this has probably got quite upset at what I have said. But to those people I ask one question - why are you upset? Is it because I am wrong? Or is it because I have struck a nerve - I have not said anything that is incorrect. Smoking kills. If you choose to smoke, please dont force other people to smoke with you. If you choose not to smoke - good on you!

Blogger problems!!!

2006-10-29T16:21:00.000Z

Apologies to those who have read my post for today twice because there are two different links to it. This is largely down to Blogger not working properly! When I tried to publish my post this morning, it told me it was unsuccessful, and yet later when the site came back up after going down at around 7.30am this morning, there were 3 copies on there! I have deleted the wrong ones, but they are still appearing on my blogspot - weird! Hopefully this second post for today will boot it out of the way, but maybe that's wishful thinking...

Normal service will resume shortly... I hope!

Up at 5am... ouch!

2006-10-29T11:32:00.001Z

So, last night to wind down I watched CSI and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit on 5... bad idea! Woke up at 5am with a nightmare! Dreamed I was someone else, with a big family in the US and a massacre had happened in my huge American style condo, every cupboard I opened was spattered with blood and I was told the only person I could trust anymore was my unborn baby! They stripped us of everything, loaded us into a minibus and drove us away... and then I woke up! I was so shaken I was too scared to go to the loo for a whole 10 mins until I realised none of it was true and pulled myself together!!!

I think weird dreams must be a pregnancy thing. I remember earlier on in my pregnancy having a dream about having the baby early, and it started out as a boy, and grew up to be an adult girl in one day - and someone I knew from work too! Strange, eh? Well, had another dream the other day that Gareth and I had moved to the country (probably the result of the conversation I had with him earlier that night about his parents moving to the countryside and doing a selfbuild - how much fun would that be?!) and I had the baby with me on the train and we were going to visit my parents... strange!

Well, this weekend has been a bit of a disaster. I had Thursday and Friday off work this week (finish on wednesday next week, then its maternity leave til May, YAY!) and felt fine until lunch time on Thursday. The sore throat, sneezing and general ickyness started then, and I've felt rough ever since. Yep, thanks to some lovely person probably at work or in the lift in the block where I live, Gareth and I both caught colds at exactly the same time. And of course, being pregnant I'm not allowed to take any of the normal remedies! Argh! Dont get me wrong, am still LOVING being pregnant and I'm so not ready to have her leave my bump yet, (I'd miss her - does that sound weird?!) but the one thing I dont tolerate very well is not knowing when something will finish and not being able to do anything about it - ie cant take lemsip, or anything with decongestant in, so no nasal sprays either. Apparently, even though on the news the other morning they said that the government are looking at giving all pregnant women the flu jab, when I asked at my asthma clinic appointment Thursday morning whether I should have it or not I was told that the governments disscussions are about how to tackle the problem NEXT year... doh! Wish the news people would check their stories out at least once in a while... lol! Then the car broke yesterday, blew up on the motorway - got a call at early o clock from Gareth who was halfway to Bisley to shoot, and ended up in tears on the phone to my mum and dad, then Katrina... but the good side was that mum and dad came and got me and I had a lovely long bath at their house... and did nothing all day! Ahh....!

Anyways, so the midwife came on Friday morning, and we got to listen to baby's heartbeat again which is always lovely, but we got the lecture about vitamin K. Hm. What the hell is vitamin K anyway?! Apparently some babies when they are born (and only a very small percentage) have a bleed. This is either from the umbilical cord when its cut, can be a nose bleed, or more vitally can be a bleed in its brain. So vitamin K has something to do with blood clotting I believe. However, even though a small portion of babies were affected, it was decided (by the government!) that all babies should have it. Unfortunately, they later realised that the vaccination could be linked with childhood Leukemia. Great! I've asked my Mum whether she had me and my brother done with vitamin K when we were born, and she doesnt remember it existing then, so we were either given it without her having the choice, or it wasnt in circulation yet. So, we basically have to decide whether to have our child innoculated and put her at risk of Leukemia later in childhood, or risk a possibility of her having a bleed and possibly that resulting in brain damage. I tell you, the path of parenthood is not easy, and I'm not even a parent yet! Argh!

Baby has mattresses to sleep on! Ordered new made to measure ones off a shop called 'Mattress Makers for Babies' on ebay, got a foam one for the swinging crib and a sprung one for the big cot when she's a little older. Not too expensive either! Now all I have to do is make the bedding, clean the bedroom, give the crib another wash down, clean the front room, move all the furniture round, make the whole place childproof... ah, who am I kidding? I'll never get all this done the size I am!Anyway, gonna finish there because I've written far too much and you're probably asleep by now... lol! Plus need to catch Jane and the Dragon @9 on channel 5- best kids show EVER!

Once, twice, three posts a... miracle!?

2006-10-16T12:46:00.000+01:00

Wow, here I am again! Only a quick post in my lunch break at work (yes, even though I am now only in work 3 days a week, I still only have time to post at work in my lunch breaks, how ironic!) but a post never the less!!!

