Lazy Sunday afternoon

In the week I had my first antenatal appointment at the maternity clinic.  The letter inviting me to it had said to expect it to last for 2 hours, as I would be seen by different people.  Naturally I expected this to mean that I would get to have my first scan, but this was not the case.  I was finally feeling a flicker of excitement at getting to "meet" our baby, but instead the appointment consisted of ticking boxes on forms re medical history, and providing blood & urine samples.

I now have an appointment for a scan on Fri 26th, at 10.30am.  We thought this might be a problem for Jerry to attend, but he's able to take the day off as a holiday, so I think I'll see if I can do the same, yey!

I really wanted the scan so we'd have a much better idea of how far along things are/due date ... I'm a bit vague as to my last monthly period :-s

Secret santa 2010

In work Jane wanted to have the Secret Santa organised before she went off on holiday this month.  Except when she was busy organising it I was off on holiday myself.  They couldn't decide on a Theme- e.g. mugs, socks etc. so everyone was just to write down 5 choices of gift they would like and it would therefore retain an element of 'surprise'.
For me to participate I think I would have been very specific about what I wanted (disappointed if I didn't get Precisely what I asked for?); I thought I'd save myself the bother and just treat myself to a little something.  For those of you who'd like to know, these are what I would have asked for (max. £10 budget)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/wishlist/1OXK8081LAAA7


1. A good read (crime/ thriller)
2. OPI Christmas nail polish
3. Hotel Chocolate goodies and/or Lush goodies
4. Burlington socks
<strike>5. Cherry blossom L'occitane hand cream</strike>

*EDIT- ~I bought the hand cream myself, "Because I'm worth it"... would still love everything else on the list!

The Event

Well, the agent got back to us to advise that pets were accepted "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES" for that flat, so, like Lord Alan Sugar our search continues...


Woke up  at 4am this morning, and from past experience thought it best to grab the spare duvet and head for the couch pretty much straight away, rather than continue to lie there, getting more annoyed and potentially annoying a Jerry.  Can't really remember what it was that woke me, don't think it was a bad dream.  The weather forecast said it's going to rain tonight, all night, so I hope that doesn't disturb me again :( 


Nocturnal awakenings are characterized by difficulty returning to sleep after awakening in the middle of the night or waking too early in the morning: middle-of-the-night insomnia and terminal insomnia. The former may be a symptom of pain disorders or medical illness; the latter is often a characteristic of clinical depression.


Good ol' wikipedia...

Baby weight gain

http://www.metro.co.uk/lifestyle/847201-new-mothers-feel-baby-weight-loss-pressure-from-celebrities


A "news" story today about how new mums feel pressured by Celebs who quickly regain their pre-pregnancy figure.


I'm petite and have always been thin so I guess one of my worries is about gaining weight, as in "will I be able to do it?" I understand that being pregnant doesn't give you carte blanche to "Eat for two" and pig out on all that junk food; is eating a normal, balanced, nutritional diet merely enough to gain the recommended weight, or do I have to start -for the first time- counting calories, and not in the traditional manner of opting for foods which have less rather than more? 


According to Blooming Pregnancy: Surviving & thriving for him & her (Huggins-Cooper, L.; The Infinite Ideas Co Ltd, 2005), 
"for the first trimester [which is almost over, I think!] your body only needs about 100 extra calories a day- and that amounts to roughly a piece of fruit.  During the second and third trimesters, you need about 300 extra calories per day."
"You should expect to gain around 11-16 kg (35-35 lb)."(p36)


In the news article above one lady states that ‘I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to lose weight as my daughter is almost two years old now but I am still five stone overweight,’ said Lindsay Ritchie, 28, from Northern Ireland

um okay, so how much weight did you gain while you were pregnant if you're still 5 stone overweight 2 years afterwards?? ! 

*meow!

Quickie

We are going to view a new flat tomorrow!
I've been working away this week, but Jerry was still looking at flats and said he'd seen somewhere nice.  So it was pleasant to actually discover that - from the pics on the Letting Agent's website that it does look live-able
http://www.vebra.com/home/search/vdetails.asp?src=agent&fd=1152&bd=101&db=2&cl=10105&pid=21672324

Also the rent is only(well) £650 per month

Google street view:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Birley+Park,+West+Didsbury&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=14.619467,39.506836&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Birley+Park,+Manchester,+United+Kingdom&ll=53.417091,-2.244&spn=0.003248,0.01929&z=16&layer=c&cbll=53.417091,-2.243992&panoid=S-ec3eLuUG2OyWWipKAdiA&cbp=12,259.69,,0,8.5

Nesting instinct

As much as we love our flat, I guess that with a baby on the way a one-bedroom apartment will soon become too small.  Baby will need their own room at some point and so we, or OH mainly have been surfing the net looking for somewhere bigger... although I worry about budget a lot as I feel that we're already stretched paying £575 per month ...

http://www.vebra.com/home/search/vdetails.asp?src=agent&fd=1152&bd=102&db=2&cl=11131&pid=21557360
This was my dream place, except that it's already Let :(
It just looks really 'quirky' and I think would suit us down to the ground.  I love that one of the bedrooms- with a tree design on the wall is clearly a kid's room (and the tree is unisex too!)

http://www.vebra.com/home/search/vdetails.asp?src=agent&fd=1152&bd=101&db=2&cl=10105&pid=21646791
OH likes the above- £55 cheaper a month and just down the road from us now. I guess it looks okay, and we do love this area... I just hate the pine furniture in the front room- does it feature a cheapo version of the IKEA Poang chair? The kitchen looks gloomy, and our friends live in a similar development which also doesn't have double glazing and their place is always freezing in winter...

Appointment

I got my first antenatal appointment- Tues 16th Nov, 1.15pm.  My password if I want to amend it is "Peanut pouch"... which is actually a type of baby sling carrying thing~ http://peanutpouch.com/

*EDIT- I changed the time & date of this to Thur 18th Nov, 2.30pm so that Jerry could attend

Remember, remember

Today was the last day of my annual leave- a fortnight we are required to take off work.  I called my parents and arranged to meet them in town... to break the news.

We went to Nexus Art Cafe.  I've never been in there before, but thought they might have some nice cakes/ vegan food.  The first minus was that it was in a basement, down two flights of stairs- my dad isn't good on stairs that don't have a handrail.  The seating was a mixture of chairs & tables and low couches.  We'd arranged to meet at 12noon, so it was kindof busy in there and we ended up sitting on a low couch, again not too great for parents.  We ordered some coffees and Jerry thought about some food- but the seating on a low couch wasn't great for eating any proper food.  I was disappointed by the choice of either chocolate fudge, or carrot cake; plus the usual Fair Trade Bubble/ Divinie Chocolate bars and Raw Nakd snack bars.

Anyway we broke the news, and of course they were delighted.  We moved onto Common for an actual drink, and bite to eat... this was the 3rd Friday in a row we've been in there!  I think we might have took parents in there as well after we broke the news to them that we were getting Married :)
Walking past I finally got to see the lovely dog- snoozing - in A Few Fine Things...