Not what I expected...

(posted by Elizma)

Today I'm 8 months pregnant. Yes, there is only 1 month or 30 days left before our baby arrives.

Now the last thing I expected to do on this day was to have to decorate. But desperate times calls for desperate measures...

Leon and I spent the whole day painting our 1st floor landing and entrance hall. This is all still legacy stuff from the loft conversion - and it needs to be done before the baby arrives.

We also still need to:
- Decorate the stairs and 2nd floor landing up to the loft
- Finish the built-in cupboards including painting them
- Have the carpets laid
- Have the bathroom ceiling plastered and decorated
- Wash all the carpets
- Have a deep clean done (by someone else - this is where I draw the line!)
- Move upstairs
- Finish the nursery (including putting together the cot and changing station)
- (And may I [Leon] add: And finally, HAVE A BABY!)

I've made my peace that it might not all be done before his/her arrival. Because I also want to spend at least one weekend doing nothing with Leon - maybe just going for breakfast and/or a walk at Wisley Gardens. (We're praying that he/she is really comfortable where he/she is and not planning to arrive earlier than expected.)

Let's hope it all goes to plan. With these things you just never know...

A lady of leisure - AGAIN!

(posted by Elizma)

The first time was in August 2005 as can be seen here and here.

But this time it is for a totally different reason. One we've been waiting quite a while for. There's only 5 weeks left before the expected arrival of our little one!

I must say, it was time to stop working. By 16:00 in the afternoon, I was desperate for a nap! I only finished on Friday and up until now it's been go-go-go. I don't think it has sunk in that I'm not going back to work for a while - and that our lives will change forever.

But we are counting the days with excited anticipation...

Surprise!

(posted by Elizma)

And what a surprise it was! A baby shower last Sunday organised by Leon's sister, Tania and his mom.

It was a total surprise - as you can tell from the pictures - I looked dreadful! But I wasn't planning on having people around that afternoon.

As you can imagine, I was in tears (actually quite a few times - I think the hormones at last kicked in ;-)).

It was a lovely afternoon. Thanks Tania! Thanks Mom!

I also want to thank everyone who came to share the day with me. I felt really special.

Also, thank you very much to everyone who couldn't be with us, but sent lovely notes which my father-in-law turned into special cards - which we'll treasure to share with the baby one day...

Here are some pictures -



And some more here.

Waking up this morning

(posted by Elizma)

They predicted snow for today, but I didn't believe them. They have predicted it a few times this year already with not a flake in sight for us. But this is what we woke up to this morning - we've never had this much before. It feels like we're in a different country...





A few more pictures here.

An unexpected & not-so-much fun 2 days...

(posted by Leon)

So, on Wednesday morning at around 10am I started to feel a slight discomfort around my coccyx (tailbone). Nothing much, just like it had been bruised a bit (which it hadn't).

It kept getting worse, and Wednesday night turned out to be a pretty horrible night of rather excrutiating pain. I even woke Elizma up at 6am to chat about possibly going to A&E (Accidents&Emergencies at the hospital). We decided to wait until 8am when the doctor's office opened.

The doc couldn't fit us in, but a friendly lady also waiting at the doc told us about our local NHS walk-in centre (NHS = National Health Service -- a great, at times, British institution). Where we duly went. They saw me within 5 minutes, and sent me straight off to... A&E. They, in turn, sent me off to the Surgical Assessment Unit, and before you could say "whatwhenhow?", I was lying in bed in one of those awkward look-at-my-ass backward gowns, awaiting surgery! Apparently, I had one of these bad boys.

I was operated, under general anaesthetic no less, last night at around 6pm, and spent the night in the hospital, uncomfortably sleeping/turning from side to side.

So, now I have to go to the doctor's every day to have the dressing changed and sitting isn't all that much fun anymore.

Hey-ho, I am grateful that it wasn't something too serious, though!