Alien Spouse

Better! Back to Work!

Well, someone slept for most of yesterday - and it wasn't Eva!

I feel a lot better today; for one thing my throat no longer hurts and now it merely feels like my ears won't pop, which is a distinct improvement. This morning was a bit groggy from the night-time cold meds so I felt like my head was bobbling around on my shoulders like, well, a bobble head and I'm not sure I was making that much sense before I'd had my second cup of coffee.  Fortunately I could limit most of my interactions with people to e-mail and that meant I could hone my words to make sure they made some sense before I hit send.

One very good thing about working part-time is that I don't feel completely exhausted by the end of the day, so when I got home I still had enough energy to play with Eva and read her a story.  After that I needed to have a quick nap, but then Madam had a nice splashy bath and she went to bed like a little lamb.  I, meanwhile, get to enjoy a glass of wine but I'm sure I'll be in bed well before 10.

Tonsils. Ugh.

On Sunday I started to feel a little bit under the weather, and it was my old nemesis - My tonsils.  Whenever I'm ill it usually starts with a sore throat, which is really annoying and painful; particularly if it spreads to my ears.  At that point I usually just want to chop my head off just above my shoulders, because the rest of me seems to be totally fine.

This time I have deployed the three main weapons in my self medication aresenal:

1. Throat lozenges (in the UK - Lockets. In the US - Ricola)
2. Tea (PG Tips, lime tea, lemon and ginger with honey)
3. Alka Seltzer : Cold Formula

Those three things plus a lot of sleep usually help, and having slept for most of today I am feeling better.

I can't really complain though because I haven't been even remotely unwell for over eighteen months (I don't think you can count being pregnant as being ill) and, even better, neither Doc C or Eva seem to have caught anything.  That is a huge relief all around.

Exhausted.

I am so tired - I am actually not 100% sure that I'll make it through the whole of this episode of "Star Trek".  Mostly I'm just tired from working and keeping care of the baby, with a dash of still having to unpack a few boxes which is particularly energy sapping for some reason.  

Really I just need to start going to bed earlier of an evening, because Eva is sleeping really well again, but she has settled on six a.m. as the proper time to wake up.  Ugh.  I have no idea where she gets that from, neither Doc C nor myself are that keen on mornings.

A Time for Bed.

So it turns out that the baby really just wanted to go to bed at the same time every night, and she fairly organically has selected a time for that.  Eva likes to be changed into her pyjamas at 8, or a bit earlier if it's been a busy day, and then she likes to have both of us in the bedroom singing our (limited) repertoire of lullabies.

I am so sick of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".

I am also suddenly very much aware of how macabre British nursery rhymes are, I mean "Oranges and Lemons" is a charming little song about church bells, until out of nowhere it suddenly changes to "Here comes the chopper to chop off your head. Chip chop, chip chop the old man's DEAD!" I mean, really? Yikes! That is dark.  We just skip that bit for the moment.

Anyway, Eva seems to be doing well with a bedtime around 8ish.  She is still waking up at night, but usually only once at around 5ish; it's really tough but we are trying not to go to her then, because she will go back to sleep and then she won't wake up again until 7.  That is more like it.

 

Not Sleeping - Like a Baby...

Had I mentioned that Eva's good sleeping habits were merely a ruse?  The little mare was just waiting for me to start working, and she's been waking up every couple of hours for the past few weeks.  Urgh.

So I'm tired, the Doc's tired and even the cats seem pretty damn tired.  We need to do some serious sleep training fairly soon I think.  No one is looking forward to that, not one little bit.

Urgh.

Speed Mobility System - From Milan.

It is utterly bizarre to me that I have somehow stumbled into a life in which I am shopping for motorcycle accessories.  How the hell did that happen?

I bought a SMS Visione in pearl white with black stripes, and it arrived yesterday.  I am very happy with it; it fits snuggly whilst still being nice and light, and I love how it looks.  There is a definite hint of Princess from G-Force about it, now all I need is a pink dress, a white cloak and some high white boots.

Originally I was heavily leaning towards a sliver glitter helmet, which was rather stunning, but that didn't have a face visor and I decided that whilst looking like a mirror ball might be fun, it might also be a little over the top.  So I went with something classic (and a good $50 cheaper...).

The SMS website has the following information about their designers:

"SMS is an Italian designed helmet line.  Mr. Landi is the main designer behind these exclusive scooter helmets.  Mr. Landi lives and works in Milan, where he finds much of his design inspiration in this beautiful old European city in the heart of Italy.  Guiseppe is the other Italian designer, responsible for building high quality, safe helmets with a stylish look.  Together they have created this elite line of scooter helmets with a distinct European retro feel."

I love that!  Mr Landi and Guiseppe!  

A Tuesday in Asheville.

I had anticipated a relaxed start to my day, because I was going to a meeting round the corner at 12 instead of going to the studio at 10.  So naturally I woke up with a splitting headache, a vomitting cat and a baby in need of a bath - None of those things were connected, except that they all seemed to happen at once.

