The Best, and Worst, of Weekends

The Worst:

- Travelling to a wedding on Friday afternoon and getting stuck in a traffic jam among the M25 roadworks.
- Whilst stuck in the jam - Tiddler screaming for a feed, Nipper screaming because Tiddler has woken him up, and me feeling like my head is going to pop!
- Having nothing to wear to the wedding due to 'post-birth-fat-tummy'!
- Being crippled by my new shoes (big blisters), then hearing a loud 'crack' when I stubbed my toe on the leg of Miss Muffett's bed. Said toe swelled up and went purple and now I can't get any shoes on at all!
- Being up all night following the wedding with suspected food poisoning. I was as sick as a dog and Mr Earplugs was even sicker. I can't blame an excess of alcohol as we didn't have any aside from the 'toast'. Trying to breastfeed whilst holding a bucket in case you are sick is quite a challenge! I don't know how we managed the drive home.

The Best:

- Attending the wedding of our good friends. They have been together a bit longer than me and Mr Earplugs, and he introduced them to each other, so it was lovely to see them finally get hitched.

- Catching up with all of Mr Earplugs Uni friends. We've created our own mini population explosion - 9 kids between us so far and not everyone has had kiddies yet.
- Managing a quick salsa at the wedding disco before deciding it perhaps wasn't the best thing to be doing just 3 weeks after my c-section!

- Discovering that in spite of the 'baby belly' I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight :o)
- Tiddler finally deciding that he likes to have a bath!

(Tiddler isn't such a tiddler anymore. He's put on nearly 3lbs since he was born so perhaps I should call him 'Guzzler' instead).

Happy Birthday Nipper!

Our New Arrival

Here is our new arrival - only 30 seconds old! (Apologies to anyone who is squeamish!)

As you can see he was born by c-section despite me nearly having a nervous breakdown at the thought (several hypnotherapy sessions worked wonders!) He weighed 8lbs and 7ozs and was born at 12:44pm as we were last on the theatre list.

The whole experience seems somewhat surreal to me now that we are back home. It wasn't as 'bad' as I'd expected though they did give me too much anaesthetic and the block went right up to my upper chest and I could feel my chin and ears going numb - scary! We only spent two nights in hospital. That doesn't seem very long, does it? I was in for longer with both Miss Muffett and Nipper. My stitches came out on Wednesday and though the area is very sore I'm managing to get about and do a few things around the house. All in all, a pretty good birth experience, and much better than the previous two.

'New Nipper', as I kept calling him, will be known in Blogland as 'Tiddler' (Kitty referred to him as Tiddler and I really liked it).

Here he is looking a bit more civilised:

He's quite a quiet baby, more noticeable I think because the other two were real screamers. He likes nothing more than a good feed followed by a good kip with my boob still in his mouth! Miss Muffett thinks he's quite cute and Nipper has taken his arrival reasonably well though he seems a bit cross with me. Not so cross as to deny me the lovely bunch of flowers that he made for me at nursery though:

Fingers crossed that the quiet times continue!

A Labour of Love

No, not that kind of 'labour'. New nipper is still tucked up inside and we will be setting off for the hospital at 7am tomorrow morning. By lunch time he should be with us!

No, this labour has been the knitting of a crib blanket:

Each row took approximately 5 minutes to knit and I ended up with around 180 rows (kept knitting till the yarn ran out). Altogether that's about 15 hours though it felt like much longer!

Soule Mama knitted a lovely blanket for her new baby and she mentioned that it was a variation of a 'feather and fan' pattern. So I looked up what this pattern was and it seemed pretty simple so I figured I'd give it a go. There's no actual pattern to follow, rather just a stitch and row repeat (18 stitches repeated over the row with 4 rows making up the pattern with a few extra stitches at the beginning and end of the row to form a border). Another 'winging it' project for me - lol! Here's a close-up, believe me when I say that it's much easier to knit than it looks:

I have some nice cotton yarn but was worried about making a mess of the project and wasting it so decided to use some baby acrylic double knit that I had in my crafty cupboard. I didn't have a clue how many stitches to cast on in order to get a blanket of the right size so I did a trial run of the pattern stitch and row repeat and hazarded a guess. My finished blanket is the perfect size for a moses basket. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and now wish that I'd made it big enough for a cot and out of the cotton after all!

In case anyone's interested here's my 'recipe':

2x 100g balls baby acrylic double knit.

