Dave’s Blog

Yesterday. Er. Camera arrived. With a Japanese plug. Still, it was cheap(er) and from ebay. And they did include an adapter, it just took a bit of brute force and ignorance to get the thing in. Welsh lesson. Sleep.

Today. Midwife visited and commented that the bump wasn’t growing as much as she’d hoped. Not sure Sionedwyn agreed, but none the less a trip to the hospital for monitoring was needed. Training session at work was promptly cancelled, and I high tailed it home, feeling just a little bit sick (‘what if…’ etc etc, despite being told repeatedly not to worry). Some listening, a scan and some monitoring later it appears there’s slightly less fluid in there than they would expect. Nowt to worry about in and of itself, but because we want a home birth it’s better they get the checking done now. Back again Sunday, and then again Tuesday to meet with a consultant who will be able to give us a yea or nei on the home birth. I guess if it chooses to make an appearence before we’ll have to go in, so I’m hoping more than ever that that doesn’t happen.

Sionedwyn says she’s not sure that is the case (she’s also moaning about my inability to spell as I type. I suppose I should have at least got her name right. She just sighed as I mis-spelt suppose, and then laughed as I mis-spelt ‘mis-spelt’ …) I guess we’d have to see if and when that happens.

Scan was weird. We both went in hoping we’d get one,  wondering how much the baby would have changed. Answer… still not sure. It waved a couple of fingers at us (no, not those two, this is polite child!), but because it’s* so large now, you can only see one little bit at a time! (Good shot of the thigh bone at one point though!)

In an hour and a half we’ll be D Day minus 10 days. Saturday we’re into single figures. Days like today come along and slap you round the face with the reality of that fact I’m not sure anyone who hasn’t been through it can ever really comprehend.

* Feels REALLY weird typing ‘it’ all the time :0S

So we last saw the impending parents looking forward to spending some time with their new nephew. Sunday saw another burst of activity which saw the door go back on the Snook, shelves go up in the kitchen and a new light switch for the bathroom. We spent a happy afternoon taking it turns to have a cwtsh with Deio. In the fine tradition of all babies he took one look at me and started balling, however after being comforted he eventually fell asleep on me (cute photo to follow!)

Sions is still having problems sleeping, so I woke up Monday to a completely cleaned and rearranged kitchen. Fortunately the coffee was still in the same place. Monday saw me escaping work on time to find Janet wielding a steam cleaning thing attacking the fireplace, so me and Sions went shopping! Got a few bits including a new stand for the carry cot for naps in the day (for the baby you understand…) Got back and went to bed. At 7.30.  Slept through, completely failing to wake up ‘early’ to get some work done. Still, Sions slept as well, which I think is a good thing.

Sions seemed to get a twinge in Sainbury’s which gave me a real, well, shock I guess. I mean, it shouldn’t be a shock. I’ve eight and a half months to get used to the idea of this baby, but that ‘it could come right now’ was a bit of a kick up the proverbial. I’ve been happily telling myself that it’ll be late, but of course it could just as easily be early. And I need to get ready. So today, I’ve started sorting out the work to leave for my paternity leave. Just need to spend half an hour tomorrow getting the instructions sorted.

Still got a massive marking backlog, but pretty much everything else is sorted. Need to spend some time on the ICT project soon as well. This post has descended to be being a) about me and b) boring, so I’ll stop there and come back tomorrow with something more baby related.

The amount of non-baby stuff is getting less and less all the time, but I wanted to post a couple of quick things here.

Firstly, Pete’s back safe and sound in the country after being off for exactly a year. It’s weird to think in that time the only communication between us has been through a few emails, so it’ll be great to see him in person and do some quality catching up. No idea when it’ll happen, but it’ll be cool when it does. Hopefully, as I set it up for him, he might actually get round to posting a few of his pictures on his flickr account.

Secondly, I hadn’t actually got round to posting anything about Col’s new site. Since he came back he’s been recording some really great songs, and was buggering about with several crap websites. So for his birthday we fixed him up with some hosting, a domain name of his own, and a copy of WordPress. The result? Have a look for yourself at colestacey.net. The songs sound really good, and are available to buy for a very reasonable 77p from Indiestore.com 

You’ll notice the title of this post has changed slightly, after Amy pointed out that what I was counting down to was actually quite unlike to be the Birth date. So despite the other connotations (however appropriate), we’re now counting down to D-Day!

Got quite a few bits done today, including light shades, dimmer switches and, following one bought of what I can only assume was male nesting, we now have possibly the cleanest kitchen cupboard tops in Swansea. Birthing pool has been deflated, disinfected and packed away, ready to be re inflated whenever that moment arrives.

I think there’s a bit of Sionedwyn that is getting a bit tired of lugging the bump around all the time, and would quite like to have it outside, where it can be put down in a crib every so often.

Still officially not mentioning the gender, although we’ve both slipped up a few times. Most people either haven’t noticed or (and I suspect this is the case) are too polite to mention! That said, both of us are wondering if we’re going to be in “that” 2%!!!

Just finished transferring the latest guesses in the baby sweepstake over to the Babi page. Up to 36 guesses now, with the earliest being Friday (Emma). I’ve also figured how to just pull the babi posts from the blog, so they’re being displayed over there as well.

Off to see Deio again tomorrow for tea. Can’t wait until we can take our little person over there to say hello in person, rather than just have them kicking each other in greeting through Sionedwyn!