Still, my day itself was good.  We are filming in local bars at the moment, and one of the guys in the video has needed to bring his year old daughter with him to the sets.  As project manager I see my role as including taking care of any issues that might delay filming, so I've been the on-set British nanny as needed!  It was actually really nice to play with a toddler and get a glimpse of where Eva will be in a few months.  Apparently there will be a lot of climbing up and down stairs, as well as a fair amount of toothy grins.

Whilst I was trying to source props for Thursday (how hard is it to find DJ decks in Asheville on two days notice?), Doc C was taking Evalyn to her six month check up.  She's very healthy and now weighs nearly 16 pounds, so she's almost tripled in size since she was born.  I'm told she still hates having vaccination jabs, but then who could blame her for that really?

A Statement of Intent with Regard to Summer Clothing.

2013 will be a momentous year.

It will be the year that I finally drive a motorised vehicle after passing my driving test twenty flipping years ago AND it will be the year that I wear a bikini for the first time in my adult life.  Not at the same time of course, that would be foolish.

This is my two piece of choice, and, as if it could get any better than it already is, it actually is an Esther Williams design.  I haven't bought it yet, because I'm still hoping to lose/tone a little more tummy before the summer.  This is where the newly re-started pilates comes in, along with some yet-to-be-done calorie counting

That's all I had to say today.  Bikini. Yes.

Hello Again! Also - Pilates : Why It Rules!

A blog?  I have a blog?  Huh!  Well, who knew?

Anyway, we have come to an understanding with Eva (I hope), so she starts off the night in the crib and usually manages a couple of hours in there at least.  She still waking up around 2am, and I am sure it's because she's getting cold, so I've been bringing her into bed with us, and then she sleeps until around 6:30, which is acceptable.  Not great, but acceptable.

With slightly more sleep in hand I felt human enough to sign myself up for a pilates mat class this evening, this is a drop-in class and costs the amazingly low price of $9 - However when I got there I was the only student, so I basically got a private mat class.  It was terrific!  My back has been really tight and my legs have been aching just from being so tired, but after the class everything felt stretched and renewed.  It was like I was two inches taller and floating.  Bliss.  And it was NINE DOLLARS.  Amazing.

 

Lack of Sleep = Lack of Updates.

Ok, so Eva is no longer sleeping through the night now she is in the crib (although I don't think that is why, I think it's coincidental).  Hmmmm...  This is not quite what I was hoping for... I preferred her original operating system, this upgrade is rubbish...

Also, bloody hell, I am tired.

Cribbed.

Saturday night was Eva's first night in her new crib, and she slept like a little tiny snoring log.  It was most satisfactory.

Of course on Sunday night she woke up a couple of times to be fed, but it really wasn't anything to do with the crib.  I'm fairly sure she just wanted to illustrate her awe inspiring baby powers of control over her subservient parents.

Eva's New Furniture.

This evening we bought Eva her own bed, well, it's a crib that will convert into a bed when she's old enough. Point being she won't be sleeping in our bed for very much longer - first, we have to build the thing, and, second, get her comfortable with sleeping in it.  I'll report back on which is the most difficult.

Sleeping Like a Baby.

Remember how a while back I happened to nonchalently mention how well Eva slept? Well, pretty much since I've been working again, she's been experimenting with having a few mid-night snacks - Generally she likes to be fed at 2, 4 and 6.  It is ever so slightly bad timing on her part, but I'm struggling through somehow.

Coffee can do amazing things.

Theraputic Bruising.

Today we were out on a video shoot that involved local spas, which made for a lovely day of filming which I very much enjoyed.  It's rather pleasent to have a nice relaxing day at work essentially touring spas.

The last filming location was an acupuncture and pilates studio (which has extremely reasonably priced classes - I'm making a nite of that!), and once we'd filmed the interview and footage of acupuncture, I volunteered to be the guinea pig for a quick demonstration of cupping therapy.  It wasn't actually filmed, but we did take some stills and I have some pretty impressive bruises.

It looks awful, doesn't it?  Which is weird because it felt really nice, like a particularly in-depth massage.  Still, I suppose that it means I shouldn't wear anything strappy for a few days!

Weekend of Contrasts.

The bad news is that I spent the weekend fighting off the cold that Doc C had, and I managed it fairly well - At the cost of needing to sleep for the majority of Saturday and Sunday.  Fortunately the Doc was better so he could look after Eva, and, even more fortunately, Eva doesn't seem to have caught anything.

On the other hand, the good news is that I got a call on Saturday to say I'd got the job!  Squee!  I start my six week trial period in a fortnight's time - It's just two days a week, but it is at my very favourite shop in Asheville!  I cannot believe my luck!  Squee, Squeee, Squeeeeeeeeeee!

 

A New Year's Day Wish.

Doc C has had a nasty cold this weekend, and he's been super-paranoid about passing it on to Eva; so he slept on the sofa for a couple of nights and he's still too worried about germs to pick her up.  Naturally Eva decided that this was the perfect time to be a weeny bit needy, so I've been catering to her every whim and trying to persuade the Doc to let me occaisionally make him a cup of tea.