1 pair of size 4.5mm needles (as I wanted it to knit up fairly quickly).

Cast on 116 stitches (6 x 18 for the pattern repeat plus 4 stitches at the beginning and end of each row to form a border).

Knit the first 4 rows to form a border.

Start the pattern repeat:

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: Knit 4, Purl to the last 4 stitches, knit 4.

Row 3: Knit 4, *knit 2 together x three times, yarn forward then knit 1 x six times, knit 2 together x three times*, repeat from * to * to the last 4 stitches, knit 4.

Row 4: Knit.

Do as many 4 row repeats as you like but ending with a row 4 (I did 42 repeats).

Knit the last 4 rows to form a border.

Cast off.

If I was going to do this again I would probably knit 6 or 8 rows for the top and bottom borders, and likewise 6 or 8 stitches at the beginning and end of each row for the side borders.

Pregnancy Update:

Well, tommorrow is the big day and I'm pretty nervous. I'll be away from blogland for a little while I think but will try to pop up a picture of the new arrival. Thank you for all your good wishes, I will be thinking of them all!

Things I Probably Shouldn't Be Doing At 38 Weeks Pregnant!

1). Building shelving systems:

Though it's so good to have the toys going 'up' the wall instead of across the floor (Mr Earplugs did help) and we can now find what we want to play with.

2). Yanking all the ivy off the garden wall. We've been trying to keep the ivy in check but it's a constant struggle and it's getting into the borders and the lawn, not to mention growing about 8 foot high in places, and ruining the pointing:

So, it had to go:

Now we have a lovely ivy free wall which we can repair:

And a space to put a small shed (we have a shed already but it's too big and rotten in places so that'll be going soon too!):


3). Spending a couple of hours traipsing around Heathrow looking for the 'spectators area' which is signposted but doesn't actually exist anymore! I had a few choice words to say about that! We were able to watch some planes taking off by hanging around the car-park (which you're not supposed to do apparently??). We also found a spot outside of the perimeter fence where you can watch the planes coming into land. They are so low at this point that you feel as if you could reach out and touch them. It was quite an experience and Nipper loved it. Wish I'd taken the camera!

4). Clambering around with Nipper on the equipment here with a view to getting him a play-frame (not from here though as they are a bit pricey). Mr Earplug's Grandad left him a bit of money when he died recently and we know he would love the idea of a play-frame for the kids. Unfortunately we have a slightly stroppy neighbour who I'm sure will make a complaint about it. I tried to head this off by asking the local Council's advice but they were useless. There isn't any legislation that specifically covers kiddies play equipment so they wouldn't give me any advice. So we'll have to put it up and see what happens and possibly apply for planning permission! I ask you - planning permission for a play-frame!

Following the ivy yanking and the kitchen refurb we're left with this:

So from now until the 12th we'll be skip-filling (got one coming tomorrow).

Pregnancy Update:

Well, so much for me saying I'm going to take it easy. We've had far too much to do! I think the iron tablets must be giving me a new lease of life - lol! Having said that, I'm quite tired as I can't find a comfortable sleeping position. I'm also having severe braxton hicks. I only had mild contractions for a few days before Nipper was born and none at all before Miss Muffett came along. These are so painful that I have to practice a bit of deep breathing! Hope that doesn't mean that new Nipper is coming early! I'll be having an afternoon at the hospital later this week for a 'pre-op' visit and a trip to the path lab next week for blood samples to be held in case something goes wrong - don't like the sound of that!

Re the registrar telling us we couldn't have skin-to-skin contact - I went to a 'c-section class' and was able to talk to a theatre midwife who said that it will be possible. We just have to tell the midwife and anaesthetist on the day and they will make it possible. I figured that might be the case. Shame that the 'higher-ups' who are often giving you information don't actually know the reality! Isn't that often the way though?!

And finally, something which I did, but which probably should have been done a few weeks ago really - set up a 'baby station' in our bedroom:

My lovely (if somewhat dated) gliding rocker came from Ebay for just £24 and a trip by Mr Earplugs to collect it. I also washed the moses basket:

So if new Nipper comes early I think we might just be ready for him - aside from the fact that we'll have to wait about an hour for m-i-l to get here!

Kitchen Re-fit

Before:

(Horrible units, even more horrible floor!)

