Parentcraft, moving and breaking things

By | 6th December 2006

We’ve not been very good about keeping this up to date recently and quite a lot has happened so an update is in order.

First off, we’ve entered the third trimester! Suddenly March is looking a lot closer.

We’ve now had three of our five sessions at Parent Craft classes which have been quite fun, of more use to me than Hannah perhaps. We had a tour of the maternity unit at Tiverton hospital to get a feel for what it is like. A bit futile, really, since the birth is going to be in Reading, but interesting nonetheless.

I have had to go up to Birmingham more than is desirable for work, and while I was away last time Hannah managed to fall over and break her wrist. She decided to be helpful and return the wheelie bin to its rightful place behind the garage. Unfortunately, it was dark and she didn’t see the uneven join in the path, tripped, and fell onto her outstretched hand. At the time she just thought she’d hurt it, but when I got back we went to the surgery and the practitioner thought it might be a schaphoid fracture. We were duly sent to Tiverton to get it x-rayed. There was nothing obvious, so she was sent home again. The next day, a GP from the surgery phoned and said that she thought it still might be a break as it doesn’t always show up immediately on an x-ray. After a few more visits to various places, she has a wrist splint that doesn’t fit very well and another appointment at the fracture clinic.

They will want to do more x-rays, but neither of us are really happy with that. She has already had 4 and although we keep being told that it’s pretty safe, there haven’t been many studies into how non-abdominal x-rays are absorbed by the mother. I know it sounds paranoid but Hannah’s been so good about avoiding all sorts of other risk factors, it would be a shame to spoil it now. If anything went wrong with the baby we would always wonder if it was due to the x-rays.

Our combined health has been pretty bad recently. Hannah has had two kidney infections, both of which have been really nasty. We’ve caught them early on both occasions and they don’t seem to have had an adverse effect on the baby. He’s kicking away like mad at the moment. I have had once confirmed bout of tonsillitis which was followed without a break by the worst cold I’ve had in years. I have been feeling really run down for weeks and keep getting sore throats. The doctors suspected glandular fever but blood tests were negative. I’ve now got an appointment Friday to see an ENT specialist because my tonsils look “almost ulcerated”. Which is nice. This lethargy and the tonsillitis has particularly irritated me because it has affected my work and my running. I had finally managed to get into a reasonable routine of running 2-3 times a week when I was struck down with this problem and was told I shouldn’t be trying to exercise until I’ve recovered. I was trying to get fitter before the baby’s born so I’m in a stronger position to cope with the lack of sleep and everything else that is on the horizon. Humph.

Probably the biggest news is that the house has finally sold! Exactly three months after our given completion date, we exchanged contracts and completed the sale in two days. I still can’t believe it took so long for such a straightforward sale. Financially, it has crippled us even more than before and we certainly have no alternative but to move in with Hannah’s parents. With that confirmed, we are packing up and shifting/selling as much as we can so we can fit ourselves and our belongings into the annexe that they have created for us.

We are so fortunate to have such generous friends, families and even acquaintances. We have been given a cot and a number of other items by Hannah’s aunty and picked up a few other things from Freecyle. The most amazing gift was from my parents’ next-door-neighbours. They have a four-year-old son and no plans to have another and said they’d look out some of his old baby clothes for us. When we went round to see what they had, we were completely unprepared for the level of their generosity. Baby clothes and paraphernalia were piled over and around their bed and they were offering it all to us for free! It included a Mamas and Papas travel system, baby walker, door bouncer thing, play mat, bouncy seat, steriliser, bottle warmer, toys, potties, a high chair, more stuff I can’t even think of and an enormous number of clothes. Hannah spent ages going through the clothes (which included some cloth nappies) and separated them into ages groups. We think that we won’t have to buy any clothes at all for the first two years of the baby’s life.

I think that we’ve finally settled on a name for the baby. Funnily enough, after all the arguing it just seems to have settled into place. We have a first name and two middle names. One of the more controversial names has taken third place and we’re quite happy with it as a whole. We were convinced to tell Hannah’s parents and will tell mine. No doubt it will leak out now, anyway.

The baby has got a lot more mobile. He’s really reacting to noises now (the Neighbours theme tune and hip hop, sadly). He’s been dancing about and really drumming his heels for the last couple of days. I’ve been able to feel small movements for a while, but yesterday and felt and saw the most convincing *whack*, just as I had my hand on the bump. It’s silly, really, but it put a great big grin on my face for ages afterwards.

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