We moved house a couple of weeks ago, and I'm still getting used to the house - every place has its own crashes and bangs that happen in the course of a normal day, and I've always found it takes a little while to get used to them (cue lots of jumping up and down to see what's going on).
The other day, I heard some strange banging noises coming from upstairs. Being pregnant and tired downright lazy, I decided not to go and find out what was going on. Half an hour later, the same noise started up again, but coming from street level. I looked out of the window, only to see a crow crashing repeatedly into the neighbours' front window. I wasn't sure whether to put this down to birdbrained idiocy or possible avian alcoholism.
Yesterday, the crow was back, and this time it was clearly attacking its reflection in our bedroom window. Thank goodness we have double glazing- the way it was going, I think it might have broken anything more fragile.
That is one seriously angry bird.
If you've been following French news closely, you may be aware that the midwives are Not Happy at the moment. In all honesty, I think they're right to be annoyed- their work really is undervalued and the service they provide is fantastic.
That's not really what this post's about, though. No no no.
The French word for midwife is sage-femme, which means, literally... wait for it...
Wisewoman.
"Two things, my lord, must thee know of the Wisewoman. First, she is... a woman! ...and second, she is..."
"Wise?"
"You do know her, then?"
It's just one of those things that make the constant prodding and poking with needles more bearable.
No, there are still no bump pictures. I have found the camera charger, but in the meantime, we've misplaced the camera. It'll show up eventually, and then YES, if the Squidlet hasn't arrived by then, there will be a bump picture or two!
Now. In case anyone was wondering, I thought I'd post a bupdate (bump update) because Things have been Happening.
Two weeks ago, at my 8th-month checkup, the midwife put me on bedrest for two weeks with anti-contraction medication because things were a bit further on than they should have been at 34 weeks, I'd had some pains the weekend before, and, well, they'd rather the Squidlet stayed put for a bit longer. The bedrest couldn't really have come at a worse time, covering the week before and the week after we moved house, and Ze Husband was en deplacement (away) in Eindhoven for the second week. I did manage to behave myself, though, and, erm, "supervised" the move from a safe (but frustrating) distance. For the second week, I went to stay with the inlaws, A) in case anything happened and B) because our house was still in chaos (also, no running water - a minor problem, clearly).
Last Friday, in spite of the rest and medication, I started having pains again. I eventually phoned the hospital, who told me to have a hot bath, take even more medication, and come in if things didn't improve. The bath and medication seemed to do the trick, so I went to bed.
Saturday, more of the same, only this time, I was having definite contractions on top of the general background pain at fairly regular intervals. We headed to the hospital mid-afternoon to see what was going on. At this point, I was at 35 weeks and 6 days- note that here, a baby born at 36 weeks can be considered full term if they've reached a certain weight. After 6 hours of monitoring, prodding, various blood tests and a scan, they gave me even stronger anti-contraction medication, on the understanding that if that didn't work they'd let things run their course, and sent me home.
That's more or less how things stand for now. I'm coming off all medication on Saturday or if things start moving again before then, and the general consensus is that the Squidlet is not likely to want to stay in for much longer. The scan showed she's a decent size and weight, with no visible health problems, and they haven't found any conditions which might have provoked the contractions- so it all seems to be down to the Squidlet herself having decided it's time.
Off to practice mental metric/imperial weight conversions now- I can't deal with baby weights being in kilos, it just seems wrong somehow!