During:

After:

(I was a bit worried about our choice of units but they've grown on me!)

(So glad this is finished and that we don't have that awful green floor anymore!)

Pregnancy update:

Nothing much to report really. I'm taking my iron tablets and so feel better than a couple of weeks ago. I've finally accepted that I have to try and slow up a bit. I popped into town for a coffee with a friend and had to get Mr Earplugs to drive in to pick me up as I knew it would take me forever to walk back up the hill to our house!

Baby is definitely making a descent and I'm carrying him very low. He is very wriggly and causes considerable discomfort very low in my pelvis. I'm also doing the pregnancy 'walk' big time now!

We had an appointment to see the Consultant last week but once again ended up seeing a Registrar. I was a bit annoyed as at this point (37 weeks) I'd rather like to meet the person who's going to be operating. The appointment didn't go too well with the Registrar questioning why I was having a c-section and making me feel that it wasn't necessary. She was also very negative and dismissive of things I was asking for ie I asked about having skin-to-skin contact with the baby whilst being sewn up and she said that there wouldn't be room available for that during the op. I've decided to speak to the Midwife and Anaesthetist on the day as I'm sure it must be possible (and 2 fingers to the unhelpful Registrar who ought to work somewhere other than obstetrics!).

A Bit of a Round-up

I've been completely out of Blog land for the last month or so - just been too busy with the kitchen re-fit and all the decorating. You really do realise just how much stuff you have when you need to clear a room out. I seem to have done nothing but shift stuff from room to room lately! But it's all finished now and I'll put some before and after shots up at some point.

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I received a lovely present from Raina last week. She had mentioned that she was going to send me a little something as a 'cheer-up' following the sad demise of the Go-Go. I received the most beautiful necklace which Nipper has taken rather a shine to due to the iridescent beads - he's fascinated:

And also.........hand knitted socks! Gorgeously soft cashmere socks which fit perfectly:

I was overwhelmed. So much time and effort goes into anything hand made. I don't think I could ever let go of a pair of my hand knitted socks. Thank you so much Raina for your very thoughtful and generous gift. It certainly was a fabulous 'cheer-up'.

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Speaking of the Go-Go....I got an 'offer' from my insurance company for the write-off of the car.....£150, less my excess, so £50! I was rather cross at this to say the least! I got online and found half a dozen Micra's similar to mine with values ranging from £300 to £600 so downloaded the adverts and sent them, and a rather snippy letter, off to the insurers. Sure enough, ten days later I got a revised offer of £400, so result! However, I think I'm now going to equate insurance companies with 2nd hand car dealers and estate agents!

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I think it's about time I blogged some awards. Some of these are from before last Christmas so apologies all round!

Both Linda and Caroline awarded me the Premio Dardos award:

I'm afraid I can't remember specifically what it's for and when I tried to translate it I came up with 'prize darts' which wasn't really any help! But thank you Linda and Caroline!

The lovely Mel Mel (private blog) gave me the Hot Blog Award, which speaks for itself, and also the Marie Antoinette Award for being 'real':

This one was a little bit tongue in cheek as she passed it on to me after I'd regaled her with tales of all of us being up all night with a nasty tummy upsetting germ - and you can't get more real than that I guess!

Kitty passed along the Best Blog Comments Award:


And Linda very generously passed on the Lemonade Award:

for blogs which show attitude or gratitude (which was very kind of her since I hadn't blogged the first award she gave me!).

Having left it so long to blog them there's no way that I can list and link to everyone who deserves these to be passed on. So if you follow me, or are on my blog list, or have ever left me a comment then please consider yourself awarded with any or all of the above.

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I've also been tagged by Sara and Linda.

Sara tagged me for 'six random things about me' but as I did one of these before I thought I'd do a 'six things which get my goat!' instead, so here goes:

1. Since I started driving Nipper to nursery 4 times a week I'm noticing other people's bad driving habits (no doubt I have plenty of my own!). Top of the list has to be people who don't bother to indicate, especially at big junctions and mini-roundabouts. This leads nicely onto number 2....

2. People who decide to ignore the rules regarding who has right of way. This is another mini-roundabout problem and also crops up a lot as there are lots of parked cars around here.

3. And another driving related one - people who park across my drive, especially as the whole rest of the street is empty but they can't be bothered to walk the few extra feet! It's become so bad now that we have applied to the Council for a marking to be painted across the driveway. Hopefully people will notice that, though why they can't see the driveway in the first place is beyond me. (Mr Earplugs has been getting a tad stressed about this as he's worried that I might go into labour early and someone will be blocking the drive).

