2nd March 2016

**This post may be a little ranty. Well, it's my blog, damn it, and therefore I shall do with it whatever I like!**

So here we are in March already. How time flies!

Except for me, it doesn't.

You might recall my little revelation in the last installation of this blog, back in October when I admitted to the world (which isn't massive...my readership is limited) that I was expecting a bambino!

We were given a due date of 26th February 2016. Back in August when we were given that date at our 12 week scan, it was an age away. To see it come and go...and then a few days after go as well (including leap day, which is a bit of a shame - that could have been fun. Probably not for the kid, I guess) it's a PAIN. Literally.

I am now 40 weeks + 5 days. Yes, 5 whole days. Which doesn't sound a lot and in normal day to day life it's not. When you've been preparing for something and are given a date to work towards, only for that not to happen...it's a bloody long time.

Plus I am getting loads of messages from people asking if I have had the baby yet and when I say no, I get the 'try this' or 'why not' messages back. I'M TRYING! I DON'T KNOW WHY I HAVEN'T HAD THE BABY YET. BABY DOES NOT WANT TO COME! I know people are just excited for us but it feels like we're being judged and doing it wrong because it's not here yet. I have no control over it, soz. All the usual methods of trying to encourage the baby to come have been tried. I won't list them here but you know what they are. Spicy food is the most commonly suggested one. We eat spicy food all the time. Was never going to be the winner!

Anyway.

I finished work when I was 36 weeks pregnant which was also right at the end of January. Perfect. That would give me 4 weeks with which to get everything sorted for the baby and have some time to relax.

I should have worked longer. I'm so bored.

Granted, I couldn't really work longer as I have developed carpal tunnel syndrome with my pregnancy which means my hands are in agony pretty much every single day and typing is a mare. Yes, it is actually paining me to write this post. You're lucky people.

I do get to wear these gorgeous accessories to bed every night though.

My gauntlets. So attractive. It's supposed to help ease the pain. It doesn't. Plus they're attached with velcro straps. Yeah - when you have carpal tunnel, your fingers hurt, go pins and needles-y and sometimes you lose your grip. So getting them off of a morning...not easy in any way.

Grr.

I have done as much nesting as I can. There's more I could do but all my enthusiasm has gone out of the window because I have no idea how long I'll have before baby comes! I might still have AGES to need things to do!

So yes, this baby, whomever it is, does not want to come and meet you, world. Are you offended? I am! My midwife says to consider it a compliment. That it's so happy and comfortable where it is, it doesn't want to go anywhere. I'll just take it's really expensive crib back to the shop then, shall I?

Sorry. That episode of Friends where Rachel is really cranky because she is overdue...it's true. I am Rachel.

ANYWAY. That's me. Grumpy McGrumperson.

So while I sit here in bed, because walking is painful because I have a fully grown baby in my belly that isn't coming out and it weighs quite a lot, I may as well see if I can catch you up on what's been happening since I last wrote.

Not a lot. I'm pregnant and therefore fun things (to me) aren't fun any more.

The end of last year brought lots of annual leave for me. Which I needn't have taken but they only told me that after I booked it all off and made plans.

The office was supposed to be moving from around the corner from here to a place in town. That didn't happen. No idea why. It was also supposed to happen whilst I was on annual leave. At least I didn't miss that, I guess. Although if it does happen now, I'll be on maternity leave. I don't think I was ever meant to be involved in the moving process!

We saved a hedgehog from suffocation. It had buried itself in a load of plastic sheeting and we weren't comfortable with it, so we put it in a box with some cat food, water and blankets. We don't have a garden so didn't want to leave it to roam the alleyways by us, with the rats and broken glass. We called the vets and they asked us to weigh him to see if he would survive winter on his own. He was on the border of the safe weight so we made the decision to keep him overnight.

Yeah, after emptying his bowels everywhere, he did a runner in the night and we never saw him again. Ungrateful so and so.

November was also Paul's birthday, so we went for a few lemonades (me) and beers (him) and a slap up Jamaican meal. Curry goat and rice and pea with dumplings. Delish.

We also decorated the spare room, ready for our little Puddin. Ha. Why did we rush? Sorry. I'll snap out of that.