Why can I never be on time to work?! What is it that goes wrong? Is it just down to the fact that I am rapidly approaching 9 months pregnant, or am I just REALLY bad at planning my time? This morning was one of those mornings when EVERYTHING that could have gone wrong, went wrong. I had even ironed my trousers for work the night before so I didnt have to do it in the morning...

Knowing that Southampton has a record number of roadworks at the moment (all major routes into town - how convenient!!!) I had planned to get up early and leave early. It seems someone else had other plans for me!!! I was outside by 9 o clock, and Gareth was very pleased that he'd got me here on time - untill I pointed out that I'm supposed to be ready to start work AT NINE and I still had to get up a flight of stairs (you try it with a baby and a whole lot of amniotic fluid!) and turn my PC on which was built roughly around the jurrasic period and therefore takes at least 10 minutes to wake up and function even a 10th as fast as my home computer!

Ah well, only 3 weeks to go, thats 9 working days, and then I'm off!! Hopefully stress free... well, until the baby is born that is, but I'm still betting it will be better than dealing with grumpy financial advisers and clients all day...

Enough of my rantings, time to start working again in a minute, and I still have some lasagne to eat...!

I failed!!!!

2006-10-03T13:04:00.000+01:00

Well, after a small reminder from Rob, I realised that I have failed in my mission to keep my blog up to date. But here's the good news - I've now gone part time at work, so inbetween preparing for baby, I might stand a cat in hell's chance of actually keeping this blog up to date!

The news for this week...

Was my Mum's birthday yesterday, she's been a bit down lately so I decided to put a pamper kit together for her, and took her to lunch in Cadnam. I think it cheered her up a bit. When we got back I persuaded Dad to take me down to the butchers while Mum was out, so that we could get some (very expensive!) steak, which was Mum's choice of birthday dinner. Unfortunately while we were trying to cook it I got some really strong Braxton Hicks contractions and had to dissapear to the loo, I swear they thought I'd gone into labor!!!!

Anyway, today I am relaxing! I did far too much over the weekend and didnt realise until it was too late! On Sunday I went to my new church (Thornhill Baptist Church) which was great. I;ve only been 4 times so far, but I keep making new friends and meeting new people EVERY week - they are so friendly! All the other churches I've been to recently have been big, charismatic type churches, and you get a 'Hello' on the door but thats about it... people are far too caught up with the friends they have already made to bother about the new people. Its sad, but true. Anyway, met a lovely lady called Chris who works for the police, and an bloke called Ron who has connections with Millbrook Baptist church (Now Freemantle Baptist) which is where we used to go to church when I was little. I got so caught up in talking to them that it was only when they started turning out the hall lights that I realised I had been there an hour after the service had finished, and still hadnt had any lunch!!!

Anyway, went to M&S that lunch time to treat myself to a nice pasta salad and some chocolate covered raisins (they are really good at boosting your iron levels so the midwife tells me - I dont need telling to eat chocolate twice!) but started to feel really ill. Sat in the carpark for a bit and worked up the energy to do some shopping in Sainsburys (no point in going to Burselden Tesco on a Sunday because the traffick to the market blocks the roads - not fun!) But had to stop half way round and pay for what I had because I felt like I was about to faint! Also not fun!

Then I went to see Granny and Grandad which was nice, had a cuppa and helped Grandad with his computer - I'm so impressed with him, there arent many nearly-eighty year olds who are willing to dable with digital camera's and PC's! And then went to pick Gareth up from the red jet. (He'd been shooting on the island). Problem was the sea was so choppy that by the time we got home I felt exhausted and dizzy, and he was still suffering from sea sickness!! We sat there for an hour before I finally managed to coax him into making dinner!!!

Anyway, thats quite enough for now - must remeber to update more often so that my posts arent so long!!! I'm off to wash and dry baby clothes, see you later!!

First post - last post?! Gone postal!

2006-09-13T12:22:00.000+01:00

Well, here it is, my blog! I have started blogs before, and they have died a death because I forgot about them, was too busy washing my hair, no one read them, didnt have any thing to write - the usual excuses!!! But since my brother has started his, and it makes for quite good reading, check it out - www.robpannell.com - he's persuaded me to start one!

To be honest, since I've become pregnant (at the time of starting this blog I am 29 weeks and 3 days pregnant) a heck of a lot has been running through my mind, and I think it will do me good to be able to get it down on a blog, and with some of the idea's running through my head, might even do someone else some good - you never know!!! Plus the silly things will make you laugh (I hope!).

Anyway, please accept my apologies for any rubbish my hormone addled brain comes out with or any spelling mistakes or anything that doesnt make sense, or if I never post again having gone into early labour...! I have a habit or writing and then re-hashing and ending up with something that makes no sense at all, so I will try my best to keep it interesting, fun, and thought provoking, and if anyone nicks any of my better ideas, my cut is 90%!