It’s because we had news. Exciting news. We still have exciting news. But we had a moratorium about talking about it – and neither of us could really bear to write about anything else (it felt oddly dishonest). Some of our most avid readers may already know the reason (e.g our parents). But what I am getting to is that the Burgess & Denton duo are expecting to welcome a new member of our whanau into the world in May next year.
Notes from being pregnant so far:
- I liked having smaller boobs.
- I cannot stand garlic suddenly, (am I also turning into vampire?)
- No ‘radiant expectant glow’ seems to have occurred, suspect it is lies.
At the 16 week appointment I got the midwife to listen for the baby’s heartbeat. This has to be the one of the most inspiring things I have ever heard. I ruined the first actual ultrasound scan by asking the ultrasound technician “DOES IT HAVE TWO ARMS?” “TWO LEGS?” and not drinking quite enough water which led to the ultrasound technician stabbing me quite hard in the abdomen with her wand like a violent fairy godmother – sent to transform our lives with pictures of our tiny fish-baby flailing around in my middle. I am sure J can talk about how he felt himself. When I looked at him he looked stunned, he later said that this was his deeply moved expression.
According to literature we have gathered on the subject the baby is currently 11.5cm from top to bum, and has started protruding out the front of my mid section rendering all previously acquired clothes hopelessly inadequate. One of my pairs of jeans from my pre-pregnant figure were a close call to start with and a large meal would’ve sent them over the edge but almost everything I own now rejects my stomach. Tops will not stay down over the bump, and from the other direction pants and skirts will not pull up over it. I am now down to one pair of stretchy pants from H&M’s maternity range and a few loose woolen dresses that (I suspect) make me look a bit like a communist worker off a propaganda poster.
I haven’t have any odd cravings either, maybe that will come later. Banned by the doctor from eating salami and pate among other things, as well as forbidden by a dairy allergy from consuming cheese and other lovely things. I have been experimenting with vegan sandwich fillings in different combinations. I start the day by optimistically combining anything in our fridge left on the ‘OK to eat’ list with peanut butter. (Actually it occurs to me as I write this that I have been eating an awful lot of peanut butter…) And then spending the time until lunch in a hopeful suspense – until it inevitably lets me down or not.
I hope there will now be some more blogs from us both with both baby and non-baby related news. 🙂 Among other interesting items you will be pleased to hear it has been a very mild winter so far, especially when compared with 2010/11. My brother is still in Europe somewhere in the vicinity of Italy and will be due back in early December. I hope it snows here before he goes back to New Zealand but suspect it might not, in all other respects it’s turning into a typical English winter. The sun seems to set at about 3.30pm and the longer nights and earlier evenings mean I have lost my bike several times this week. The problem lies in taking it out and chaining it to a fence, going into a shop, coming out and after deciding it is quite dark (and forgetting I arrived on a bike) walking home… as a consequence I then have to spend part of the next day trying to retrace my steps in order to recover it.
One of the books given to me by my sister says that ‘scattyness’ is a symptom of being a host to a smaller human being, which sounds reasonable enough. But I’m sure I misplaced my bike the same amount back in Wellington.
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