You know me, I love decorating. This room hadn't been done since I bought the house (which completed on the 26th February 2008...why is that date such a big deal in my life?!) except for a bit of wallpaper and a few shelves. It needed a lot of TLC which we gave it. It still took FOREVER to do though. The walls were dreadful and unevenly plastered so we had to sand EVERYTHING. The paint had chipped on all the skirting revealing that previous owners had painted the whole room bright blue. Bright royal blue. Which required a LOT of primer and gloss to cover. Still probably needs another coat. Which I would do if I could hold a paint brush. But carpal tunnel means I can't.

I love being pregnant, can you tell?! ;)

We chose a shade of pale yellow, after I got obsessed with neutral paint swatches and had about 50 on the wall to choose from. It's a sickness. We both looked at them in different lights at different times of the day and narrowed it down to the yellow or a pale green. I did like the green but it was colder than the yellow.

It took 3 coats of the premium paint to get even coverage. I'd expect that with cheaper paint but not the quality stuff! Never mind, it got done and we're pleased with it. It's just the wood and metal work that needs some extra love but quite frankly I don't think the baby is going to care, somehow.



This is a before pic. Sort of. You can see where I've attacked the cracks etc with the filler!



Paul and sander trying to get rid of the blue under the white and pretty much failing miserably!



This is the best we could do without using paint stripper, which I can't use because oh, I'm pregnant.



A sort-of after shot. This is in bright sunshine with a clean carpet! It is nice and pale in real life, honest!

We also bought some stickers to decorate the walls so it felt a bit more like a baby's room. We can easily remove them and transfer them wherever we want and we're really pleased with them. Here's a sneak peek!

It's so tempting to put googly eyes on all the animals. It almost looks as though we have aready!

Just so you get an idea of scale:

There's a rather dishevelled Paul. Who is 6'3" tall.

So synthetic light makes it look REALLY yellow in there. Ah well, yellow is my favourite colour so I don't mind!

We have very kindly been given a cot bed by one of Paul's colleagues so that has also gone up in there.

The cats have claimed it. Along with the car seat and the pram carrycot which are being stored in the cotbed. We have had to cover everything with towels and cat beds to protect them!

Hmmm. What else...?

We went to visit Ted to pass all Christmas presents on to the family in the Midlands. He got to (sort of) meet his little cousin!



Patting my belly and saying 'baby' is just the cutest thing ever. Fact. Although he now calls me Caiyine and that is also pretty darn cute! He turned 2 yesterday! How can that be?!

What else...?

Oh yes. We had our baby classes! We paid to join a local group to meet other people who have babies due at a similar time to ourselves. They were good. We got to learn things and socialise. Plus Paul got to pretend to be a Daddy to a little one...although he may be demanding a DNA test in the near future...

We named him 'Smash' after a character in 'Friday Night Lights' which we binge watched.

What else?

Paul got a new company car. A shiny red one. I am a non-driving female. I know nothing about cars. It's shiny and red and goes brum. That's about it!

That's about it really. Everything has been about preparing ourselves for our little one's arrival. And we're still waiting.

There were 7 other couples in our baby classes. One couple didn't complete the sessions but we know they have had a little boy. The other 6 couples have also all had their babies. 1 boy and 5 girls.

Does this make my gut feeling that we're having a boy any stronger? Yes. I have thought we'd have a boy since pre-conception and that opinion hasn't changed. I am drawn to boy clothes and toys. I don't know whether that's because I'm used to looking for Ted or general instinct.

Now, to the cats!

Do they know I'm pregnant and things are going on with their Mummy? I really think so. I have to contend with this:

Unflattering bump shot!

Yes, it's a dirty rotten job. Maia loves bump. Bump loves Maia. They kick each other. It's cute. Except when it gets painful. Maia has some sharp claws on her back paws.

I was also extremely privileged this last Sunday when I was feeling sleepy and a bit sorry for myself.

 

I GOT A BARNEY CUDDLE!

An actual 'he came to me and wasn't forced into it' cuddle from a Barnacle! He was purring too!

Paul was upstairs (I take up a lot of room so no space for him on the sofa) and I had to send him a Facebook message from my ipod to come and have a look for himself. Couldn't reach my phone to text him and he couldn't hear me shout - the football was on.