4. Irresponsible dog owners. Don't get me wrong, I quite like dogs ,but have never owned one and don't know much about looking after them. But I do know that I wouldn't let my dog jump up at strangers, nor would I let it off the lead in a park where there were lots of small children playing. Miss Muffett was slammed into a wall when she was about 5 years old by a dog which was charging around the entryway to the park. It might not have been so bad if the owner had come over and helped but he just walked straight past and didn't say a thing. I had plenty to say! I've also had clothing ruined by dogs jumping up and scraping their dirty paws down my clothes, and had a picnic in the park spoiled by a roaming dog which figured it was a slap up meal just for him.

5. This one could be tagged on to no 4 really - dog mess on the pavement! It's a nightmare when you tread in it or get it stuck around your pram wheels. If a dog owner can't be bothered to pick it up then at least get them to do it in the gutter where it's less likely to be trodden in!

6. Another driving type one - cyclists riding on the pavement at break-neck speed. I have every sympathy with people wanting to ride on the pavement as the roads are so busy. Unfortunately a lot of them forget that pavements are supposed to be for pedestrians. I've been hit twice by cyclists zooming along and zig-zagging through people, and we had a scary near miss with Miss Muffett when she was small.

Linda tagged me with a 'Reading' meme:

Who is your first favorite author and why?

I think this would have to be Enid Blyton. I read the 'Wishing Tree' books, then the 'Mallory Towers' series, and of course the 'Famous Five' books. I think I liked the 'mystery' aspect of the Famous Five.

Do you still consider him/her to be among your favourites?

Not really, though if I was a kid again I'm sure I'd still like the 'Famous Five' and I do still like mystery novels.

Who is your all time favorite author and why?

I loved 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte, which we studied for 'A' Level, probably because it's set close to where I grew up and the language of the characters is real . That really appealed at the time as I went to a grammar school and there were very few kids there with a 'local' accent.

Do you still co nsider him/her to be among your favorites?

Absolutely.

Who is the most recent addition to your favorite authors and why?

Probably Jodi Picoult. Her books often deal with difficult subjects and she looks at them from all angles.

If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth?

Probably Jodi Picoult as I haven't read all of her novels yet. I love Sue Grafton's 'alphabet' series of crime novels. I also really like Nicci French but have to be in the right mood to read them. I like a good crime/thriller/mystery novel.

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Pregnancy Update:

I have only 5 weeks to go now! It has come around rather quickly, especially since I thought I had 2 more weeks than that. I've been feeling a little bit under the weather with tiredness, dizzy spells and breathlessness, and feeling a bit twitchy about the upcoming c-section. I figured it was just down to being in the latter stages of pregnancy and chasing around after Nipper (not to mention no longer being a spring chicken - lol!) Turns out that I'm anaemic and have been having the classic symptoms. So it's iron tablets for me from now on which means I have to also limit my intake of milk, tea and eggs. What'll I do without my first cup of tea of the day??

Everyone keeps commenting on how small I look (even though I feel like a whale) so I thought I'd put a recent photo up alongside the one taken at 25 weeks to see if there's much difference:

I guess I am bigger, though I don't look much bigger considering 10 weeks have gone by. Let's hope I don't get too much bigger then over the next 5 weeks.

(And this has got to be my longest ever blog post - congratulations if you made it all the way to here!)

Hats

A little while ago Mr Earplugs collected Nipper from nursery and left his hat and gloves behind. Since it was still rather nippy, and he only had one set, I thought I'd better do something about it. Initially I was going to just buy a set but both our local Woolworths and Adams stores have gone to the wall and I couldn't be bothered with traipsing around looking for a hat! So I figured I'd knit one!

A quick trawl of the www and I found a pattern for a 'Pixie Hat'. As usual I didn't have the right yarn or needles and couldn't wait to get started either. So I figured I'd have a go with some pure wool sock yarn which I bought in a fit of enthusiasm whilst forgetting that pure wool wouldn't be that hardwearing and would likely felt when I mistakenly put it in the washing machine. Here it is:As I recall it's Fyberspates, 100% wool, sock yarn, in 'Blue Lagoon'. It feels quite thick for a sock yarn but since I've only knitted one pair of socks as yet what do I know?! But since it is a sock yarn I figured my existing set of dpns should do the trick. I wasn't sure what size to knit since I wasn't using the right yarn or needles and I wouldn't call Nipper a 'baby' but then again neither is he a 'small adult'. I went with 'small adult' in the end on the basis that it should fit him for a long, long time!

