Elizabeth's big move
We thought that the bed-rail would convince her that she was still in her cot, i.e. that she wouldn't attempt to get out, but within seconds realised the error of her ways. She's been excitedly sitting in her bed reading and looking at toys for a few days now, so she was quite keen to be in her room, and once all her things had been moved in, and her Maisy pictures were up, it looked like home. We put her down for her afternoon nap and closed the door, within seconds the door handle was rattling. Arrrghhhh!!! Sternly told her not to get out of bed and replaced her - she continued to babble along excitedly to herself, getting lego out and playing with her toys. Finally she went to sleep after about an hour and a half. Luckily, evening sleep has been fairly 'business as usual'. We have to demonstrate how dark it will go before she is tucked in, but for over a week now she has settled down fine and gone straight to sleep in the evening, and wakes at around 7am as normal in the morning and still talks to us on the monitor - running through a series of topics "Sealions catch rings... jump off tower... splosh! Want lunch want lunch! More animals Dad! Cheer up Dad" etc - reminiscing about the Safari Park where we went for her birthday. Afternoons are a bit more hit and miss. Last week she was taking over an hour to settle, but the last few days she has pretty much gone straight to sleep so perhaps her routine is kicking in a bit. It seems like we might have weathered the storm and it wasn't so bad after all, fingers crossed etc.
My health
Urgh!! I've been itching for weeks, and finally snapped over the weekend and decided to get a doctors appointment on the Monday before Christmas, partly because I'd read on the internet about concerns re itching in pregnancy, and partly because the itching is keeping me awake for hours at a time at night and driving me mad. I saw the triage nurse, and she said it was unlikely to be related to the pregnancy as it had occured so late, and was more likely stress-induced dermatitis. There are little raised bumps like a nettle rash on the underside of my bump, and on my upper and lower arms, legs and shoulders. It is horrible - excruciatingly itchy at night, and when the heating has been on in the evenings. I was prescribe a steroid cream which I have been applying once a day ever since, and it is supposed to clear up in two weeks. I'm so tired because every night my sleep is getting really badly disturbed, literally hours at a time. It was only last night that due to my desperation I looked up something on the internet having read something in a pregnancy book and made up a pint of water with a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda in a little bottle, and starting dabbing it on with a flannel every time the itch cycle started. This had some degree of success, so I'll keep at it.
By Christmas Eve I'd confessed to husband that I had my concerns about 'something' not being right 'down below' and he'd made me make a further appointment to see the midwife. Off I went and revealed all, and she said it looked like a case of vulval varicose veins, but I'd need to see the doctor to confirm. She checked my blood pressure, urine etc and listened to the baby and all was well - so I made an appointment to see the GP later that afternoon and for the third time in as many days risked catching the horrible 'flu virus that seems to have afflicted everyone by venturing into the doctor's surgery.
The doctor looked and confirmed that it was vulval varicose veins, and that there was no cure. It isn't dangerous, should have no implications for the birth or anything - just uncomfortable/painful. He told me not to lift, and to 'lay off the Christmas sex' - and that was that. Came home and sat on an ice pack. After several days of husband doing all the lifting I'm honestly not sure that I can tell the difference. It feels really 'heavy' down there as if everything is falling out, and hurts when I've been on my feet a lot. Sitting on an ice pack offers some relief.
Over the Christmas period I've drawn some comments from people about my 'neat bump' - which have been reassuring. Apparently I was 'massive' last time, but this time look a lot more in proportion. My ankles and fingers etc haven't swollen at all - I've still got my wedding and engagement rings on whereas they had to come off quite early on last time. Although it is difficult to bend down and get socks and shoes on, I can still move around ok, which again is promising.
Christmas
I spent until 10pm on Christmas Eve peeling and chopping carrots and parsnips, and preparing sprouts, having already spent much of the day making stuffing, and the first stages of a trifle. I also made mince pies and sorted out little plastic pots with precisely measured out amounts of e.g. marsala, vegetable oil, honey, maple syrup etc for the meal the next day. So, in spite of having all presents wrapped, clothes ironed etc, there was still plenty to do!
We awoke on Christmas morning to the sound of Elizabeth's morning commentary on the Safari Park. When husband went in to get her she saw her stocking hanging on the back of the door with the two presents sticking out of the top. She came into our room to 'ope' the presents: new (blue) toothbrush, bubble bath that turns the water blue, a 'new baby' book, a star necklace, a satsuma, a box of raisins (like she had in Ikea) and some new hairclips and Christmas hair bobble which she's been wearing ever since.
We got ready as usual, and headed down for Christmas breakfast of cereal and 'croissant please Dad' - then she opened her tree presents. She was delighted with the pink buggy which was £3 from the charity shop, and we didn't really have time to look at the till/shop or the kitchen set as we had to get ready to go over to my Mums.