It's a dear diary moment! He has been a little bit clingy recently. Cats are very perceptive, it seems. I have no idea what they are going to make of Junior if when (s)he eventually quits being a lazy bum and decides to be born. Maia is 10. I have had her for 9 1/2 of those years. She's Mummy's girl. Barn is Daddy's boy but apparently loves his Mama a little at the minute.

So I guess we shall see. I'm a bit worried - I'm not going to lie. They're used to being our babies but then having an actual baby who needs all our attention may put their noses out of joint. Maia will be terrified, of course, but Barn...jury is out.

And that's that.

Except for one last thing. Because I couldn't leave you all without a proper 'bumpie' showing how pregnant I am, could I?! Yes, there's a bump in the pic up there but that makes it look like I have a monster of a belly and that was a few weeks ago...oh...yeah...I DO have a monster of a belly!

Make up free and fake smile. You're just lucky I brushed my hair! The postman didn't get the same luck this afternoon! This pic was taken especially for this post as I typed. You're welcome.

For comparison's sake - he's the last pic I gave you at about 20 weeks pregnant. A whole half-pregnancy ago!

OH LOL! I felt massive there as well! HAHAHAHAHA PAST CAROLINE. Little did you know!

The one teeny tiny consolation I have is that if you look at me from behind (which I encourage, by the way), I don't look pregnant! I'm all bump and all up front. I've not really put any weight on as such (except in the belly and the udders) so hoping I won't need a whole new wardrobe after this child decides to grace us with it's presence!

I'm just grumpy because I'm impatient to meet our baby. Paul and I are so ready to get to know the little person that likes to dance at silly o'clock in the morning! We want to know if it's Phoebe or Phoebo!

What do you guys think? Girl or boy? Tiny baby or chunky monkey? WILL IT EVER ARRIVE?!

Feel free to comment with any guesses. And name suggestions. We're still on the market! My colleagues were suggesting loads of boy names before I left and all I kept thinking was 'great cat name'. Doesn't help with the baby thing!

I will post again after baby is here. No idea when. I'm sure there will be a social media announcement. Probably made by someone else, not by us, completely stepping on our toes to tell the world that our baby has come before we are ready to tell the world. Not that it's a pet hate of mine or anything...

Borrowed from the Kicks Count Facebook page. 

So to sum up - due dates are a load of rubbish that should be taken with a pinch of salt and should be renamed as guestimate date because only 5% of babies actually arrive on their due date which should therefore indicate THAT IT IS WRONG. Pregnancy makes you no fun and extra grumpy towards the end, except when you're all nesty, which is actually kinda fun and please let us tell the world we've had a baby - if you want to congratulate us, do it via direct messaging or text. Yeah.

Sort it out, science.

Y'all have missed me, haven't you?!

Catch you on the flip side, when I'll be a Mummy! Unless this baby never comes and I feel the need to rant again...

2nd December 2014 - Brr and Ouch

Even though it didn't seem like the sort of thing we wanted to do this morning, we got up and went to the gym! Neither of us were very inclined to go but we did and we were glad we did afterwards!

The downside to going to the gym is that it does make me have to rush a little when getting ready to go to work, so when feeding the cats quickly before leaving, I hurt myself. :(

 

Really deep cut on the tip of my index finger. Which, as it turns out,  need quite a lot when typing. Especially as it's on my left hand and I am left handed. I might have made lots of wimpery noises all day when aggravating it! It wouldn't stop bleeding and I'm a wimp!

T was off today and tomorrow so I was able to sing to myself all day in the office! Yeah, I do that. A is at the other end of the corridor so can't hear me. This is very much a good thing.

After work I headed home and had a little cuddle with my kitties and tried not to cut myself again when feeding them. Then I needed to find the perfect outfit for our evening activity!

I was successful, Paul came home, got changed and headed back out on our Tuesday night adventure.

We got stuck in traffic which was not good but we stuck with it and eventually reached our destination with very little time to spare!

Yep - Paul took me to see the football at Old Trafford. Manchester United vs Stoke City.

I was a bit bored in the first half as Manchester United had most of the possession which meant that the ball was at the opposite end of the pitch to where we were sitting so I couldn't really see. I am so used to watching on tv that I forget I have to pay attention to where the ball is!

