Bodmacity

Yesterday Amy had her first Yoga session. The intent is to learn relaxation and breathing techniques in preparation for the birth. The idea is that by focussing on the breathing, attention is diverted away from the contraction pain. The place was a bit of a nightmare to find and in a less than salubrious(to my mind anyway) part of Deptford.

The last couple of days have been quite busy. I took Wednesday off for a day of DIY and flat-cleaning. I painted the bannisters which took a mammoth four hours! The gutting thing is that they still need another coat. I whiled away those hours listening to Balam’s One Hit Wonder compilation. If you are interested the list can be found here

Yesterday the midwife came for her(stand by yer beds!!) inspection of our flat. I’m glad to day that we passed with flying colour. Yoo hoo!! She was pleased with the flat and said that we had everything we needed. Her only qualm was the three flights of stairs up to the flat. I think the pram will need to be left down in the hallway unless Ames wants arms and legs like Arnie 🙂

Walking into work today I was feeling particularly content and calm. This is probably because the sun has finally made an appearance and the sky is blue for a change. There is nothing like the feeling of the sun on your face on a cold frosty morning.

Another monday morning descends and another week closer to the birth. Ames is reaching immense proportions. I'm not sure whether she can get any bigger but apparently she will! The nursery is now pretty much all done and dusted. The futon and slider glider/mastermind chair have now been moved into the lounge. I must say that without the two double sofas it has taken on a very spacious but minimalist look. Overall the effect is very good. As you walk in you immediately see the victorian fireplace, which before was obscured by the back of the sofa.

This morning the van(the beast) was returned to it's home on Old Kent Road. After which we took the bus to London Bridge. Thankfully it wasn’t very full. The preceding bendy bus was jam packed so we were worried that Ames might get buffeted by errant elbows, bags and the such-like. At London Bridge we relaxed with some drinks from Costa before the second leg of our journeys to work.

I am satisfied that a big chore has been completed this weekend. As I said before the nursery is now ready and the sofas have been delivered to their new home. The banisters which had to be removed to facilitate the journey of the sofas are now back, in more or less the same place as before ;-). If that wasn’t enough Balam's old sofas were taken to the recycling centre.

In the evening I relaxed on the new Slider Glider playing Full Spectrum Warrior which, once you get into it, is a very good strategy game. Balam has lent me his old controller as mine packed up. It is an original Xbox controller so is pretty big compared to the newer s-type. I am thinking of investing in a new one as I am finding it a bit of a handful especially as the buttons are a little temperamental too! So after an hour or so of gaming action and a glass of wine I turned it, absolutely shattered.

The Parentcraft session went well yesterday. It was not as scary as the previous one, which of course was very welcome. We covered the types of pain relief available. The three most popular (in order of level of pain relief) are :

Entonox(gas and air)
Often used in the early stages of labour to take the 'edge' off the contractions. It is supplied via a pipe and nozzle/or face-mask. It has no side-effects and does not affect the baby. To be effective it must be used when a contraction starts, and before the pain hits. Entonox is available when having a water or home birth.

Pethidine
This is a synthetic morphine drug. It takes the 'edge' off the pain and induces a feeling of well-being. It is injected and cannot be administered by the patient. It can cause nausea and for this reason an anti-sickness drug is also given at the same time. A possible concern is that as well as affecting the mother, the baby is also tranquilised.

Epidural
The 'mother' of all pain relief. An epidural is administered via a cannula in the mother’s arm. The dose can be administered by the patient via a button which gives a safe, precise dose when needed. The midwive will regularly monitor the patient to check that the 'lie' of the drug is not too high, because this can affect breathing. The drug will cause the blood pressure to drop so this will also need to be monitored and if necessary fluids introduced via an IV drip. An epidural will numb the entire lower body so a catheter is inserted into the bladder. During the later stages of labour the midwife will determine when a contraction starting and tell the patient to push. In 50% of cases a ventouse extraction devices(either hand-held or a powered machine) will need to be used to help baby to be expelled more easily from the birthing canal.

Our phone line has again gone down leaving us unable to make/receive calls or use the internet. Suspiciously I have seen, not one, but two BT vans at both ends of my road.

This fault is very strange. When I try and dial a number I get a recorded message from Bulldog Broadband saying that I need to press 150 to activate my account. This would be fair enough if I was a subscriber to their service. Needless to say I am not and have never and will never subscribe to Bulldog. The other strange phenomenon is when I try and dial our number. The phone rings and connects to a completely different number.

As I type this a young man is probably being deluged by mysterious calls from our friends and family. BT have promised that this will be fixed by the end of the day. I for one will not be holding my breath.

January is absolutely flying by! I am half-way through my parentcraft classes already. Last weeks session left the ladies looking rather grey-faced as the midwife went through the various stages of birth, the pain involved(in no uncertain terms) and nice things like episiotomy’s. I guess it’s good to know but still… Tonight is our penultimate session, I’m not sure what will be covered as it seems to be a little ad-hoc.

