Week 41, Day 1 (Hey there, baby chopchops)

(to quote Joey..)

I've received two presents in the last few days - one extremely welcome, the other, not so..

Adrienne and her Mum sent me the most GORGEOUS cloth nappy! It's Adrienne's Mum's design & make, and is so damn cute I wonder if I can bring myself to get it all mucky and use it ;-) That was a wonderful gift, thank you ladies! (And very naughty of you.. I get all embarrassed and awkward when people give me anything, so consider yourself thanked and told off at the same time, LOL)

The other present was the gift of the flu from one of my clients. I really didn't need this right now, and it was sooo avoidable! He delayed our visit for an hour because he wanted to be in office when I was there (buggered if I know why, must be my winning personality!). Thinking he probably had some important questions (he's the type that always seems to think up new and exciting what-ifs), I agreed to the time change, even though it was going to be a pain in the ass for me.

Wish I hadn't now.. he turned up with a horrible barking cough and the sniffles and I thought to myself, "Self, you'd better not catch this!"

Then promptly forgot all about it until two days later when I wondered why my left ankle (and only that!) ached like it was going to fall off, and where did this throat on fire come from?

I've since had two rotten days and nights, but now that I'm not smoking I'm hoping the flu won't hang around me too long. This was definitely NOT written down in my birth plan!

Re baby - he's fine. Very quiet during the day now (which always gives me the screaming meemies) but very very active most of the night.

What's weirder are the contractions.. apart from the random single (or at most, pair) attack, they've gone away completely. Very strange.. feels like I'm going backwards????

What I have been getting (oh what fun) is the most awful grinding back ache. I woke up with one so bad yesterday that I had to stay in bed another two hours, with the Tens machine on for fifteen minutes every half hour, and dozing between. It's not bad so far today.. but by tonight probably will be screaming again.

We finally got an appointment to Clinic! Yayyyyy!!!! We see Carol (backup midwife) at 11.30 today, then at 3.15 we see the Obstetrician for a chat and a check up. Carol and I had a good chat on the phone yesterday, and she agrees that what we need is either to be induced early next week, OR if they are going to play silly buggers about that, then she's in total agreement that I should demand an elective caesarian early next week!

I hate having someone else dictate to me when and how I can have this baby - it's bad enough to be at the mercy of my child (but I forgive you, darling). It's unbearable to be dicked around by the hospital's schedule on top of this! After all, there's a lot of lost babies in my history.. you betcha I'm as anxious as hell that this one isn't jeopardised in the slightest!

So fingers crossed that Braeden decides to jump before he's pushed (or pried, as the case may be). I'm 100% caught up on work now, and at the stage where I'm constantly ducking the phone because I'm sick of everyone (even Wayne's clients now!!!) ringing up to ask if we've had the baby yet!

Lovely of them to be thinking of us, but it's so disheartening to keep saying "No.."

Oh and another refugee hit Nutters Grove last night. A baby magpie with a dislocated wing. Too old an injury to relocate, so Fuzzbutt is now in the aviary, in the next flight over from Magnus (adult magpie with broken wing). Fuzzbutt is so young that if I wasn't pregnant I would have brought him inside to tame down & make a pet out of him. Wild black eyes of fury (I'm gonna eat you, suckah!), more baby greys and tans than black and white, and cold scrabbly stick legs. I'm a sucker for baby birds.. they're the cutest thing on the planet!

On a sadder note we are thinking that Mummy Mags is probably over the Rainbow Bridge, as neither of us have seen her in about a month. Damn..

One goes, one comes...?