The saying that doctors make terrible patients is very true, in the case of my Doc (Phd) it's because he tries really hard to be no trouble at all.  It makes it very difficult to look after him, because he will insist he doesn't need to be - even when he can barely open a can of chicken soup for himself.

Anyway...

Happy New Year and let's hope that 2013 brings a wave of incredible good health to us all!

Health Round-Up.

This Christmas I have been given the gift of elevated liver enzymes, which is frankly not something I had on my Amazon wishlist.  It first showed up in my basic blood test when Doc C and I went to see our new doctor for the first time, so then I had a ultrasound of my liver and gall bladder to see if I had a gallstone.  

The ultrasound showed that I did not have a gall stone at that time; so the Doctor suggested getting another basic blood screen to see if the enzyme levels were still high, the hope was that they would have dropped back to normal because I'd passed the gall stone between the blood test and the ultrasound.

The second blood test showed that my enzyme levels were still too high for my doctor's liking, so I went in today to have more blood drawn for a whole barrage of other tests.

All this, and that weird rash I've had for a few weeks?  Yeah, that turns out to be ringworm.  Where the hell did I get ringworm?  I mean honestly you have one baby and you just start falling to bits.  That's not really true though, other than those two things I am fine and I haven't had a cold or anything like that since 2011.  And long may that continue!

Faux-Hawk!

Doc C dressed Eva today, but he was shamelessly pandering to my taste and I was particularly smitten with this outfit.  Look at that faux-fur faux-hawk!  Ridiculous AND Adorable!

We actually had to go out this morning to get blood taken for some blood tests (nothing interesting, just standard tests for the medical we had with our new doctor yesterday) and we weren't supposed to eat before hand - So we were very motivated to leave the house early today.  

Eva slept through the whole thing, and only really woke up when we went out for breakfast, and even then she was really good.  There was a bit of crying, but only because she wanted to get out of her pram and STARE around the restaurant at people.  She is definitely getting really interested in other people and what they are doing, which is really fun to see.

She wasn't quite so good when we later had to go to the chemists to pick up our prescriptions, but who can blame her?  Walgreens is really not as much fun as the Early Girl Eatery!

Sleeping and Waking.

As I've mentioned before, even though Eva is sleeping like a log at night (which, again, I am thrilled by and hope that I'm not jinxing), I am still woken up very easily by any noise in our apartment.  On Saturday night we went to bed as usual, and I was jolted awake by really loud music at quarter to four in the morning.  The music was coming from our living room.  Which was odd. Doc C was sound asleep and so was Eva, and I didn't want them to be woken up, so I got up to see what the hell was going on.

The stereo was blaring a Michael Jackson concert.  The cats were awake and were just kind of nervously milling around the room, so I thought that one of them must have sat on the remote and turned on the stereo.  I wanted to turn off the music, obviously, but I couldn't see the remote so I just pulled the power cable out and went back to bed.  When I got up the next day I plugged it back in, and found the remote; it was right in front of the stereo but there was a lot of other bits and bobs around it which made it seem very unlikely that the cats could have touched it.

So I have no idea what that was about, and it hasn't happened again.  Weird.

This week is pleasantly truncated by Thanksgiving, not that it makes any difference to my schedule really but it is lovely to have Doc C at home for a nice long weekend.  So there will be lots of sleep most likely.

To kick off the week, on Monday night we took an impromptu over-night trip to our friends Randy and Laura's house, which is where has been Doc C staying during the week this semester.  The reason we chose that evening for our first overnight experiment with Eva was because Randy and Laura would be away at a conference, so if, Eva's usually excellent sleep pattern was disrupted by the change of location, then the only people she would keep awake would be us.  As it happened she slept just as well in their house as she does in ours, so we will be able to visit them when they are actually at home!  Yay!  (Although their poor cats won't be happy about that, they were really not comfortable with there being a baby in the house and hid from her.)

Resuming Broadcast.

Doc C borrowed a lap top for me, so that I'm able to access the internet and blog, isn't that sweet of him?  He is the very best of husbands in my completely unbiased opinion!

To recap the last few days:

• On Friday we took Eva to get her first round of vaccinations - There was, of course, screaming but the nurse was very efficient and got the shots done really quickly.  Eva soon recovered her equilibrium and is her usual (mostly content) self now.
• We went to the storage unit and dropped off the Halloween decorations and picked up warmer clothes, boots and bedding.  I resisted bringing home the Christmas baubles for now.
• Doc C finished "Bioshock", and we found a second-hand copy of "Bioshock 2" for $8 so the adventure continues!
• I've been reading a lot on my Kindle,which is just an absolute necessity for bookworm mothers in my opinion. It is so easy to hold and "turn pages" with one hand whilst feeding Eva, or holding her, or whatever else she needs at that particular moment (although I haven't yet worked out how to read even the Kindle whilst changing her nappy though, that task requires complete attention).
• I considered buying new jeans on Friday, but as I can easily fit into my old jeans now (if you kindly gloss over the slight muffin top...) so I'll wait to buy more clothes when I have a found a job.
• Speaking of which, I updated my CV and Doc C printed off some copies so I can start handing them in to local businesses and applying for jobs.
• The weather is still quite pleasant but it is colder, so I don't like to have the door to the balcony open all day.  The cats have learned to miaow at the door when they want to go out, and then tap on the glass with their paw when they want to come back in.  They tend to want to go in or out every ten to fifteen minutes and are therefore driving me potty.