I had conquered my fear of dpns when knitting my first socks last year but was somewhat alarmed when I realised that this hat called for 7 of them!

That was quite some feat and to be honest I think I'd have found it easier to use a circular needle and just go onto dpns for the shaping. But I got the hang of it and here is the finished article:


Nipper looks a real cutie in it though I may have to make the 'stalk' disappear as he gets older and needs to look 'cool' (my friend's 5 year old insists on looking 'cool' - at 5 years old!!)

Following the success of this hat Miss Muffett decided she wanted one. We opted for the Saturday Afternoon Hat (which took longer than 1 afternoon for me to knit it!) but again I didn't have the right yarn or needles. So I decided to do a combination of both patterns and use my existing dpns and 100g of double knit acrylic which has been kicking around the place for donkeys years!

I cast on the number of stitches required for the Pixie Hat, did a few alternating knit and purl rows so the bottom wouldn't roll up, added in several rows of the Saturday Afternoon Hat detail, then reverted to the Pixie Hat pattern for the top shaping.

It seems to have worked out ok and Miss Muffett is very pleased with it.

Now I just have to whip up a pair of mittens to match Nipper's hat before the weather warms up too much (don't think that's likely to happen - lol!)

P.S. I can't remember where I found the Saturday Afternoon Hat but it was likely on Ravelry.

Thank You Kim!

Things are a bit mad around here at the moment. With the decorating, the kitchen re-fit, and Nipper being in a super-moany mood I haven't had any time for blogland.

But I had to do a quick post to say 'thank you Kim' or rather Kim's kiddies, for choosing our joke as one of the winners in Kim's recent bag giveaway.

I received this fabulous bag and I can tell you that they are as gorgeous in the flesh as they are in the photo's:

Our winning joke, which is Miss Muffett's favourite, was:

Q: What do you get if you pour hot water down a rabbit hole?

A: Hot cross bunny!

Thank you Alex and Anna!

Go-ing, Go-ing, Go-Go-Gone!

The salvage man came to collect the Go-Go on Monday. He arrived driving a huge 6 car transporter which Nipper would have loved but sadly he was at nursery and missed it.

I asked whether they recycle the car parts or sell them on etc and he went into a lengthy explanation about it all. I thought the Go-Go might live on if only in some very small way but it soon became clear that she just isn't worth the trouble and she's off to the crusher. I was so sad to see her go.

And here is her replacement:

Affectionately known as 'Nissy' she is another Nissan Micra, has done roughly the same mileage but is half the age of the Go-Go. I love the colour (a terribly girlie thing to say, I know!) and she has shiney new hubcaps. She also has a new MOT and a full Nissan service history - just so you know I didn't get her just for her looks! I think I'm going to love her as much as I loved the Go-Go.

Spring Has Sprung

Well, spring has definitely sprung in my garden. It's so nice to see something doing well, other than the weeds which are flourishing! Mind you, if I planted more nice things I'd get to see a few more flowers wouldn't I?! We have made some progress with our front garden, including a minor disaster, but I'll put that in another post.

This seems to have been a very long week! I am trying to get the house back to some sort of order following decorating our living room. I'm not sure the photo's really show the before and after very well. Here's the floor before:

And after - shame to cover the parquet but Nipper has slipped and banged his head so many times:

Nipper was having fun 'helping' me to hoover the new carpet, which is a lovely cream colour. He has his own toy Dyson (thank you Ebay). And you can see the state of my back garden too!

Another couple of 'before' shots - the walls were a very minty-green.

We have a stone fireplace and hearth with a teeny-tiny woodburner. Now that the room has been done up I'll get a nice rug to cover the hearth and hopefully avoid nasty bangs on the head.

Here's an almost finished shot - the walls are now Dulux Orchid White:

You realise how much stuff you have when you need to clear a room out (we were having a carpet laid so the room had to be emptied), and we have far too much stuff despite my freecycling and frequent deposits at the charity shop. We are still trying to finish it off with a nice curtain pole but the drill bit has gone blunt and we're having problems getting a replacement (our drill has hexagonal bits which push in and click and we're struggling to find someone who sells them).

