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Hiya...got back from Germany on Friday after a really long but fruitful and successful trip to 2 companies and doing lots of interviews and questionnaires. We now wait for the questionnaires to be returned and my PhD student can start number crunching!
Back to work yesterday and as usual, bureaucracy gets the better of the situation. Thinking rather naively that by sorting situations out before they become crises, I find out that this is not the done thing around here, and that I ought not have sorted what's going to happen when I'm on maternity leave. So, I'm thinking now, that I should just sod everything, and leave them to deal with it.
The workload isn't too bad this term - except for about 3 weeks in the middle of the term, the rest of the time is pretty ok. Then again, as it stands, my diary's booked up all the way till November, so if I can survive till end November, I'd be really pleased!!
We are now 18+1 days pregnant and growing. I felt the baby move the last couple of weeks but I wasn't sure about it. I guess it's what people call 'fluttering', 'butterflies'...:) We can't wait for our appointment at our next scan at 20 weeks!! Hopefully we'll be able to find out what gender it is then!
We've also made an appointment with the nursery in town to check it out. We've put our names down at the work's nursery but found out there was a long waiting list and that even with the 9 months maternity leave we get these days, they couldn't quite guarantee that we'd get a space for Christmas 2008!! So we're looking into alternatives. P and J have put V into the one in town and they seem very pleased with that place... D was always impressed with the place so hopefully when we see them next week, we'd be suitably happy.
ok - that's it for now. I need to go do some updates on work stuff and then I'm off. I have a cold and am not feeling too good..!
Love
P and the pea
18+1
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
Saturday, 15 September 2007
Off to Germany...
Hiya
thought I'd update the blog just before I leave for Germany for a week of interviews and questionnaires. It'll be worth it, and I don't feel physically bad (although I do get quite tired) so, I'll make the most of this. Thankfully Susanne will be coming to pick me up and will be a much needed assistant, so that will be good. :)
We had a great time in the Algarve, although typically, it was just too short a time for me (anyway) to destress and wind down. I think next time we go on holiday (which will probably be after the baby's born and we go home to show it off!) we'll have to take off for two weeks. Figured that it takes me/us a few days to wind down and then another few days to enjoy ourselves before it's time to wind back up again in time for work!
Things we did in the Algarve - sunned ourselves by the pool and on the beach, went to Zoomarine (the dolphins are so cute and intelligent! I bought us a family of tortoises for the bathtub), went for a tour to the West of the Algarve (would have been better if the weather was better, and if we had more time at each stop - felt that we were just sitting on the bus most of the time!) and ate loads. Everyone back here thinks that I definitely am 'showing' more after one week!
Met up with P, J and V today; V's got bigger and they took a passport photo of him for the application of his passport - he looks too cute! :)
ok, must dash - going to do some last minute panicking for the packing of bags, and then off to bed. Will try and upload holiday photos when I get back.
Oh - and thank you dear Jay, for sorting out the blog for me... :) What will I do (in blogsphere)without you...!
Wish me luck in Germany!
Love
P and the pea
16+5 days
thought I'd update the blog just before I leave for Germany for a week of interviews and questionnaires. It'll be worth it, and I don't feel physically bad (although I do get quite tired) so, I'll make the most of this. Thankfully Susanne will be coming to pick me up and will be a much needed assistant, so that will be good. :)
We had a great time in the Algarve, although typically, it was just too short a time for me (anyway) to destress and wind down. I think next time we go on holiday (which will probably be after the baby's born and we go home to show it off!) we'll have to take off for two weeks. Figured that it takes me/us a few days to wind down and then another few days to enjoy ourselves before it's time to wind back up again in time for work!
Things we did in the Algarve - sunned ourselves by the pool and on the beach, went to Zoomarine (the dolphins are so cute and intelligent! I bought us a family of tortoises for the bathtub), went for a tour to the West of the Algarve (would have been better if the weather was better, and if we had more time at each stop - felt that we were just sitting on the bus most of the time!) and ate loads. Everyone back here thinks that I definitely am 'showing' more after one week!
Met up with P, J and V today; V's got bigger and they took a passport photo of him for the application of his passport - he looks too cute! :)
ok, must dash - going to do some last minute panicking for the packing of bags, and then off to bed. Will try and upload holiday photos when I get back.
Oh - and thank you dear Jay, for sorting out the blog for me... :) What will I do (in blogsphere)without you...!
Wish me luck in Germany!