Tummy Button.

Ok fine.  I'm smitten by this kid, but I can't help it! She's just ridiculously sweet in a number of ways that I wasn't expecting. A good example of this would be her tummy; how cute is this tummy button?   I didn't know tummy buttons came in a perfect swirl like that! It's adorable, damn it!

Also pictured here is the top of her nappy (American Translation : Diaper), we are really happy with the cloth nappies and the delivery service we use is great, so the whole thing is incredibly simple and convinient.  Of course the most important thing is that Eva seems very comfortable and, when Doc C decided to use the last of the disposable nappies we had left over from the hospital, she actually seemed quite unhappy about the disposable nappy.  Doc C told her she was being ideological, but that didn't appear to sway her opinion and she wouldn't settle down until he put a cloth nappy on her instead.

Eight Weeks of Eva.

Evalyn Alice is 8 weeks old today - And look how much bigger and happier she is!

Also, you can tell that Doc C is out of town because there is no way he would allow her to be dressed in a black/grey striped onesie with black/grey leopard print leggings and hot pink socks (It's probably a good thing that you can't see her nappy cover, which is lime green).

I think she looks very fashion forward and adorable myself.

*** Post Script - I just spoke to Doc C, he said he saw today's photo of Eva and actually the outfit was kind of punk rock and cool! So maybe she will wear this ensemble a few more times! ***

Early Alarm.

I don't think that I've mentioned that Eva is really good about sleeping at night, I didn't mention it because a) I didn't want to jinx it and b) it's just so smug isn't it, to say "My 7 week old baby sleeps at night"? So smug and not at all helpful to anyone who might wonder what magic I've weaved to achieve this, because really it is all her! She just likes to sleep at night!

Eva usually sleeps for a few hours in the evening whilst Doc C and I have dinner and watch TV, and then she'll settle down for a nice long stretch from her last nappy change at midnight until six in the morning.  There are the occasional snuffly noises at around 3, but really that's it and she doesn't actually fully wake up then unless she's unusually uncomfortable.

The thing is, though, that I'm still woken up by anything that sounds remotely like Eva's voice; so if one of the cats simply miaows outside our bedroom door I'm wide awake instantly, so it's a good thing that they don't tend to do that very often.  Last night I was jolted awake at four in the morning, Eva was completely zonked, Doc C was also asleep and there were no cats to be heard; I settled back down to sleep and then I heard the noise that had clearly woken me up.

It was my damned phone.

Somehow the stupid thing always runs out of power at the worst possible time, and then it starts making these plaintive beeps avery few minutes to indicate it requires recharging.  It is SO annoying, especially when you have a young baby who is perfectly capable of waking you up to be fed but crucially has not, to be woken up by your phone! Ugh!

Actually I haven't had a phone I really liked since I signed up with Verizon (the Samsung Juke was probably the least problematic) and I am beginning to suspect that Verizon only has slightly crappy cell phones, specifically so that one feels compelled to get a smart phone and therefore have to pay more for the data plan necessary to make that smart phone function properly.  It's paranoid I know but, seriously I research my options every time I'm due an upgrade and I just keep getting lemons that wake me up at inconvenient times.

This Small Victory is Mine!

The temperature has dropped noticably over the last couple of days; and Eva does not approve.  That's the only reason I can come up with for her being so inconsolably grumpy every time I try to put her down, I think she wants to be held so she can leach my body heat. Basically, what I'm saying is that my daughter is a cat or possibly a lizard.  I have been calling her Reptile Brain (Affectionately!  Her other nickname is Milk Breath), so I may have brought this on myself.

Yesterday I didn't ever manage to calm her down long enough for me to have a shower until it just seemed a bit pointless especially as I wasn't going to be leaving the house or seeing anyone anyway, and so I just changed into a warmer set of pajamas.  Today though has been a victory of baby wrangling and time management - I've eaten breakfast before noon, had a shower (AND I washed my hair and put some styling product in it!  I know!) and put on clean clothes that are not designed purely for sleeping in.  

I feel like I have accomplished so much.  It's funny how your goals and standards change isn't it?

Fee.

The bill for Eva's birth came from the hospital today.  

Fourteen thousand dollars.  

Yikes.  I'm really glad we had health insurance that covered most of it, but we still owe just under three thousand dollars.  Which again - Yikes.  I don't think I have ever spent that much money at one time in one place before!

On the one hand that seems expensive for such a teeny tiny little thing, but on the other hand it seems like a total bargain for my beautiful daughter.

Baby Bath.