See - the seats are right on the corner so when al the action is over the other side, it's a bit boring! Well - for me as a neutral fan on this occasion!

The second half was far more interesting as the ball was down this end of the pitch so I could see what was going on!

Then it was time for the long journey home. Great. This made it a very late night for us.

We got in and had a peppermint tea before heading to bed. Tomorrow could be interesting. Zzzzz.

PREVIOUSLY...

2013

24th June 2014 - Bloomin' cats.

It's another warm morning. I slept well but Paul didn't do so good. Weird dreams though. Still no gym either. We are bad bad people.

Paul was out fairly early and I chilled for a while with the cats. Literally. We had the fan on. Barney's favourite. I'll show you!

As soon as he felt the breeze, he lay down and started kneeding the air. Too cute!

Hmmm.

To work went I and it was a dull and busy day as it always is. I have new entertainment at my desk (when I have my laptop, that is!)! The lovely Connie from Tails from the Foster Kittens now has a drop cam page where you can watch her fosters frolic and play (or sleep...mostly) which is great to have in the background when work is stressful!

The problem is being in a different Country with a bit of a difference in time zone. I get this a lot...

Booo. My screen really needs cleaning, huh?

Still, it comes on eventually and I must look like a loon to T who just sees me grinning at the screen!

Note - I'm writing this on the Friday and have only just discovered I have had the page muted. You can actually hear them run around like mentalists as well! It didn't half make me jump the first time I heard something crash!

Anyway, I survived work and went home. England kicked off at 5pm so had to watch our last game in the World Cup. It was meh. Paul appeared home and watched the rest with me. I should have watched the Uruguay v Italy game. At least Suarez biting that Italian chap would have been more interesting. What a joke. That boy needs some help me thinks.

I did some clearing up but headed to bed pretty early. Paul was in a grump and T had been in a grump all day so I went to chill upstairs. When Paul came up we made the decision to trim the cats claws. Barney went first and was too feisty to get them all.

I then got Maia and pinned her between my legs. She's all mouth and no trousers so will growl and hiss but not fight too much...until Barney decided to jump on her mid-trim causing carnage.

They were both fine. Me...not so much...

Ouch. Big ouch. See why the claws needed trimming?!

Barney hid from Paul who went to tell him off. Maia was terrified.

I cleaned myself up (there was far more blood than there looks here), disinfected it all then went to make sure the cats were ok. Barney continued to hide. Maia let me pick her up, all big tailed and she snuggled into my neck. Poor lamb. She was fine, just shocked I think.

Barney stayed away for the rest of the evening. I went to sleep in a grump as well. A painful grump.

PREVIOUSLY...

2013

30th April 2014 - Torture

Another day another lie in! Yep, it's the 3rd day off in a row and I'm loving the not having to get up thing!

It was nice to wake up to my kitties giving me a cuddle! Maia on my legs and Barney at my feet!

Check out those glowy belly dots! :)

 My kitties are just so darn cute!

 It's hard being a Barney. He was squeaking his snores out while dreaming! So cute!

Maia was just chilling too. I think it's the only time they get along no problems!

My ankle and leg was quite sore today after all the walking yesterday, so Paul decided that I was going to get an appointment with a physio to see what it is that's wrong with me. They managed to fit me in really quickly! Later on today as a matter of fact! So I got up and showered then we headed into town so I could get my leg checked out.

The place that we went was very odd. It was on the fourth floor of an office building but there was nobody there! No reception or anything! So I sat and waited. Eventually a nice (HA!) Italian chap came out and got to work on my leg!

He said he needed to get the blood to the muscle and it is definitely the calf that is causing the problems with my ankle. He massaged the ankle, then moved up to my calf and then also did some work on my lower inner thigh. It hurt. A lot. He said "Italian physiotherapy hurts more than English"...hmmm...I'm inclined to agree!

From there we went to the shop to grab a few little bits and bobs and then headed home. We had some stuff to do there before we had extra special birthday #Whedonsday!

It was fun! I also got gifts! WHOOP WHOOP! Extra special gifts as they were wrapped in home-made wrapping paper!

Chris is so creative! All the #Whedonsday goodness we experience right there!