Then of course there was the pranging of the Go-Go. I can't believe how much hassle it is to sort out and how many different people you have to deal with - insurance company, courtesy car company, salvage company, engineer, underwriter, dvla. The underwriters want copies of every piece of paperwork we've ever had for the car so I've spent a lot of time rummaging around looking for it all, photocopying, and form filling. I really must do an overhaul on my household filing system!

I've also had some hassle from the other driver's insurance company. The cheeky so-and-so's organised a salvage inspection of my car without asking/telling me about it. They are desperate to sort the matter out themselves as I guess it'll work out cheaper for them. When I found out about the inspection I rang them to complain and told them my insurers were dealing with everything. They accused me of being obstructive and said I was witholding information and failing in my legal responsibilities. At first I was a bit alarmed but then I twigged that they were trying to scare me into allowing them to deal with the claim. So then I got a bit annoyed and gave them a piece of my mind!

We also had some sad news this week. Mr Earplugs was working in Belgium and his Mum rang me to say that his Grandad had died. It wasn't altogether unexpected as he had suffered a stroke recently and was rather poorly, but still a bit of a shock. I wasn't sure about this but I decided not to tell Mr Earplugs about it until he got home. He couldn't do anything and he didn't need to come home straight away - the funeral's not for a couple of weeks. I didn't think there was any benefit in him finding out when he was at work and miles away. It turned out to be the right decision.

Rather than sitting here blogging I should be clearing out my kitchen. We decided to replace our kitchen which is about 25 years old and hideous (grey stripey doors, grey trim, grey mottled worktop - yuck). We got a very good deal in the January sales and I know someone who can fit it for a quarter of what the store wanted to charge (and my chap's no cowboy, I've been using him for electrical and plumbing work for years). The work starts on Monday and I need to empty everything out. It's the same scenario as the decorating - far too much stuff and nowhere to shove it all! Here is a peek from the catalogue, though we aren't having any curved units and my kitchen's nowhere near as big:

It'll apparently take a couple of weeks. After that I've got a plasterer coming to do the hallway followed by a decorator to sort out the hall, stairs, and landing. Pretty much the whole of our house was trashed when we had building work 3 years ago. Here are a few pics to give you an idea:

We've been redecorating ever since but I'm hoping to get most of the house finished before the baby arrives, hence getting a decorator for a final push. It'll be so nice to be able to relax and enjoy the house without constantly seeing a list of jobs which still need to be done!

RIP Gorgeous Go-Go!

Well, here I am again writing another 'RIP' post. This time it's for my lovely little car - the Go-Go - so called because of her number plate.


She may not look gorgeous to the untrained eye but I love her. We got her off Mr Earplug's grannie a couple of years ago. She was nearly 18 years old then and had only done 38,000 miles. She's never any trouble, costs very little to run, and usually sails through her MOT.

Unfortunately she now has to go to the great carpark in the sky as a stupid truck driver backed into her and crumped the back end. She is still driveable but our mechanic said that the safety of the rear end has been somewhat compromised and so it wouldn't be a good idea driving around with the kids in the back. So, she's a write off and I'm not best pleased. I now have to fork out unnecessarily for another car, the insurance payout will be rubbish because she's so old, I've got the hassle of finding another car, and in the meantime I'm driving a hire car which I hate - it was supposed to be a small car but it feels enormous to me! Ho hum!

However, I had a lovely surprise on the same day which really helped to brighten me up. I ordered this fab piece of fabric from Sara:


And look what else she sent - lots of lovely extras:



I was thrilled to bits! The brown fabric goes perfectly with our pair of 1970's cordurouy swivel chairs so I feel a cushion making session coming on. Thank you Sara for your generosity - you made my day!

Quick request for help - my anti-virus software (Kaspersky) has suddenly decided that certain blogs pose a phishing risk and is denying me access to them! I've read the help pages and they're not much help so I've had to disable the anti-phishing component, which isn't ideal. If anyone has any ideas on how to sort this out they would be gratefully received!

RIP Sophie Guinea-Pig

I was going to 'introduce' our guinea-pigs since I introduced the cat a while back, but one of them has only gone and died on me! I must have put a hex on it or something. One minute it was fine and a couple of hours later it was lights out time! I know they don't live very long but I think this one was only about 4 years old.

