Gingerjo’s Blog

I’m excited and apprehensive all at the same time. In a few hours Mark and I will get to see our baby on the ultrasound scan. We’ll at last know for certain that Pip is growing in the right place and it will all become real. We’ll be undeniably pregnant!

Later today, so long as all goes to plan, we’ll start telling our families. In many ways that’s the bit I’m most stressed about. I don’t know why but I’m really not looking forward to telling everyone. Maybe it’s because I’m afraid that people will hijack my pregnancy and I’ll be bombarded with advice and suggestions. Or perhaps I’m just enjoying sneaking around with my big secret. Mostly though I think it’s because Mark and I hate being the centre of attention, all that fuss. We ran away to Vegas to avoid it when we got married, but I don’t think there’s anyway to avoid it with a new baby. We’re just going to have to grin and bear it.

It’ll be nice to have people to talk to though. People to tell me what I’m experiencing is normal and that it’s OK to be scared out of your wits, grumpy and depressed, exhausted, joyously happy and resentful all within the space of half an hour. It surely is a rollercoaster.

I took the baby seat I bought a few weeks ago in Smart of Bolton today for fitting. The guy in servicing looked extremely surprised - he said he’d never been asked about it before. He didn’t even know that Smart made a car seat for babies.

Fortunately the actual engineer had seen the system before and got on with fitting it for me. He had a bit of trouble though and it took a lot longer than expected. He had to take my passenger seat out and refit it to get it all wired up and working properly. Still they were charging me for an hour’s labour anyway, so at least I felt I got my money’s worth out of them.

I have to say though, that driving home with the baby seat all plumbed in on my passenger side felt good. I had a little imagine of what it will be like with a real live baby in the seat and it felt just right. Me and my little Pip out having adventures on the open road.

I haven’t been feeling quite so bad this week. While I’m very hopeful that my morning sickness is starting to subside I’m worried that it might just be because I’m on annual leave so I can just sit and chill whenever I want and maybe it doesn’t seem as bad. I’m still not eating properly - I’m just not hungry or if I am hungry the thought of food turns my stomach. I’m OK in the evenings and can eat a proper meal (though not a very big one), but earlier in the day I’m lucky if I manage some fruit, a bit of cheese or a piece of toast.

I’m definitely losing a bit of weight - about half a pound a week, but I’m retaining vast quantities of water so I think the real weight loss could be quite a lot higher than that. I just hope I’m not starving Pip, and that s/he’s taking whatever s/he needs from my otherwise amply nourished body. I am at least taking posh pregnancy vitamins so s/he shouldn’t be missing any micronutrients and Pip’s still tiny so the little I’m eating is probably enough for her/his needs. I dare say Pip gets first dibs on whatever I eat and I’m the one that has to go without if there isn’t enough.

It’s nearing completion. After ripping out an ancient cupboard, adding new electric points, replastering the alcove and fitting all new skirting boards Pip’s room was ready to decorate. Big D did all the painting and papering for us a few weeks ago and we’ve been saving up for a carpet. Well today the carpet was fitted and it all looks lovely. Pale yellow walls and a sage green carpet. It’s lovely, light and bright and non-gender specific.

There’s a few bits and pieces to finish off - we need to put the door back on, get the window fixed (it won’t open), fit some grills over the air vents, put some curtains up, get a blackout blind fitted and choose a lampshade, but the bulk of the work is complete. And it looks fantastic.

This week has been very hard on me and I can’t wait for it to be over. I’ve barely felt like eating anything and have been feeling nauseous probably 70% of the time I’ve been awake. I’ve also caught a stomach bug off my husband so we’ve both had tummy cramps and frequent trips to the loo, though he suffered more I think. I also seem to have a bit of a cold so I’ve had a bunged up nose and a headache on and off. Of course, I can’t take anything to alleviate any of the symptoms. I’ve been doing my best at work under the circumstances, having something to concentrate on has really helped, but it certainly hasn’t been easy and I’m really looking forward to having next week off.

The good news is that I seem to have stopped retaining water so my tummy isn’t nearly as swollen as it was. I can wear my normal trousers again, at least for now. I did wear my new, enormous maternity pants on Monday and they were very comfortable, but I did have to keep pulling them up as they kept slipping down. I felt like a little girl borrowing her big sister’s clothes.

For the first time I had to ask a bloke to change the bottle on the water cooler for me. It was embarrassing as I’m more than capable of doing it myself, but it’s probably best if I don’t risk wrenching anything. He was quite happy to do it, but he knows me quite well and I could see he was thinking ‘hmm, this is a bit weird for Jo’. I need the water though - I don’t want to get dehydrated and he’ll find out soon enough anyway..

Unfortunately the novelty of morning sickness has now worn off. It’s safe to say I’ve had enough now. I haven’t felt this sick this often since my final year at uni when I had a semi-permanent hangover. At least I always had a good night out to show for that!