I've given Eva sponge baths since we brought her home, but we had to wait until her umbilical stump fell off before we could give her a bath.  Once that happened and we were cleared to actually give her a proper bath, frankly I was nervous about actually putting her in the water because I expected there would be a lot of screaming.

Today we bit the bullet, and Doc C gave Eva a bath in the kitchen sink, whilst I hovered anxiously and took photos.  Because, hello, what else are we going to embarrass her with when she's 17 and brings friends home?

We were pretty delighted to discover that she seems to actually like the water.  There were no tears until the very end of the bath when it suddenly all got a bit overwhelming, and by then we already had a clean baby.  

A successfull mission! Well done Doc C!

 

My Two Week Check-Up.

I went for my two week check-up today, which was super quick because it was essentially just checking that my C-section incision is healing well, which it is, and that took about 30 seconds.  I joked to Doc C on the way home that I should have just texted my doctor a mobile phone photo and saved the trip to the office.

Still, Eva enjoyed getting out of the house, she seems to like trips in the car, and it's nice to have people tell me how pretty she is (I know that everyone is morally obligated to say that; who tells a new mother that their kid is funny-looking? As it happens I do think my baby is quite cute - when she isn't screaming that is...)

The best part for me was being weighed - I'm currently 192 pounds, so I've already lost 20 pounds from my pregnancy weight and I'm back under 200 pounds again.  I'm not fanatical about my weight, and I'll never be super skinny, but it is nice to be within sight of my normal body again.  I don't need to be wearing a size zero to be happy, I'd be delighted just to be able to do up my size 12 jeans again without the use of a hair elastic.  Ok, maybe it'd be nice to be a size 10, but I'm not going to go nuts trying to achieve that.

My doctor did approve me for walking and light exercise, but I'm still not to pick up anything heavier than Eva and her carrier and I'm banned from doing crunches.  And I think we can all agree that autumnal walks in the park are rather lovely whilst crunches are hellish at the best of times, so I'm totally fine with that ruling.

Weights and Measures.

Yesterday we took Eva to see the pediatrician for her two week check-up, and he said that she's doing really well.  When she was born Evalyn weighed 6 pounds and 14 ounces, that dropped (which is totally normal for new-borns) to 6 pounds 2 ounces and all of the literature said that she should regain her birth weight by the time she was ten days old; however we don't have scales at home, so we couldn't check on this ourselves.  It was extremely reassuring to find out when she was weighed yesterday that she is now 7 pounds 10 ounces!  Yes!  I am successfully feeding our child!

This was the first time I had met Eva's doctor, but Doc C had already told me he was really nice; I appreciated that he took time to answer all of our questions and also asked how I was doing which I thought was both sensible and kind.  Both qualities you want in your child's health-care provider.

It was pretty exciting for me to be out of the house for the first time in 11 days, so after the doctor's appointment we went to get a coffee and then went totally nuts and bought a breast pump at Target.  I tell you being a new parent is all about the wild times...

Anyway, the most exciting thing that happened today was that I tried on a pair of my old khakis - And they fitted!  I wouldn't say they look good, but I could get them done up comfortably so I've been wearing them all day.  I am particularly pleased about this because I haven't yet been trying to lose any of my pregnancy weight, so this is just things settling back into place and probably a bit of weight-loss from the breastfeeding and eating sensibly.  On Monday I have my two week check-up with my OB/GYN, and I'm hoping that I get the ok to do a bit more walking and some light exercising.  Don't worry, I'm not going to try and drop a dress size in a week or anything daft like that, I'm quite happy to take this slowly and let my body adjust to the massive changes it's under gone recently - Poor old thing!

 

Physic.

This are my morning vitamins, supplements and pills as prescribed by my doctor after the birth.

I practically rattle.

Stumpy.

Last night I was changing Evalyn's nappy, and her umbilical cord stump had fallen off!  Yay!  We can give her a bath now!

The stump was still in her onesie and I had a moment of wondering what the hell I was meant to do with it.  Through out the pregnancy and after the birth people have been assuming I am going to keep and archive some of the weirdest things, so I wasn't sure if this was one of those things that I'm supposed to stick in her baby book or have bronzed or something.  We had loads of leaflets about cord blood banks before the birth, and I half wondered if there was a umbilical stump vault, but it seems unlikely.

In the end I decided to throw the stump away, because, well, it was kind of disgusting frankly - And because Edith is going through a phase of chewing things, particularly if it's something that belongs to the baby, and I had this horrible vision of chasing the stupid cat around the apartment as she ate the thing.  Blergh.

Eva is totally fine by the way, she hasn't even noticed the absence of the stump.  I don't think she'll miss it.

Parenting Guides : French Edition.

Fairly early on in my pregnancy I read Pamela Druckerman's book "Bringing Up Bebe", which is about her experience as an American starting a family in Paris.  It's a really interesting look at the French style of parenting and there were several things I found particularly appealing; however Druckerman is a journalist not a doctor or an accredited expert, so I was reluctant to go purely on her findings.