Since my last post I have been fitting smoke detectors and a CO2 detector next to our boiler. I have also assembled the Stokke Sleepi Mini Cot. Very lovely it looks too and is surpringly easy to put together.

Nine days in so far. We have been busy as busy things getting the spare room converted into a nursery in time for the birth. We have managed to move out the computer desk which was quite a big task. Yesterday, I had a wheeze to put up some large curtains behind the bed in our bedroom. The reason for this was to lighten the room and hide the wardrobe spaces. We toodled into town and bought two curtains and one voile panel along with three thin curtain poles.
My idea was to place a pair of thick curtains either side of the bed and hang the thinner voile from the middle where the chimney breast is. There is a slight overhang at the end of the room where some pipes are boxed in so this was perfect for hanging the voile. The other two curtain poles where mounted on the walls near the ceiling. I must say that the effect is pretty good and really makes the room look lighter, bigger and less cluttered.

Yesterday our changer/drawer unit arrived from Mamas and Papas. It looks very nice in the nursery. Everything is coming together nicely. All we need now is the cot which apperently should arrive this week. On Wednesday we start our Parentcraft classes which are being held at Lewisham hospital. That reminds me I had better check the train times so I get home at a reasonable time in order to drive down there. ‘He’ has been very active recently. According to me ‘big book of baby facts'(not the actual title but you get the picture 🙂 ) it says that the activity should wane this week due to limited room in the uterus. Over the next seven weeks, he will gain more than half his birthweight. Quite amazing really!

We visited M&P in Staines on Saturday. It was odd to be there on a non-work day. I wanted to show Ames the Two Rivers retail park, and because we were in that neck of the woods anyway, it was a good opportunity.

When she last visited Staines the Blue Anchor was still a rock pub(that makes it quite a long time ago!). It was fairly late when we got to M&P and the sales staff were looking a little frazzled. It must be due to the Christmas rush. It must be a ‘mare working in a shop at this time of year.

We ended up buying a lovely moses basket and a changing station-cum-chest of drawers. The elephant with the crinkly ears also somehow found it’s way into my basket(no idea how ;-)). So that’s another couple of items to tick off the list. There cannot be much more left to buy now! On Thursday our cot will be arriving along with several other bits and pieces.

This morning I awoke to much pain in my joints and muscles. Yesterday evening was spent mooching about in the loft trying to clear some space. We need said space because we are in the process of clearing the spare room(‘his’ room) so all the gubbins has to go into the loft. It is impossible to stand up straight in there so I spent a long time heaving heavy boxes about while in an ape-like semi-crouch. 😐

I was just soundly thrashed on the table football at work. My excuse is that the end of the working day is nearing and I’m feeling a little tired.

It’s been a funny old week. My train to and from work has been consistent in it’s lateness. The neighbours(who I think may be students) have been talking loudly into the early hours of the morning. The resulting lack of sleep has rendered me a little grouchy, so I am looking forward to a nice lie-in tomorrow. The plan for the weekend is to mop up the remaining Christmas presents and to start clearing the spare room in preparation for 'his' arrival. We haven’t decided whether to completely re-decorate or leave the colour(a subtle lilac) as it is. I fancy putting up some colourful pictures. Maybe I can blow up some photographs onto canvas. That would look great if done properly.

Well yesterday was Amys birthday. Unfortunately she had to go to work for half the day. I booked the day off not realising this, so not very well planned really. I spent the morning doing various chores around the flat. Things like hoovering, doing laundry and the such like. I also took a couple of deliveries for Adam. He is having his parcels directed to our flat so that he doesn’t have a massive amount to bring from Italy when he comes over for Chrimble.

Ames and I had lunch in a small Turkish place near her work in Belsize Park. I decided to try a turkish coffee which rather than waking me up made me feel decidely sleepy. Very queer indeed!

Later on in the evening I got a chance to watch Space Cadets which I’m afraid I am beginning to show signs of getting addicted. I’d better nip it in the bud now.

I spent the evening at Spiga in Soho. The restaurant was very nice. When we arrived at 7pm there were only a few people. The place itself is very spacious which makes a nice change from the cramped environs of a lot of the eateries I have frequented in the past. The food was good. I ordered a Pizza Diavolo which had aubergine and spicy sausage. Yumtastic. The pizza was pretty big and was enough on it’s own without a starter. This was washed down with a glass of Peroni :-).

Afterwards we almost headed for The Intrepid Fox opposite but it was getting a little late so gave it a miss. The Fox is legendary and all self-repecting rock fans should make a point of going there at least once in their lifetime. In my youth I was frequently to be found propping up the bar (actually the more accurate description is squashed against the bar, sandwiched between two hairy bikers). This was when I looked the part, I had the long hair, band t-shirt and leather jacket etc. etc. Modern metallers look a little different now with their facial piercings and Manson-lite goth clothes. A whole lot scarier than ‘the old days’ but as the french are fond of saying “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”. The walk to the Tube along Oxford street with Chrimble lights…