We got 2 sisters for Miss Muffett's 8th birthday. As is usually the way with these things the shine rapidly wore off and there was always a lot of moaning when they had to be cleaned out. But I managed to resist the job being dumped on me as I told Miss Muffett she had to live up to her responsibilities (how harsh is that for an 8 year old - lol!) Initially theye were going to be called Rosie and Sophie but I realised that these are the names of Sally Webster's girls in Corrie and that would have been rather sad. So instead Rosie was renamed Scooter as she scooted off when we tried to pick her up.

They were quite a pair with Sophie being the dominant greedy and grumpy one - she's the one in front in the photo below. Poor Scooter never got a look in. They had a large indoor cage for the winter (they can get bad chests if left outside in UK winter weather conditions) which we used to keep in the family bathroom. During the summer they had a rabbit hutch with a large run so they could run around and scoff the grass.

Miss Muffett was terribly upset, especially seeing Sophie lying lifeless in the cage, but this prompted a discussion on how small animals usually live shorter lives than bigger animals, which is no bad thing really. I nearly had a nervous breakdown trying to get her out of the cage. Stupid really, but I had to cover her up so I couldn't see her before I could manage it. Mr Earplug's very dutifully dug a hole in the garden border (I was tempted to put her in the wheelie bin but everyone looked at me with horror when I suggested it!). And so she was buried - hopefully deep enough so I won't be digging her up when I add plants to the border.

Scooter seems quite happy on her own, no doubt enjoying the fact that her greedy and grumpy cell mate is no more. And Miss Muffett was soon over it saying at least the grumpy one went first!

Mid-term Musings

I've now passed the mid-point of my pregnancy and reached the point where new nipper is classed as 'viable'. Because of my age, and what happened with the last pregnancy, I've found it a bit hard to relax into this one. I was just starting to get there when my Consultant reminded me that this birth had better be a c-section. Yikes! Guess I'll be needing lots of these then:

This has now made me freak a bit (the c-section rather than the pants - lol!). I don't know why as I was told that this would likely be the case after I had Nipper. Still, there's quite a difference in a hpothetical c-section for a possible next birth and having one fixed and put in your diary (12th June)!

I don't have any issues regarding c-section versus natural birth. In my view you have the birth necessary to keep both you and your baby healthy. I think I'm stressing because it's a major operation, which scares me to death, and I'm unsure how much help I'll get afterwards (judging by my experience of 2 previous births and my friend's recent c-section it won't be much!) And Mr Earplugs may well have problems in spending as much time as we'd like at the hospital because he'll need to look after Nipper.

I've been 'musing' a bit on how different this pregnancy has been when compared to my previous pregnancies.

I read something along the lines of: 'In your 20's you can be pregnant, hold down a full-time job, and have a social life. In your 30's you can be pregnant and have either a full-time job or a social life. In your 40's being pregnant is more than enough!' I'd have to agree. I'm going to bed before 9pm each night but I'm still absolutely knackered. Having an active toddler who doesn't like to sleep probably isn't helping there.

The morning sickness was worse and lasted longer than with previous pregnancies.

I've had every germ going - the flu which morphed into gastric flu; the nasty chest infection which landed me in hospital; 4 instances of digestive 'upsets' (the type where you need both the loo and the sink at the same time - say no more!); I now have another throat and chest virus, and there's been an outbreak of chickenpox at our toddler group so I have to avoid the place until I've had a bloodtest to see whether I'm immune!

Name a pregnancy 'irritation' and I've got it already - really bad leg cramps keeping me up at night, needing the loo all the time, terrible heartburn (I should buy shares in the company that makes Rennies), other 'digestive' issues, pelvic joint pain, nose bleeds, dropsy, braxton hicks already, and backache! I'm not 'blooming' yet either!

One thing has remained the same though - a strange desire to eat freshly cracked black peppercorns. Even when they are burning my mouth I can't seem to stop myself. Very odd!

And I've become rather large rather quickly:

I've got another 15 weeks to go so goodness knows how big I'll be by then! I rather like the blurry photo. I couldn't use the flash in the mirror and there wasn't really enough light in my hallway. I also realised how grotty the mirror was so I've been at it with the Windowlene and it's all sparkley now!

*Pants photo from the book 'How to have a baby and still live in the real world' by Jane Symons.