Mud & Mischief

Kind of, anyway.

Seems I’ve been out of circulation for the past 8 weeks - mainly because I’ve felt so bloody awful I haven’t had the wherewithal to blog about anything even remotely interesting.

I’ve got pictures to post and gardens to discuss, and last week’s Land Rovering holiday to share - mainly because Piglet finally deigned to be toilet trained. Hurrah! Little sod just wasn’t interested in the process at all - took a week running around a field in knickers for the penny to actually drop. However, we seem to have cracked it in that week, so fingers crossed…

I now have a decent little bump - that appeared last week too. Woke up one morning and my shorts were awfully tight - kind of a ‘where did that come from’ moment. Still feeling incredibly exhausted though. So tired I can hardly keep awake past 7pm. At least I don’t have to have a nap to survive the day any more though - the past couple of months have been hell. JAmes, the kids and the garden have all been horribly neglected.

And a big thank you to those of you who have called, emailed, left messages etc, just to check I was still on the planet. Yes, I am, and I’ll be trying to catch up with you as soon as I reboot the few remaining brain cells. It was lovely to know you were thinking about/worrying about/laughing at me.

Now the holidays are here, we’ll have to arrange visits out and about. Myf had already asked about a handful of folk - she hates having to stay home.

Off to do food - I can even cook stuff again now! Can’t stand up for very long though, so it has to be quick food.

And lastly, I’m about to buy these… Baby Kit A. Seeing as how I sold/gave away all my small size cloth nappies once Piglet had grown out of them. :::Sigh:::

33 Things Kids Should Do Before They’re 10

This is brilliant - I’ve printed it out and stuck it on the fridge and we’re going to work our way through the things we haven’t already done over the summer. When it cools down enough to go outside before 7pm, that is.

Guess I’d better add a few more details, before I get hounded to death.

Actually, I found out when I was just gone 7 weeks. I’m 12wk4dys atm. Shall go and do one of those lilypie tickery thigs shortly. It was the day of James’ mums funeral, and it wasn’t until I was getting ready for bed that night that I suddenly had the nigglig thought that I’d missed seomthing. You know when there’s something you should have remembered, but had forgotten and couldn’t quite recall what it was supposed to be…

Next morning, I went down and counted up on the calendar. 2 weeks late.

Ah-ha I thought. ~Tis stress. Nothing more. I’ll wait a few days and if I don’t start barfing at six and a half weeks, like normal, I’m obviously not stress and two funerals in two months has just taken its toll on my system.

Got to 7 weeks and no barfing. I’m not pg, I thought. I think that’s when I had that chat with James, which confirmed I wasn’t pg.

Next day, a friend appears with a pg tester, saying she found it in her top drawer and will I please go and use it and put her out of her misery! How can you argue with that? I go diligently pee, and click the thing together, preparing to wait the two minutes for the pale pink spot to appear - and the damn thing goes practically purple in seconds.

Ok, that’s a yes then.

But still I wasn’t sick. Can’t be a real pg, I think. As I barf with monotonous regularity from the moment I hit six 1/2 weeks for ages. 24 wks with Myf, 15 with Tea and 18 with Piglet.

The following Monday, 8 wks, and I feel lousy. And then got progressively worse and worse until I got to 10 1/2 weeks and honestly thought I’d never felt so appalling in my life. And the tiredness! I was never this tired with the other three. I can barely keep my eyes open after lunch, have to have a nap once I’ve collected the grubs from school, go to bed at 9.30… 11 weeks was rock bottom.

I kept telling myself, at 12 weeks, I’m going to feel fine, I’m going to feel fine, I’m going to feel fine….

Woke up on Monday morning, and felt fine.

Immediately decided that something had gone horribly wrong and therefore, I was no longer pg and would have a runny yolked fried egg sandwich asap. Except I found I still couldn’t eat a huge amount. Wasn’t constantly nauseous, but still needed to eat little and often during the day. Wed, I barfed first thing and felt great for the rest of the day. Thursday, ditto - and had my scan.

And today, ditto. Seem to need to barf, then feel great for the rest of the day as long as I don’t let myself get too hungry. At least I can eat healthy food again. The past four weeks all I’ve wanted in junk food, McD’s, KFC, fries and chinese and chips. I don’t eat junk food!!! I went off broccoli - how dreadful is that? Collecting oodles of lovely fresh garlic from the lottie - and the smell in the car almost necessitated pulling over to upchuck on the way home.

Anyhow, at least I’m not feeling seasick 24/7, and I can stay awake (without napping!) until 10.30, which is a reasonable time, I reckon.

Due date is 15th Jan, and everyone is convinced it’s a boy. Watch this space.

Now, although I haven’t exactly been away, as Jax so rightly pointed out, I don’t blog nearly enough.

Lately, this has been due to me feeling fairly crap. However, I’m now feeling better, and I can finally tell the rest of you, (those of you who hadn’t guessed the password or figured it out already, that is) what’s going on. Or I’ll just show you instead.

So there s/he is. For ease of use, he shall be he henceforth, but don’t read too much into it. Apart from the fact that this pregnancy has been completely different from the previous three and a quarter.

Kind of knackered now, as it’s been a chaotic kind of day (nothing new there), so I’ll wander back and ruminate on differences in morning sickness and the like later.

5 things in my refrigerator:
huge bag of fresh dug new pots from the lottie
half a jar of thai red curry paste
some bendy carrots
3 bags of apples waiting to be sliced and dehydrated
apple juice concentrate

5 things in my closet:
Half a dozen pairs of shoes I haven’t worn in over a year
clean linen (as I no longer have an airing cupboard )
Lots of clothes I rarely wear (as the stuff I do tends to sit on top of the dresser and just get worn and washed continuously)
3 rolls of festive wrapping paper
A bag (or 3) of yarn

5 things in my purse/handbag:
handful of loose change in the bottom
purse over stuffed with too many receipts and not enough money
a couple of ponytail bands
a mobile phone that needs charging
half a pack of extra strong mints

5 things in my car:
2 child seats
4 empty bottles of water and 1 full one (or does that count as the full five things?)
2 oars
2 lifejackets
gardening tools and a fair amount of dry soil

5 people I am tagging:
(sorry if you’ve already been tagged, but I haven’t been round the blog ring in ages…)
Nikki
Sarah
Nikki
Hazel
Mom (you’ll have to use the comments box)

Sat eating dinner a few nights ago, and James was talking about a friend who’d lost some teeth. Tea looks up from whatever it is that she was studiously devouring and asks:

“Daddy, what do you call a bear with no teeth?”

James shrugs and I can see he’s formulating some kind of serious reply, when Tea beats him to it.

“A gummy bear.”

Then she looks back at her plate and keeps eating. Deadpan, straight face, completely oblivious to her parents who are pretty much crying with laughter. She’s priceless.