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Saturday 22 October 2016

The Waiting Game

Here we are, week 39 today, and we are waiting. Patiently or impatiently, I don't know? We sit and talk to Bumpy, feel the movements and kicks. We also sing to them, as well, which always gets a response, jiggling and kicking.
The wait at times can be at times agonising, but it also means that the jobs Boney wants doing, just to make sure our home is complete and totally ready for Bumpy's arrival. We've already organised moses basket upstairs and down, the steriliser is in place in the kitchen, the changer, wardrobe and all the clothes and other bits we have already purchased are in their room. The feeling of the impending responsibility is immense, but the feeling of knowing that we have the bits and pieces we need, in place and ready to go, lifts a weight off of our shoulders.
However, there are still things that need to be done, jobs that are necessary to ensure our house is a proper home for a baby to arrive in. Pictures to be hung in rooms, dressing up rooms with furniture and getting rid of rubbish and stuff that is no longer required. These are the jobs I have had to get stuck into this weekend, so that I can try and "relax" next week before Bumpy comes along to wreak havoc on our empty lives. I mean this fully in jest, as this has been ten, long, hard years in the making, we are now getting so excited about the fact the we will meet our child in a few short days, the sleepless nights, the dirty nappies and the regular feeds mean the world to us. Although we look forward to these, we know that the baby will make us feel tired, irritable and grouchy, but furthermore, we know we will love them unconditionally.
Boney had a bump painting done and, to say the least, it looked incredible. It was funny to watch, as the lady was painting around Bumpy, they kept pushing back and kicking. But for Boney, it was a very chilled out and relaxed experience. You can find the lady who did this for us on Facebook, at Summer Faces.



So that, dear reader, is that for this entry, so until next time, see you soon, maybe with the third member of our family here with us.

Thursday 13 October 2016

Getting Closer

Again, I apologise for such a long break in the narrative, there is a reason.
If you take one thing from our tale here, I would say that the most sensible thing I could say to you is, if, when you're six months into pregnancy, you decide to remodel and redecorate your home, either get professional help in straight away and do it all in one hit, or put it off until such time as baby has come along and you're in a bit of a routine.
We decided, in June, that we needed to put our own stamp on our home, as we have been here just over eight years and had done only the bare minimum. At first we thought we would do baby's room and our bedroom, as we were going to change bedrooms once baby came along, then Boney suggested that we give the dining room and kitchen a smarten up, as they were looking beyond their best, so I took a two week break from work, with the intention of getting stuck into the dining room, thinking that I could knock it out in a few days, go up to Suffolk for a family event, over a long weekend, then come back to get the kitchen done, all before going back to work with a feeling of accomplishment and pride. How could it go wrong?
How, indeed! First of all, I'm not as young as I used to be, no where near as fit as I should be and not as handy as I thought. Secondly, I grossly underestimated the amount of actual labour involved in a "simple" job. There I was, the first weekend of my break, clearing the room, as best I could, took down the shelves, washed down the walls, covered over the dining room table and all the trinkets and knick-knacks from the shelves, giving myself a minute area to balance paint pots, tools and other equipment on.
First area to be painted, the ceiling, easy enough, just grab a roller, jam it on an old broom handle and whack the paint up there. Admittedly, that went to plan. Then came time to paint the walls, so again, I got a roller, did all the big areas, but on several occasions got too over zealous with the roller and put the wall colour on to the ceiling. Getting tired, I was getting sloppy, making mistakes and generally not doing a proper job. This, for obvious reasons, upset Boney.
Furthermore, whilst I was trying to paint the higher areas of the walls, instead of using the appropriate equipment, such as a step ladder, I was using a dining chair to climb up and down, as I mentioned above, I am neither that young, nor that fit, so after a day of this, my knees were shot and to top it off, I got ill, causing me to have to take a pause in my plans to carry on with the work to recover, so that we could make it to the family event that weekend.
Anyroads, after several more WEEKS of work, I did end up completing the dining room to a very good standard. Due to this, we decided that we really needed professionals to come in and do the rest of our home, but, we didn't really think that out either. Painters and decorators, who are good at their trade are booked months in advance, especially during the summer months. Fortunately, Boney had a friend she had worked with, who had changed her career from care, to decorating, so we were sorted with a couple of fantastic decorators, the problem remained, however, what about the more than cosmetic work we needed doing, such as the plastering of a couple of ceilings, plus remodeling the kitchen. We had a guy recommended to us for this work, who did a good job, but was not very reliable for time keeping or whether he was actually going to turn up and with a ticking time bomb, so to speak, things were becoming a little dicey, so after one let down too many and our kitchen in total disarray, we let him go. What do we do now?!? Panic begins to set in, baby is due in a few weeks a this point and we are getting desperate. Again, we are up against the issue of decent tradespeople being booked up in advance, so we are thinking we are totally snookered.
I was complaining about the situation at work and my supervisor, kind of casually, chips in that her partner does that sort of work, what do we need doing, let him know and he'll let us know when and how much. To say that he saved the day, would be an understatement. He sorted what we needed and now the decoration is done.
In regards to Bumpy, Boney and I have a little routine we perform ever night. We were told by the midwife that once a baby is around six months in the womb, they can hear sounds from outside, so Boney and I sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, it is fascinating to watch as our baby moves around in Boneys womb, as they react to our voices. I love to feel the wriggling, tumbling movement of those actions, watching as a foot, a knee or their bum pushes out against the outside of Boneys abdomen.
Knowing that in a matter of days now, we will have this little precious, wonderful life in our arms makes me nervous, excited, happy, petrified, scared and thrilled, all at once.
With this being week 38 coming up, every time my phone goes off when I am at work or away from Boney, I almost expect it to be THE call. I'm hoping that I am sensible enough to keep it together and not do something daft, like go around to collect my mother-in-law and then drive straight to the hospital, forgetting to come via home to collect the most wonderful and precious woman in my world, but come the day, I am sure all will go well.
Anyhow, dear readers, thank you for reading, very soon, I'm sure, we will have news of our new arrival, with the tales of what they get up to and how their arrival changes our, not so, quiet lives...