Fortunately she is very good at providing solid and credible sources, which includes Dr Michel Cohen who wrote a parenting guide called "The New Basics".  I bought that book last night and started reading the relevant chapters whilst my daughter was fussing about being put to bed.  There are a couple of pieces of advice that are mirroring pretty much exactly what my instincts are; in particular feeding Eva when she demands to be fed instead of forcing her onto a schedule, and not waking her up to feed her at night.

It makes me feel more confident in trusting my instincts, and that is immensely comforting at this point.  I don't necessarily want a little Parisien running around the house (perish the thought! I am British after all!), but I would like the calmness that both Druckerman and Cohen describe.  Keep your fingers crossed.

House Bound.

It may not have been completely clear from my recent posts, but I haven't left our appartment since we brought Evalyn home.  I actually can't, because when I left the hospital I was given a list of things that I was not allowed to do over the next two weeks and that included walking up too many stairs because it would strain my stitches (urgh!).  How many is too many? Well, I asked that, thinking that it would be four or five flights of stairs surely, and the nurse giving me my orders said no more than 15 or 20 steps.  There are exactly 39 steps up to my front door.  Damn.

So, I've been in the house all of this week and the next time I intend to leave is Friday when Eva has a doctor's appointment - Technically I think I'm not supposed to leave the house until my own doctor's appointment with is the following Monday, but I'm just going to sneak out and hope no-one tells, ok?

Sleep! Cats! Perfect!

Isn't sleep AMAZING?

I mean really, if you haven't thought about it, let me assure you that sleep is quite possibly one of the best things ever.  My plan to sleep on-and-off all day yesterday went to hell in a handbasket, because Eva has decided to cluster-feed in the mornings and I had a lot of phone calls to make in the afternoon - But we went to bed at about 9, and slept until 10 this morning.  Even allowing for feeding time, that has to be a good 7 or 8 hours there.  I am a new woman!

I also promised you a cute cat story, I believe.  Well, all during the pregnancy I was concerned about how the cats were going to react to a strange new living thing in their home, because there was just no way to warn them in advance and get them used to the idea.  The day after she was born Doc brought home a hat Eva had been wearing in the hospital to give the cats something to sniff, but they didn;t seem that interested apparently.

When we brought Evalyn home for the first time, we put the carrier down in the middle of the living room and waited to see what the cats would do,.. They ignored it and the baby, totally oblivious to anything unusual or new.  However it was just about time for Eva to eat, so she soon started to fuss, and began crying.  I picked her up to feed her, sat down in the rocking chair and was totally engrossed in getting her to latch until Doc suddenly said "Look behind you!"  Edith had jumped up onto the cat-condo, so that she could look over my shoulder and see the baby!  I very carefully swung myself round a bit so she could get a better view, and she started purring and climbed to the arm of the chair for a closer look.  Nancy meanwhile had put her ears down at the first sound of trouble, and legged it outside.

Edith has been as interested in the baby ever since, later that same afternoon Doc C was holding his daughter and offered her head to Edith so she could sniff it.  Edith did, and then affectionately head-bumped her.  It was just adorable.  Don't worry though that's as close as Edith is allowed to the baby, I don't want to get my baby covered in cat fur or accidentally scratched by an over-enthusiastic paw pat.

I don't like to anthropomorphise animals, but it's hard not to sometimes.  Edith genuinely seems to want to help, or at least she wants to express her affection for us by being affectionate towards the human-kitten we've brought home.  One of my favourite things so far has been to see Edith purposely sit somewhere where she can see the baby and just gaze at her.  It's a bit too adorable to feel real, if you know what I mean, but that's fine with me!

 

First Full Day at Home.

Success! She's still alive!

Doc C took Evalyn to the doctor's today, as per the hospital's request, to have her checked over, and she passed the M.O.T. with flying colours.  She's put on some weight (I did that! Me and my breasts!) and the doctor felt that her bellirubin levels didn't need to be tested again, because her colour was good.

It's been a pretty good day (with only two fits of weeping on my part! I'm cheering up!), but exhausting. Who knew that changing 6 pooey nappies, providing 8 meals from total scratch and carrying a 6 pound 5.5 ounces weight everywhere would be so tiring?

I have a new plan of attack for tomorrow. Eva and I are going to spend the whole day in bed, and I'm just going to feed her, eat something myself and then sleep for the whole day.  It's going to be fantastic.

Remind me to tell you a really cute story about the cats by the way - Tomorrow though, when I've slept.

Labor Day 2012 - Evalyn Comes Home.

We were given the option to come home on Sunday, so the third day after Eva's birth, but told that it was totally normal and expected for caesarean patients to stay for that third night.  Given the weepy exhausted mess I still was on Sunday afternoon, we decided an extra night with highly-trained support but a step away wasn't a bad idea.

Mainly the night nurse from the previous evening, Janet, was going to be back at midnight and I found her hugely reassuring and helpful so an extra night of her coaching seemed like an excellent idea to me.  I cannot tell you how great all of the nurses were, but there was just something about Janet that really helped me to calm the hell down and just get a better perspective.  When we left I wrote thank you cards to several people, and I hope that they know how much thier help meant to our brand new nuclear family unit.