Love
P and the pea
16+5 days
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Our midwife's appointment - no. 2
Hello! It's the day before we leave for holiday, and we've not packed. I usually leave it to D to pack, but I've not assembled my stuff yet! I figure my pregnancy repertoire isn't very large, so it won't be too difficult to try and gather all the clothes that I can possibly fit into! :)
Anyways, just to report that we had a really good appointment with the midwife yesterday and the results of the Trisomy 21 (http://en.,wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_syndrome) and Trisomy 13+18 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisomy_18, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisomy_13) tests were really good. Our combined risk for Tr21 is 1:6633, and that for Tr13+18 is 1:12213, which basically interprets to 'not at increased risk', which is good enough for me!
More exciting, we managed to hear baby's heartbeat really clearly for the first time! The midwife put the monitor on my belly and said, "let's see if we can hear baby's heartbeat"...and then within a couple of seconds, there was a loud 'whoosh whoosh' sound really quickly... and the midwife smiled and said 'baby's heartbeat's very strong and very clear'!! :) We were so pleased - it just made it so much more real for us... I wish we could have taped it, but it's ok, we've got the fetal heartbeat monitor which hopefully will start being more accurate in a few more weeks.
ok - gotta start sorting things out and packing. Will check back in a week or so...
Love
P and the pea
Anyways, just to report that we had a really good appointment with the midwife yesterday and the results of the Trisomy 21 (http://en.,wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_syndrome) and Trisomy 13+18 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisomy_18, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisomy_13) tests were really good. Our combined risk for Tr21 is 1:6633, and that for Tr13+18 is 1:12213, which basically interprets to 'not at increased risk', which is good enough for me!
More exciting, we managed to hear baby's heartbeat really clearly for the first time! The midwife put the monitor on my belly and said, "let's see if we can hear baby's heartbeat"...and then within a couple of seconds, there was a loud 'whoosh whoosh' sound really quickly... and the midwife smiled and said 'baby's heartbeat's very strong and very clear'!! :) We were so pleased - it just made it so much more real for us... I wish we could have taped it, but it's ok, we've got the fetal heartbeat monitor which hopefully will start being more accurate in a few more weeks.
ok - gotta start sorting things out and packing. Will check back in a week or so...
Love
P and the pea
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Great midwifery in the South-East
Good morning!! We're two days away from our holiday and I'm getting excited - happy to get away from all the stresses at work and happy to hopefully get some sunshine whilst we're out there! As you can see, baby's about 15+2 weeks old today and we have our 16 week midwife's appointment this evening. Yup, this evening... it's amazing the midwifery care at least in this part of the country is excellent (so far...fingers crossed!).
And yet if you read about other women's experiences across the country, it can get really bad. Some examples, some women who apparently live up in the North east are having to pay approximately £200 to have their complete blood tests done (the triple test etc) and we get it free and very much as a matter-of-factly! Other women get only a scan at 24 weeks (?!) and others start at week 16. Over here, if we panic, we can call the birth centre and they'll schedule us for an emergency scan. P had an emergency scan when she had a pain in her side at 8 weeks; M had one when she started to bleed (about 6/7 weeks) and I had one that was scheduled so quickly on request of the doctor that when I was pregnant, they thought I shouldn't cancel the scan but tell the sonographer to look for a baby instead (and they obliged!!)...
So, I think at least for baby-related business, we're really good here in the South-east!! :)
I hope I can get my flights sorted by this evening (to Germany for work) and then I'll be much more relaxed. I've finished all the other things I needed to sort out by the holiday, so I'm going to take it easy today. hehe... if other colleagues can go away for 5-8 weeks at a time, I don't see why I can't take off for 2 weeks.
anyways, will update when I've had my midwife's appt.
Love
Pam and the pea
And yet if you read about other women's experiences across the country, it can get really bad. Some examples, some women who apparently live up in the North east are having to pay approximately £200 to have their complete blood tests done (the triple test etc) and we get it free and very much as a matter-of-factly! Other women get only a scan at 24 weeks (?!) and others start at week 16. Over here, if we panic, we can call the birth centre and they'll schedule us for an emergency scan. P had an emergency scan when she had a pain in her side at 8 weeks; M had one when she started to bleed (about 6/7 weeks) and I had one that was scheduled so quickly on request of the doctor that when I was pregnant, they thought I shouldn't cancel the scan but tell the sonographer to look for a baby instead (and they obliged!!)...
So, I think at least for baby-related business, we're really good here in the South-east!! :)
I hope I can get my flights sorted by this evening (to Germany for work) and then I'll be much more relaxed. I've finished all the other things I needed to sort out by the holiday, so I'm going to take it easy today. hehe... if other colleagues can go away for 5-8 weeks at a time, I don't see why I can't take off for 2 weeks.
anyways, will update when I've had my midwife's appt.
Love
Pam and the pea
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