Came Home. Sionedwyn and Janet had done lots of cleaning, washing and ironing.

Had bath.

Went to bed.

Hummm… And I thought filling the birthing pool with air was problematical. Turns out we don’t have one of those boilers that gives us constant hot water, I’ve just never used more than a tank full at a time. If I’m honest, I’m completely in the dark about how our hot water works, so I’ve switched every switch in the vicinity of the tank on, and it seems to be staying hotter for longer. I’m just hoping labour isn’t too short!

In other news, Sionedwyn’s nesting instinct has kicked in she claims. Washing continues apace. More news tomorrow.

Dave: Hello world, sorry I haven’t blogged in ages. How are you?

World: Not too bad thanks Dave, you know how it is. How’s tricks?

Dave: Not bad thanks world. Been pretty busy. Last half term was pretty manic by the end, but I’m pretty chilled out at the moment. I think impending fatherhood does that. Either that, or there’s something in that new packet of tea bags.

World: Could be Dave, could be. How’s Sionedwyn?

Dave: Not bad thanks. She’s sat next to me going through the iTunes library on the mac creating some playlists for the birth. I’ve been sat in the floor for the last ten minutes, making a variety of suggestions, most of which, quite rightly, were roundly rejected. She’s now flicking through assorted classical tracks. I’m not sure if this baby’s going to be born to the sound of Mozart or Meatloaf.

World: How long left now then?

Dave: Due date is three weeks today!

World: Blimey heck as like!

Dave: I’ve never actually heard anyone say that before you know

World: Well, er… let’s move on. Has she finished work now?

Dave: Yes, she broke up at the some time I finished for half term, which meant we got to spend last week together doing various preparation stuff, visiting my parents, and our new nephew. She’s also just lent over and pointed out that the seventh word of the first sentence in this part should be ‘same’ not ‘some’. The fact that I’m writing this blog post in script format, with the world as the other half of the conversation apparently wasn’t worthy of comment. Not sure if that says more about me or her.

World: I suppose if you were any good at this writing thing, this would be the point where you started working in those ironic, post-modern, knowing asides that modern humour writers love so much.

Dave: Yeah, just as well I’m not one of those isn’t it. They can easily slip into self indulgent bollocks.

World: Yeah, it would be a shame for that to happen

Dave: Yeah.

World: So what was the point of this post again?

Dave: Not really sure. I just noticed that I hadn’t blogged here for ages. This was going to be one of those humorous sports-score style posts, but it strangely turned into this conversation style thing instead.

Dave: Sorry for the pause there world, next door but one are letting off loads of fireworks, so I went and got the camera, switched off the flash and made my way to the window just in time for them to stop. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, update since September…

World: Don’t feel you have to Dave, if you’ve got other things to do.

Dave: That’s ok World. There’s a bit of marking to be done, but that can wait a few minutes. Ooo. hang on…

…Got a photo.

…Probably not worth it.Anyway, Since September it’s mostly been school stuff, what with teaching History, sorting out web stuff and doing the SMART thing (not very well if I’m honest), and baby things. Nursery is pretty much done, we’ve got almost everything we need, including a cool buggy with a car seat that you can open up into a sleep pod thing so the baby can stay in it, a whole bunch of different reusable nappies, a globug egg that’s telling us upstairs might be a bit too warm, and a nursing chair that came with the wrong set of instructions. We’ve also just ordered a digital SLR camera from ebay, so we can take decent picture, without the horrible delay that plagues my pictures (obviously all the pictures I take with this one will be staggering works of photographic genius), a new macbook, partly so Sions can be online wirelessly, and partly so we can get Leopard!

The bump is now really bump shaped, and it actually really suits Sions. She’s still being sick occasionally, but seems to be feeling better than she did. Basically the pregancy can be summed up as morning sickness, with a 6 week break in the middle. We think we’re sorted for names, although she does keep having dreams in which the baby isn’t the sex the hospital told us it was. We’ve got another name lined up in case we do find ourselves in that 2%. If everything goes to plan then the baby’s going to be born at home. We’ve ordered the birthing pool, and the music is being put together as I type. I’m really looking forward to it now, the closer we’ve got the closer to the birth I’ve been able to visualise. I think seeing Deio helped there, and since I last wrote he arrived (5 1/2 weeks early) and is now doing well at home.

World: That’s great Dave…

Dave: Sorry world, forgot about you there, that slipped back into a bit of a first person, stream of conciousness kind of thing

World: Yeah we noticed. Anyway, it’s been great catching up Dave, but haven’t you got some work to do?

Dave: Yeah, I suppose I have World. I’ve just realised that when I type this, the voice in my head isn’t mine, but Jimmy Rabbit from the Committments. Anyway, I’m going to post this and make a cup of tea. Would you like one before you go?

Terry: No, that’s fine thanks Dave. I’ll be off now, but don’t leave it so long before you post again.

Dave: I’ll try. Mind how you go now.

Mrs Goggins: Cheerio Pat.

The next person who tells me that I don’t know what I’m talking about when I complain I’m tired is likely to get punched in the face. I’m struggling to git everything in at the moment, and then some, which leaves me with only one solution. Start stopping things.

I’m going to try and get lots of things up to a point at which I can say ‘that’s it for now’ over the next couple of days, get my lessons planed till Christmas, so the CRA’s can get my resources sorted for me, and then I can focus on Sions, teaching my classes, and the school website, in that order.