Also, if you are planning to have a baby and the hospital happens to be a teaching hospital, I highly recommend going in over a holiday weekend.  The place was totally empty and everyone had just tons of time for us - Now I'm sure our hospital is always damn good (it happens to be in the top 50 in America, a fact we only discovered yesterday when I decided to try walking around a bit and saw a framed article in one of the corridors), but still, it's something to bear in mind.  Of course I say this like I decided anything at all!  Eva is clearly a scheduling genius though!

Anyway...

They let Doc C and I go home with Evalyn this afternoon.  So exciting, so terrifying, and so natural all at the same time. 

We Love Eva So Much It Hurts.

As you will appreciate most of the drama surrounding a birth is on the day itself, but it doesn't end there.  Oh no.  So the second day I was totally fine.  I mean a little uncomfortable, but the only pain medication I've taken so far has been ibuprofen, although I could have percocet any time I fancy, and I've been enjoying the admiration of people for my ability to stand.  It has been a while since my standing upright has been that impressive to anyone, it goes to your head (Boom! Boom!).

However, Evalyn also had to have some tests run including a bilirubin test.  That involves taking a blood sample, and with new borns they do that by making a tiny cut on their heel and then filling up a small vial from that cut.  I am getting tearful just thinking about it.  Doc C and I were in pieces after that, Eva recovered pretty much immediately of course, but I could not stop crying and apologising to her.  That was bad enough, because we didn't know what was coming - This morning, because her bilirubin levels were higher than they would have liked at the first test, a second one was ordered.  We had to ask the tech to take Eva to the nursery to do it, because we just could not have handled that again.

There is a saying or a quote that I half-remember about how having a child is like cutting out your heart and sending it out to walk around in the world, and I always thought that was a touch hyperbolic.  Now I'd happily invest in some sort of heart-armour or baby body guard service.  It is just terrifying to think about how I'm going to feel in a few years time if Eva trips over, or someone calls her a name, or anything that is going to make her cry in earnest. Ugh.

This is probably also because the third day after giving birth is pretty notorious for new mothers to just melt down emotionally, which I had never heard before but still fell hook-line-and-sinker into that stereotype.  I have been a weepy mess today, whilst trying desperately to get it together and learn how to take care of my new born.  It's been so much fun!

The nurses, doctors, techs and consultants have been so nice and very supportive, and Doc C has been phenomenol, so I am feeling better now than I was earlier.  I've learnt a few tricks to get Evalyn to feed better, and I'm definitely getting better at holding her and anticipating what she wants, so that is good.  Even better her second bilirubin test was less worrying to the doctors, and her weight is at the point where we could go home this evening if we wanted to.  I decided not to rush it though, three nights in the hospital is standard after a caesarean and whilst I might be the only new mum on the maternity ward who only needs to take ibuprofen, I'm also not daft enough to think that makes me super-woman or something.

Eva, by the way, seems to be a very serious but completely content little baby (as long as she's warm, dry and fed, obviously) and is blissfully unaware yet that her mother is so easiily reduced to mush.  Don't tell her - She'll only try to use her power for evil, or perhaps a pony.

Eva's Birthday - Part Two.

The birthing suite FILLED with people, all of whom took the time to introduce themselves to me and check if I had any questions about their specific role in the procedure.  I was wheeled off to the operating room, with Doc C closely behind once he'd been robed in scrubs.  A screen was put up in front of my face, so I couldn't see what was going on (which I was grateful for), I felt very cold and shivery, so one of the nurses wrapped my arms and head up in warmed blankets.

At this point I'd had an epidural, and so my memory of events goes a little hazy.  I do remember my legs feeling like they had pins-and-needles and having to fight really hard against the urge to try and move them to get rid of that feeling,  Once I was uniformly numb from the chest down the surgery began, and whilst it certainly didn't hurt I was aware of something going on.  After a while my doctor told me to expect a tugging feeling, and the next thing I saw was my baby daughter being held in my line of sight above the screen.

Doc went with Eva when she was measured and weighed, and I could see what was going on with her via a TV monitor to my left.  I remember someone making her wave to the camera, which made me chuckle even whilst I could smell my incisions being cauterised (I HATE that smell, who doesn't?)  Once I was all sutured back together, we were wheeled off to the Recovery Room and at first I was reluctant to hold Evalyn because my arms were violently shivering and I was scared I would drop her.  She started really crying though, so I asked if she could be un-swaddled and put on my chest to get some direct skin contact and she stopped crying almost as soon as we did that.

I don't remember at what point I was told that actually some of my placenta had started to detach whilst Eva was still in the womb, and that there had been some internal bleeding.  Evalyn had actually swallowed quite a bit of blood, and at first when she vomited she was producing this nasty black puke, which was pretty scary looking.  It's very odd when your baby pukes, and it is cause for a small celebration, but when Eva threw up this morning and it was yellow I knew that the nasty stuff was finally out of her system and that she had managed to ingest some of my colostrum whilst I was (pretty ineptly) breast feeding her.