What did I get? WELL!

It's a Deadly Storm comic, as referenced in Castle! AWESOME! Can't wait to read this!

Also what looks like the most amazing movie ever! David Hasselhoff as Nick Fury! This is going to be AWESOME! If Stan Lee thinks that David Hasselhoff is the ultimate Nick Fury he must be really disappointed with Samuel L Jackson!

Instead of our regular #Whedonsday viewing, we watched the new Joss movie, In Your Eyes. It's really good. Extremely cringy in parts, but good! We enjoyed it very much! We also watched the latest ep of #SHIELD which was also really good!

After #Whedonsday was over it was time for me to do my exercises as advised by Alessandro. I then also noticed that he had bruised me. He had told me he might. Yep - he was right.

Ignore my ugly feet. The bruises are actually new and sore. Not a good look, huh?

Bed time!

PREVIOUSLY...

2012
2013

16/11/2013 - I told me so.

I was right. It did hurt.

It didn't hurt too much at first. I thought I might just have a little bit of a headache. Nope. I had a whopping great big cluster heading which triggered a migraine which made Caroline a very unhappy girl. This is exactly why I shouldn't drink in excess but sometimes you just can't help yourself!

We were going to go back into town today but due to my crappy head not being able to have just a normal hangover, I stayed in bed and felt sorry for myself. :(

The migraine made me so nauseous I felt extra sorry for myself (but could ask for no sympathy as it's my own fault) so I went looking for my travel sickness tablets which usually help. Instead I found some of my lovely sister-in-law's nausea tablets she was given when she was really bad with morning sickness a few months ago. 

They're basically the same drug as travel sickness tablets and when I checked to see if I could actually take them (no allergies etc) I saw that they were prescribed to people who suffer sickness with migraine! SCORE!

(Obviously this is very naughty and I shouldn't take drugs from anyone other than a pharmacist...but desperate times call for desperate measures!)

Besides, these nice strong painkillers were not working for me at all!

The nausea tablets really did help! I was able to manage a little bit of dinner, which was a success!

I watched the usual Saturday night television, but was still feeling a little dodgy, so I took myself to bed nice and early.

All in all, a waste of a day. :(

02/08/2013 - More ouchies!

Still no gym this morning. I figured that was probably a good idea with my back still being sore. I don't like it. I'm not used to having to think of other ways to start my daily posts!

I came to work nice and early to get a good start on the day. HA!

 57 tasks. Manageable. Most of those tasks were simple and I could easily get those done in the morning!

I went to make myself a nice honey and lemon to start the day at my desk when I accidentally decided that I didn't need my little finger any more and made a valid effort in cutting it off.

 Sorry if you're squeamish or are offended by chipped nail polish.

It would not stop bleeding. It flaming hurt as well. Probably because it was a good slice into the finger and also the knife had been cutting a lemon at the same time! At least I knew that it would clean the wound, I guess. BUT OUCH!

I manned up, put a nice big plaster over it (which would be replaced twice in the work day alone) and got on with my tasks. Until the computer system stopped working. We were asked to log out for about 20 minutes but we would get a phone call to confirm when we could log back in.

After 3 hours we didn't hear a thing. Seriously. 3 hours. So we rebelled and logged back in any way. Crazy, huh?!

No-one told us off so we carried on. Bear in mind that by this point it was 3:50pm!

I then got asked to take a picture of colleague A for the firm's website. He really hates having his picture taken so I sent a few 'glamour' shots before the serious one.

I have protected his identity in this pic. You might guess.

It's a good look, huh?!

After work I went home and headed straight for my yard office to get on with more place cards for the wedding. It's pretty much my life now. I'm quite enjoying it though, so can't grumble!

I was joined by a very beautiful creature.

My gorgeous girl! She loves that chair! It's like a hammock for her!

I took a dinner break and Paul joined me so we turned the office into the dining room!

A mountain of food for us tonight! Chilli con Carne with crushed chilli nachos, a sprinkling of cheese and a dollop of sour cream. Naughty but nice!

All home made and all delicious.

After I had finished my place cards for the evening we came inside to see what was on tv. The answer: Nothing. We watched Continuum that we had recorded and then were at a loss.

