Welcome to My World

Today is the last day before we both go back to work. I had a load of things I wanted to get done, namely:

• Go to the old house in Hedge End to pick up the piano stool and leave a bag of instructions/guarantees relating to appliances in that house (yes, that's right, the photograph of the piano posted to last Wednesday was only actually taken and posted today)
  
• Get a picture frame from Hobbycraft to replace one that got broken in the move;
  
• Buy some bed linens from John Lewis in Southampton, using the gift vouchers we got from Mum & Dad for Christmas (we must have shopped there a dozen times in the last four months and haven't once remembered to take the vouchers with us);
  
• Get a new pair of jeans;
  
• Buy rawl plugs, light bulbs and a toilet seat from B&Q in Hedge End;
  
• Get a new chain for my necklace - the one that came with it is the kind that pinches the hairs on the back of my neck every time I turn my head;
  

And seeing as I was going to the old house and there's a household waste centre close by and we have a house filled with junk, I added: -

• Take a car load of rubbish to the waste centre;
  

Then Rob said he would like sausage and mash for lunch so I also added: -

• Buy sausages, potatoes, onions & Yorkshire puddings from Sainsbury's in Hedge End;
  

Because my brain is terrible at remembering things at the best of times, I made a list on my phone in the order I would do everything, which was: load car up with rubbish; waste centre; B&Q; old house for piano stool; Sainsbury's; into town for John Lewis, jeans and necklace chain; back home via Hobbycraft for picture frame.

It took me well over half an hour and at least a dozen trips up and down stairs to fill the Jaguar up with stuff to take to the waste centre. I was almost finished loading the car when I checked the washing in the machine and saw that it only had 8 minutes to go, so I decided to wait till it had finished and put it in the dryer before I left. I made the last couple of trips out to the car, put the bag of instructions/guarantees in the car, picked up my handbag and even remembered to grab the folder of fabric swatches for the bedrooms so I can match the bed linens with what we've already got (I forgot to take it when I went on Friday so I had to wing it). AND I took my necklace with me and put a sample piece of wood in my handbag that's the colour of the cabinets in the piano room, where I want the picture frame to go, so I could match that up too. I couldn't believe I was so organised!

The first part was fine. I unloaded the car at the waste centre and got what I needed from B&Q, plus some nice light shades for the top bedroom. Then I went round to the house to get the piano stool and it wasn't until I was pulling into the drive that I realised I hadn't actually checked that I had the key with me. I didn't. Then I remembered that I hadn't picked up the John Lewis vouchers. And I hadn't put the washing in the dryer before leaving the house.

It was 12:30 so I decided to go to Sainsbury's, get the groceries, fill the car up as it was close to empty, go home and cook lunch then make a second trip out this afternoon with the old house keys and the John Lewis vouchers to do the other jobs on the list. Sainsbury's wasn't too bad, especially for a Sunday, but the petrol station was chaos; they were queuing out on to the road so I decided I would come back another time.

I got home, made lunch, burned the apple crumble because I still don't know how to work our oven, picked up the old house keys and John Lewis vouchers (finally!), put the washing in the dryer and set out again, only this time I decided to take the Audi as the petrol stations will be busy all day today - I'll fill up the Jaguar tomorrow. By some miracle I remembered to go into the Jag and get the swatch folder from the front seat, and I set out again for the old house. When I got there I realised I hadn't brought the bag of guarantees out of the Jaguar.

I got the piano stool and picked up the mail that had accumulated over the past few days, then went into town, got the stuff I wanted from John Lewis, bought a pair of jeans and a new chain for my necklace, then I drove to Hobbycraft for a picture frame, armed with my sample piece of wood for comparison. Then I realised that it's all very well knowing what colour frame to pick, but if you don't know what size the picture is, choosing a frame is going to be difficult...

Sigh.

Apparently we're having an alien...

