Bodmacity

Last night I was worried. I looked out of the window at 9pm and everything was blanketed in a downy duvet of snow. Minutes later I saw a car career into one of the neighbour’s parked cars.

After watching CBB, we went to sleep although it took me ages to actually drift off. Amy was restless too. She was tossing and turning to get comfortable then getting up to go to the toilet or look out of the window. As I finally got my head down I saw that she had adopted a sitting bolt upright position :-(.

She is now three days overdue. My particular worry last night was that the snow would cut us off so that :
1. The midwives would not be available
2. We would not be able to safely get to hospital.
3. I would have to deliver the baby

These were the worries that kept me awake…

Jake has come out of his night time terrors. After the last bad sleepless night we had, Ames had a talk with him explaining why Mummy and Daddy needed their sleep and that if we were tired we would not be able to go out during the day.

In addition the Tower of Doom was taken down. Now, I’m not sure what worked but fingers-crossed he has slept soundly three nights in a row. Last night he said he had a nightmare, which was most likely true because Amy heard him whimpering late last night and went in to soothe him. However, he had a lovely long sleep. He went down at seven-ish and woke and 8am. Result!

Goodbye Noughties, hello Tenties or Tens or Tennies.

Well another new year is upon the Wollny family. Baby was due yesterday but no sign. I am back to work tomorrow and Jake is still poorly. In fact the poor mite has been poorly all over the Christmas break. We had some sleepless nights just before Christmas when Jake would wake up coughing uncontrollably and then get himself into a sorry old state. On one occasion I took him downstairs to watch The Wizard of Oz. Most nights though we had him in our bed, where he would snore and try and breathe through his bunged-up nose :-(. As you can imagine it didn’t make for a restful night for ANY of the beds occupants.

Recently this is better. The antibiotics are working and his cough is much better. There is a new problem though. Jake is now waking an hour after going to bed sobbing uncontrollably. This has now happened three times on the trot. We did think it was night terrors but we are not so sure now. We think it may be something to do with the impending changes in his life and his new role in the family. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is true. He is a very sensitive soul.

It looks like we will having a white christmas this year. Yesterday at around 4pm it started to snow and soon was very blizzard-like. Cars were slipping and sliding on the hill, each one getting perilously close to ours and Tricias cars! The snow didn’t last long about an hour.

I had to take Jake to the Doctors to check his eye infection. We decided that driving would be dangerous so I strapped Jake into his pushchair and we headed off across Hilly Fields. It was a hard slog as the snow kept piling up against the wheels. Skis would have been brilliant. I wonder if anyone has invented a ski pushchair?

Jake was very good at the Doctors. The Doctor listened to Jake’s chest and took a look at his eyes, then prescribed some antibiotic eye drops. On the way back it actually started to rain and Jake fell asleep in the pushchair.

It’s 10:36. Amy is asleep downstairs and so is Jake.

On Saturday night Jake was awake for what seemed most of the night. He just didn’t want to go to sleep. We both took our turns going in to calm him every time he woke, with the aim of trying to get him to relax enough to go back to sleep.

His cough had woken him and it was a real hack. He kept saying that he couldn’t close his eyes and that he couldn’t have a dream. We explained that he cannot dream while he was awake! Later on in the night he called again saying that Dinosaurs were flying around his room in his dream. And so it went on. In the end Amy gave him some books and turned on his bed side light so that he could have a look through them. This seemed to work until an hour later I heard Jake calling me. In the end I went in. He was lying down with the books next to him saying that “the books are in the way, can you move them?”. And so it went on…

This morning he woke after a better nights sleep but with very gummy and puffy eyes. Bless him, he has really been through it since starting school. He literally has had some form of cough/cold for the whole period. So now he has conjunctivitus to add to his list of ailments.

So to get back to my opener Jake woke at around 9pm with very sore eyes. He was upset and crying so we brought him into our room to watch the final of “Move like Michael Jackson”. Happily within 20 minutes he went back to sleep. However he has sprawled himself over my side of the bed. I don’t want to wake him by moving him as he must be exhausted.