Only another month or so to go (hopefully).

The lady I bought the Smart car baby seat from texted me to say that she’d used an Inglesina Zippy travel system with her Smart ForTwo and that it fit perfectly in the Smart car’s little boot.

In a stroke of luck I found exactly such a buggy/carrycot for sale up in Rochdale which is only half an hour away. I was the only bidder so it only cost me £20. We collected it yesterday, and it came with full instructions and lots of extra accessories. We bought the matching car seat from her too for an extra £15. She promised me faithfully that it’s never been in any sort of accident - in fact she looked horrified that I’d asked the question and said ‘of course not, it would have gone straight in the bin!’.

When we got home the first thing I did was see if it fit in the boot of my Smart car. It’s perfect - it looks like it was made just for the job. Then I took it inside and had a play, putting it up and down, changing it from a buggy to a pram and wheeling it around the room. It’s brilliant, just as the YouTube review said it would be.

It’s really easy to drop down and you can do it one handed. It takes both hands to open it out but it manoeuvres like a dream and you can steer it one handed. You flip the little arm rests out, drop the back and pop the carry cot in to convert it to a pram, or you can pop the car seat in so you don’t have to wake your little one up if you want to wheel them about. And nearly all the fabric bits come off so you can wash them. We haven’t tried the car seat in Mark’s car yet, but it’s a backwards facing one that you secure with the seatbelt so it should fit OK.

All in all it’s got to be about the best £35 I’ve ever spent, and I can’t wait until we can take Pip out in it!

It’s been a tough week. My nausea has been much worse, especially if I move around. Say if I walk to the kitchen and back it will set it off. And I’ve worked a full week which is a real struggle at the moment. I’m so tired all the time. If I walk up two flights of stairs I’m huffing and puffing and gasping for air. I know I’m unfit but I’m not that out of shape.

We’ve also been busy at home, moving furniture around and generally tidying up. Someone has given us a new (to us) three-piece suit so we’ve had to make room. I tried to help but Mark did almost everything. The little I did do wiped me out so badly. Mark just thinks I’m being lazy and using Pip as an excuse which is a bit upsetting. Hopefully it will pass in a few weeks time and I’ll be a bit more perky.

We’re off to Rochdale at lunchtime to collect a pram/buggy I bought on ebay. It’s an Ingelsina Zippy as recommended by the lady I bought the car seat off. The people in Rochdale have also got a matching car seat for sale so we’ll take a look while we’re there. If it will fit Mark’s car it might be worth getting since we’re going to have to get a seat for his car anyway. I’m probably being premature buying all this stuff, Mark certainly thinks so, but I say grab your bargains when you find them because there’s never a bargain when you really need one - you always end up having to pay full price.

My work trousers were a bit big for me a few weeks ago. Now the waistband is getting uncomfortably tight around my swollen belly. It’s the same story with my jeans. I know Pip is only about the size of a grape, but my belly is already enormous. I look like I’ve swallowed a beach ball. I feel like I have too. I know it’s all water - it’s not a real bump yet, but it doesn’t mean I’m any less uncomfortable.

So, on my way home, I popped into Next to check out their maternity wear. They only have a few lines in the Bolton store but I just needed a pair of trousers for work. They had a couple to choose from and the one fits OK. The bit for the bump is enormous - I’ll have to fold it over for now, but I’ll grow into it. At least I’ll be comfy on Monday!

I received the date for my booking appointment through the post last night. It’s the day after my first scan so I thought I’d better phone them to check it was OK to do them that way round. Boy, now there’s an administrator who’s got out of bed on the wrong side this morning!

She really bit my head off, completely unnecessarily. I only asked if the appointments should be the other way round and, if so, could I change the booking appointment. She didn’t have details of my scan date, seemed to think I was trying to circumvent the system in some way and was generally aggresive. ‘There are no other slots available, why would you think there would be?’, ’Err, well the letter suggested …’. Of course I didn’t know the name of the midwife that had booked my early scan slot which didn’t help. She said that the appointments are meant to be the other way around, but if the midwife had booked it it must be OK but she wasn’t happy and generally grumped on for a bit before effectively telling me to go away.

I thought about the conversation for a bit after the call and decided I wasn’t satisfied that what I’d been told was correct so I called a different number that I’d been given for the community midwives. Of course, I got the same bloody woman again who was very annoyed that I’d dared to call back! I calmly but firmly explained that I wasn’t entirely confident in the information I’d been given in our previous conversation. Anyway, in the meantime she’d spoken to the midwife who’d booked my scan who’d explained it all to her. I had to suffer her being extremely patronising, but at least I was confident that the answer I was getting was accurate this time. I just hope she was having a bad morning and that she doesn’t speak to everyone who calls like that.