Bedshaped

Head, meet wall. Repeatedly.

Firstly, my father is an idiot. After months of blissful silence, he called me in April to talk about coming up over the summer. We then didn’t hear from him again until after we got back from South Africa, at the beginning of June. Obviously, he was in a rush to get up and see us. Anyway, I sent him an email with all the weekends we were available. I was very specific to only include dates we could actually do, so as not to confuse matters. So, it was a surprise, 2 weeks ago, to get a call from him saying he’d booked the hotel for the 16th & 17th July. A surprise because it was one of 2 weekends I absolutely could not do – I was in York on Friday for tutorial and booked to be back in York on Saturday for a study day as part of my course qualification. But his hotel was non changeable, non refundable, etc (because he booked a cheap deal) so I was the one who had to cancel my Saturday. In return, I got to walk around Beamish with my dad, step mum, Duncan and Zoe. Bloody hell, did I pay for that on Sunday – I was so knackered I ended up sleeping for another 2 hours on Sunday afternoon, thanks to my wonderful husband. At least we were saved the usual Saturday night awkwardness of waiting for the takeaway and making small talk – they took the hint that I was exhausted after our day out and left before Zoe’s bedtime. Zoe was much better with them (much better than they deserve sometimes) and was happy to talk to them (albeit briefly) and give cuddles when they left. But it’s hard work, I can tell you. And, of course, there’ll be the joy of them coming up again after the baby’s here and just sitting round my house all day expecting entertainment (which ain’t gonna happen).

In pregnancy news, I’m totally sick of it. Anyone who is friends with me on facebook will have seen that I’ve now been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I totally breezed through pregnancy with Zoe (well, apart from the pre-eclampsia and section) and really enjoyed it, despite being swollen and far too hot towards the end. But this time round, it’s just felt like one thing after the other – there’s fighting them about a normal birth, the spd and now this. Luckily, it’s not too severe right now but I now have to monitor my blood sugar at home 3 times a day, which is a total pain. I’ve been doing it for 4 days and already I’m totally sick of it. Plus, really, it’s so easy to cheat it. I check it before I have breakfast and then again 1hr after lunch and 1 hr after dinner. There’s nothing to stop me eating cake for breakfast or just before I go to bed, really. So far, it’s all been ok – a little high after Chinese takeaway, but that was to be expected. If someone could wave a magic wand and make me 40 weeks and in hospital giving birth, I’d be happy right about now. Instead, I have appointment after appointment to do, all with Zoe from next week as well.

I finished running my first postnatal course last week as well. It was fab. They were a lovely group and bought me Prosecco and flowers to say thank you. The feedback was on the whole great as well – a couple of negative points (which was to be expected) and some of those related to the venue so were really out of my control. I passed my assessment as well, so now only have 4 assignments left to write and 1 course left to run before I’m finally qualified.

Today is officially the first day of my maternity leave. After months of no money, I’m finally getting paid to be at home all day because I qualify for maternity allowance. Zoe has one week of nursery left and then it’s the school holidays. I have no idea how I’m going to cope with being big, tired and having to entertain her all day every day but there you go, the joys of parenting.

Until there is a next time…
xx