I had my first scan this morning. I was given a due date of 14 September, making me 14 weeks and 4 days today, and I was told that everything was in the normal range. The baby seemed very energetic and did lots of moving round while we were in there, but the one thing it didn't do was face the camera :). In fact the sonographer told me to go and walk around while she saw the next lady and then she'd bring me back in to see if we could get a better shot.

The baby still wasn't facing the right way (my opinion is that it turned round then turned back again in the time I was walking round, just to be awkward) but the sonographer took a couple of shots anyway. Here they are.

Although they're separate shots, the top two are more or less close-ups of the bottom two. The ones on the left show the baby on its tummy, with its spine at the top and a leg on the left, and the ones on the right show a fairly scary-looking shot of the best we could see of its face.

If you click on the picture you can zoom in for a closer look.

Here's hoping it won't burst out of my stomach like it did with Sigourney Weaver...

It's So Shiny...

At the end of November, we went up to London for the weekend and bought a piano. It wasn't one of those 'went out for a loaf of bread and ended up with a piano' moments; we actually went to London with the intention of buying a piano, as the shop was having a pre-VAT increase, pre-2010 price increase sale. We bought a beautiful Model A, 6' 2" black grand piano, and arranged to have it delivered to the new house in early January.

We planned to have it delivered in the first week of January, but then we got snowed in so had to postpone the delivery. Then we decided to have the piano room decorated, including new carpets, so we postponed the delivery again until today.

So, almost 4 months after we paid for it, it's finally here.


There was a bit of a cock-up with the stool: this is the one from our upright piano that's still at the old house; we're selling it to a friend. The delivery men said the stool would be coming separately by courier, and after watching them lug a grand piano up a flight of stairs I didn't have the heart to complain about that, but when I contacted the shop about when the stool would be delivered, the lady told me it should have come with the piano... They are going to arrange to have a stool sent to me but the old one will do for now.

I love this piano. I didn't intend to get one as big as this; we had in mind when we went to the shop that we would get a Model M (5' 7") or a Model O (5' 10 3/4"), but when I tried this one it sounded so much better than the others. Just need to spend some time practising now!

First Midwife Appointment

I spoke to the midwife while we were in Bora Bora and arranged to go for my booking appointment this afternoon, after we arrived back this morning. Rob didn't sleep at all on the flight, which is unusual for him, and it even took me a couple of hours to get off to sleep but I did manage to get about 4 hours, which was better than nothing, even for plane sleep.

We got back to the house around 12:30 and checked out our newly decorated bedrooms - pictures later. We had to re-assemble our bed once the guys had finished putting up the curtains in there, and as soon as we'd done that Rob just collapsed onto it :). It was 15:00 by this time and my appointment was at 16:00. I told him not to worry about coming with me; it was only a booking appointment after all. We would just be going through family medical history etc to establish whether I was going to be a 'risky' pregnancy and therefore whether my obstetric care should be handled by a doctor or whether it could be done by the midwife. It was also going to take up to 90 minutes so I told him not to come; he should get some sleep and come to the scan on Saturday and he wouldn't miss anything.

What I didn't know was that the midwife had a Doppler Monitor and was going to check the baby's heartbeat at this appointment. The rest of the appointment was exactly as I thought it would be - I'm a low-risk pregnancy so my care will be midwife-led - but I almost cried when I heard the heartbeat, not just because it was incredible but also because I knew Rob would be gutted he'd missed it. And that's when I remembered about the wonder that is the Voice Memo app on the iPhone...

I only had about 4% battery left on my phone as I hadn't been able to charge it up overnight on the flight, but it was just enough to get this recorded.

I played it to Rob when I got home, and then I cried ;). Hearing the heartbeat made it all seem real for the first time - even the weeks of morning sickness, weird metallic taste in my mouth and ridiculously heightened sense of smell didn't 'prove' to me that I'm pregnant; they're all symptoms that can be explained by other things. But this? Wow.

Plus, it's Rob's birthday today, and I think I'd have to try hard to top the sound of your first child's heartbeat as the best birthday present :).