There was only one thing for it:

Oh yes. Debbie Gibson as a scientist. Who wouldn't want to watch it?!

I, however, started nodding off, so we paused it and headed to bed. I still haven't seen the end. Oops. The shark is my favourite, though.

30/07/2013 - A little snag...

We headed off to the gym this morning, as usual. Nothing exciting there. I went on the step machine, the arm bike and the leg bike. All very dull and all extremely tiring!

I came home, got ready and went to work. Nothing new there either.

Except while I was at work my back started to feel a little stiff. Which got worse throughout the day.

By the end of the day I could barely walk, my back was rock solid. Not painful, but it just wouldn't move.

Great.

I came home and made it into the yard, which is where I stayed, sat in one of the upright chairs we have there, making the place cards for the wedding. I think they're coming along quite nicely. Despite the pain!

Oh, I can't remember if I mentioned that Mum brought some of our hessian back after taking what she needs for one of her projects. Well, I think we've found a fan of it...

 It's hard being a Barney.

Oh, and notice the discarded bed in the box by my shoes. I think the hessian is a bigger hit as a resting place!

08/06/2013 - Gettin' Crafty!

Today is wedding invitation making day! Whoop! That's me trying to sound enthusiastic as it's now a few days later and we're STILL working on them!

Anyway, Paul went and did #ParkRun while I did some sorting out, and got rid of something gross that's been hanging around in our back yard for a while that we needed rid of, and no, it's not Barney!

I decided my iPod (other digital music players are available) needed some new tunes on it, so I made myself a playlist of songs I like! It took a little longer than expected, and Paul was back before I knew it!

Once I finished making my playlist, we had breakfast and worked out how we were going to do things.

First - get the materials that would be needed to hand:

Then have a brew and congratulate yourself for getting everything ready!

That's about it for order. We made everything else up as we went along!

These are our invitations. The type is on the other side. No spoilers yet!

I cut them down to size and congratulated myself on a job well done. Then I set Paul an important task:

 Ironing the card so it was flat! Actually, that's not true. There was something else that needed ironing to do with the invitations, but I can't show you that! The iron had warped the template so we had to iron it flat!

 Barney is not impressed that we are doing stuff and not paying attention to him. True story.

Maia spent the whole day sunning herself on the window. She was a happy bunny!

We then did some cutting, and arranging, then it was time to play with the new toy!

Kids, you shouldn't play with guns. Whether they fire bullets or molten glue. Boy, I wish I had listened to my own advice!

This should be the limit that I'm allowed to play with glue guns. Look at me - I'm Wolverine! :)

ARGH! I took so many pictures but showing them would be a spoiler! I will show you what they look like maybe next week? Once I know that they have been received by most people who we are giving them to.

Anyway, next up - learning how to do things with Microsoft Office! I did something I have never done before - I printed onto an envelope. Yes, I know people do this all the time, but I never have and I learnt how to format it and everything! Office 2007 is pretty ace for being blatantly obvious as to how to do things like this!

Look! Return envelopes! Printed by me! :) I'm so clever.

The RSVP cards that we made the other night were all printed and then I had to cut them to size. Extra spoilers shown on the RSVP card that I can't be bothered to hide!

 From there, we had lots of stacked up stuff. So it's time to put it together, right? We made our first one for our friend Ash. We're pleased with how it's come out. It's different than every other one we did, mostly because I ordered more of one piece of...material...and then when I ordered it in bulk, it's a different one.

This put us in a grump.

We got everything else ready, and then were working on this...material...for the rest of the evening.

To prove to Paul that the new stuff would work, I grabbed the glue gun and proceeded to do a trial run. and got molten glue on my thumb-tip and hand.

To say I was in pain is an understatement. I don't think I've ever been in that much pain. Seriously. Even the broken elbow didn't hurt this much.

That put pay to our crafty evening. Instead, I had my hands in a bowl of cold water (even used the cat's water fountain at one point) for about 3 hours whilst watching comedy on tv until the pain went down enough for me to be able to keep my hands out of water for any length of time.

It was a looooong night.

No sitting out in the sun for us tomorrow. We have work to do.

I gave myself a first degree burn without even having a single drink. Alcohol cannot be blamed. Nope - just my own stupidity.