Loading up the car with bags of vegetables and all the various bits and pieces we had to remember was quite a trial (even though I'd sent the steamer, the travel cot and our presents for the family the day before). Consulting my list I had to remember things like her bib, bowls etc, a Christmas pudding, shed loads of bacon and pancetta, my apron, her doll, nap blankets, starbie, changing bag, change of clothes, 'cow's feet' etc...
We arrived - me looking resplendent (or like a tent) in my new Mamas and Papas dress and purple 'cow's feet' slippers. Elizabeth wore her navy velvet dress which miraculously still fitted from last year, with her complimentary orange and green 'cow's feet' slippers, and husband wore his new slim fitting jeans, hoodie and grey t-shirt which Elizabeth later announced looked like his pyjamas!
I commenced preparations for the meal, which was one of the most exhausting parts of the day. Learning points for next year are to allow much longer for the vegetables as they need to be brought to the boil and it takes ages given the sheer quantity of veg in the pans, and don't leave the gravy to Mum. That was her only task, yet somehow that ended up being very delayed, and suffering from a lack of potato and veg water as it kept being thrown away. We finally served up later than the anticipated 1pm at around 2pm, but still considerably earlier than in years gone by. My sister had a big wobble about the turkey. When she took it out to commence basting with another hour of cooking to go it was looking quite 'done' and the front bits (wings? breasts?) had somewhat collapsed. She collapsed in tears and had to be talked down, and the turkey had to rest until everything else caught up which was fortunate as there wasn't really enough oven space to do the roast potatoes, sausages, parsnips and stuffing. The oven was really difficult to understand - it seemed to be undercooking everything (apart from the aforementioned turkey) so there was a lot of stress to say the least.
Meanwhile the Christmas pudding steamed away, and was quite nice when it arrived, flaming in brandy, at the end of the meal.
There was no time for opening presents as my sister had to return to her boyfriend's parents, my brother had to walk the dog and Mum and Dad had to take my grandparents home (to a house where it was then discovered that the central heating had broken) after Nan first fell backwards onto all the Christmas 'houses' that Mum has collected over the years.
Elizabeth slept, we watched mindless tv and put our feet up, then after her smoothie at 4pm she opened a couple of presents and we headed for home at around 6pm.
Here was the second stressful part of the day, as I had to fix her something to eat, get her bathed and into bed, then get the house ready for the 'party'. I had to manually whip cream for the trifle because I couldn't get the beaters to fit into my food processor, so that took an age, and I also had to make up the sausage rolls which again was fiddly and I could have done without. Elizabeth went to bed at 7.30pm, and husband had to go and pick them up at 8pm, so we had to get the table cloth out, plates and snacks out, alcohol in from the garage, trifle in, music set up, and as I had stripped off my dress and tubigrip support and tights on re-entering the house and was standing in my dressing gown whipping cream at 8pm we didn't do too badly to be ready. I spent most of the evening shipping snacks and nibbles in (and out) and replenishing drinks. We played Cranium (and we won!) but the game did go on a bit. I finally got all six of them into the back of the Mazda (using the rear seats for the first time) and ferried them all home at around midnight and arrived back to find husband listening to one last track on his funny Ipod/mp3 player whatever it is, and reading his skating magazine. I was utterly shattered, utterly, utterly shattered.
We returned to my parents on Boxing Day morning and had more of a leisurely day, opening presents, husband watching Doctor Who, having a lunch of baguettes and turkey, more trifle and stollen/mince pies. She had another nap, and we came back to sink into our own new sofas and have a quiet night watching the soaps.
On the Saturday we had to return to my parents (again) to have a formal discussion at 11am about plans for a birthday cottage for my Mum, which went ok. My brother and his girlfriend left later that afternoon, and we had a quiet evening watching tv.
On the Sunday we went out for a 'nice walk' around Shifnal in the morning, had lunch, settled Elizabeth for her nap then cleaned and tidied in readiness for Mark and Angela arriving. More stollen and mince pies, presents, chatted for a couple of hours then at Ben's nap time they departed and we got on with tea/bath/bed routine again.
Husband back to work yesterday morning, spent the day variously at Mum and Dad's and with Mum and sister visiting us here. And today, well, today started badly when Elizabeth's curtain rail fell down. Husband tried to fix it, I tried to fix it, and was then running later with our visitors for once running early! Anna, Sanjeev, Raj and Sanjeev's Mum have just left. All a bit chaotic but lovely to see them. We went out for a walk to Shifnal, they got some fish and chips, we had lunch, then they took Raj home at nap time. I managed to get Elizabeth into bed by 2pm, tidied up, then took delivery of my Sainsbury's order which has saved me a lot of hassle - all items present and correct. And that was Christmas!
I made:
- home-made mincemeat
- Christmas puddings x2
- spiced muffins for Elizabeth's Group Christmas party
- mince pies x 48
- Stollen
- Trifle
- Sausages in bacon
- sausagemeat, red pepper and apricot stuffing
- sprouts with pancetta and parsley
- carrots
- maple-roasted parsnips
- home-made brandy butter
- a birthday cake for my Dad
- Home-made sausage rolls
and quite enjoyed it actually!
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