So I have been pottering. I’ve prepared a cold Chamomile compress for him if he wakes again tonight and have written a blog entry. I think I’ll head downstairs and get some shut-eye. Night night.

I took a half day off today to go to Jake’s first nativity play. Sally arrived last night and the three of us left at around 1.20pm. Upon arrival at St. Dunstans main building and after directions from the lady at the main desk, we were led into the nursery ‘activity’ room by the older reception children. All the chairs were arrange in a circle. So we made ourselves comfortable and just after 2pm the children filed in. All the cameras and video camcorders were poised. Little Jake looked fantastic as one of the shepherds. All the children were brilliant. They sang their songs and took it all very seriously. It was a joy to watch!

Afterwards they bowed while the parents’ snapped away. myself included of course :-).

Excerpt from St. Dunstans website:

“The end of the Michaelmas Term has been a busy and exciting time. We have seen magical performances of song, drama and dance. Our Nursery class enchanted us with their performance of ‘The Nativity Story’. They sang and acted with amazing confidence under the guidance of Mrs Jarlett and Mrs Marcinkiewicz.”

I decided to ride to Feltham this morning. It was a very cold start. Around 2 degrees. I was wearing my skull cap, merino long-sleeve top, short sleeve jersey, Foska winter jacket, bib-longs, ronhill bikesters and two pairs of socks.

This lot kept me toasty for the entire ride. In fact my head got a little too warm but I coudn’t be bothered to take the skull cap off. It was a glorious morning. Very crisp, no wind and a blue sky. I left around 6.20am and arrived around 7.50am.

On the way back and as usual in the Peckham area I ran out of steam and cursed myself for leaving my energy bars in my drawer at work. My legs were tired and achey and had nothing left to give. I guess the cold weather may have had something to do with it. I had been using extra energy to keep warm.

I have just got in from a very wet commute from Waterloo. I did not have my Hope Vision 1 because I forgot to charge the batteries last night. Instead I had to rely on my puny cateye EL135 with a failing battery. Eeek! Before I set off from Waterloo I waited for a gap in the deluge. Within five minutes or so it started raining again but not with such ferocity.

Jake was having his stories read when I got in so after drying off I went in to read his last one. It was called ‘Mums’. After that we had a spot of ‘chats while hiding’ while I tried to get some details out of him regarding what he did at school today. A thankless task!!

The blue sky has returned after a week of frankly awful weather. We had high winds and lots of rain. In the north-east they fared much worse with much of Cockermouth under water.

This week I have been working from home because a rail bridge near Feltham collapsed. Until yesterday the only way to get from Richmond to Feltham was to take a bus replacement at Twickenham. Shelley tried the journey a couple of times and it took her almost 3 hours to get into work. Nasty!

This morning I decided to do the green thing and cycle Jake to school. We donned our winter gear and headed off. I am so used to driving him in that I cycled the same route and forgot about going through Ladywell Fields.

Jake was very happy when we arrived. He took himself off to play with his school chums. They were building things with bricks, which is just the thing that he likes to do.

I spent Saturday painting the woodwork in the hallway in preparation for the new carpets. A major landmark was finishing off Mia’s room. The cot is in there, along with the changing station and all the other nick-nacks that a baby needs :-). Jake spied his rocking horse that Amy had taken from his room and then proceed to carry it back himself saying that he prefers it in his room.

On Saturday evening to celebrate 5 years of married life we took ourselves to the West End to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert. I didn’t know what to expect really seeing as I haven’t seen the film. I knew it was very glam and featured drag queens. The show was great. Lot’s of songs to sing-a-long to, Jason Donovan and of course the chameleon-esque bus, which was a feat of engineering. The production, costumes, music and sets were brilliant. It was a great night out and I would whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone.

Prior to the show we had a meal at Quo Vadis. It was a mare to get to because Amy’s back was giving her gyp and the walk was further than we thought. We were wondering what Marx would have thought looking at the rampant consumerism in the area seeing as he once lived in the flat above the restaurant.

Afterwards we retired to the very grand Hyatt Regency on Portland Square. After checkking in and making our way to our room we settled down to watch Dorian Gray on pay-per-view which was so-so, not as good as the very creepy black and white original.