It was 7:30 in the morning when Evalyn was born, and I spent the next 12 hours drifting in and out of drug induced sleep and nausea.  The worst part was that I could not stop being sick (which is no fun after you've just had what amounts to major abdominal surgery), and it wasn't until about 4:30 we found an anti-nausea medication that worked for me - and promptly knocked me out for another couple of hours.

 

 

Eva's Birthday - Part One

Hi, how are you?  I had a baby this morning.

WEIRD!

So to pick up the story where I left it on Wednesday, I had an ultrasound on Thursday and at this point in a pregnancy the ultrasound techs are looking specifically at four things 1) heart rate 2) amniotic fluid levels 3) practicing breathing and 4) movement.  The first three are the tricky ones, usually, and Eva did all of those but she would not move whilst being monitored this time.  She actually started to move the minute the ultrasound tech gave up!

That isn't a huge deal, but I'd also been feeling uncomfortable and so my doctor decided to call the hospital and get me in the same evening to start things off.  This was at about 5 in the evening, and I was told to check into the hospital at 8 that evening. It was just a little overwhelming and I did get a bit weepy on the way home to pick up my hospital bags, just from the sheer enormity of the thing quite apart from anything else.

Once at the hospital I was set up in a birthing suite, (I'm pretty sure it's the one we saw whilst on the tour, and it had magnificent mountain views!  Lovely!) and my doctor started a procedure to soften my cervix, I know, I know, TMI - but that's a pertinent plot point!  I was given a dose of ambien but, at about 1, I started getting what I thougth were cramps, because they were so very similar to severe period pains.  Those of you who have had a baby may be one strep ahead of me here, having realised that actually these were contractions.  I was also bleeding a fair amount, but everything seemed to be on track so I didn't worry too much.

I was given a bunch of pain medication and I tried to get as much rest as I could but I found the contractions increasingly painful so at 5 I had the IV for an epidural fitted and then went for a walk around the ward with Doc C but it was really tiring and the contractions made walking tricky at times.  The sunrise was in about half an hour, so I decided that I wanted to go back to bed for 20 minutes and then walk over to the windows and watch the sunrise over the mountains, doesn't that sound like a lovely thing to do whilst awaiting the birth of your child?  

When we got back to the birthing suite the battery powered mobile monitors I had strapped to the bump stopped working, when our lovely nurse, Jennifer, came to check on that, she hooked me back up to the wired monitors instead.  And she wasn't happy with what she saw, because Eva's heart rate was very low. She got on the intercom, said "This is real!" and suddenly the room became very busy.

Eva's heartrate did go back to normal, but that worrying blip in addition to my bleeding getting heavier made my doctor decide that a caesarean would be a really good idea.  She talked to Doc and I about it, and gave us the choice - Whilst that wasn't what I'd expected to happen (and finished off any lingering possinility of my September baby plans), it seemed best to listen to the doctor and just get Evalyn out of there.

Loud Day.

I woke up at about 5 this morning, fitfully napped, fretted and looked pregnancy stuff up on the internet until about 7:30 when I decided just to get up and eat something.  I could hear a couple of men talking outside, and that seemed a bit odd but whatever.  Then I heard large vehicles coming down our little dead-end street, and I became more confused because, as I say, it's a dead end street so we don't get a lot of traffic and bin day was yesterday.

It turned out to be a medium sized crane (which every time it moved sounded like giant nails down an enormous blackboard), and a second truck full of lumber jack equipment.  By 8am the team of guys that accompanied the trucks had started up every engine they had to hand, and a solid wall of petrol-powered noise was created.  They were cutting down what must have been a couple of enormous trees, using the crane to lift them to the chopping area, chainsawing them into chunks and then feeding the chunks through a woodchipper.  The cats were initially really freaked out and unhappy, but seemed to get over most of it except for the intermittent wood-chipping noise.  I can't say I blamed them on that.

And that noise went on for ten hours.  

At mid-day, so after four hours of this, I remembered we had ear-plugs in the flat and they really helped block out the noise, so I did get a bit more sleep.  The lumberjacks packed up for the day about an hour ago, and I really hope they got the whole job done in one day because if this carries on tomorrow I'll go a bit loopy. 

This has to have been one of the most exhausting days of my whole pregnancy.  Not least because I'm pretty sure Eva has dropped into position, and today I just felt very uncomfortable when standing or walking.  Without knowing what I'm talking about in the slightest I feel quite certain that I'm not going to need to be induced next week, because it really feels to me like Evalyn's getting herself ready to be born.  I've got an ultra-sound booked for tomorrow afternoon, so we'll see if I'm right about her having moved then - And in the mean time I'm just going to be lying down, because if she's going to be late then I would like Eva to hold on for just a day or two longer so that she's born in September.

Of course, Evalyn gets to decide that for herself but keep your fingers crossed for this weekend would you?  That way she gets sapphire as a birthstone (though August's stone is a peridot, which is pretty too!), she'll be definitively on the other side of the school cut-off date and she would get Labor Day birthday weekends fairly regularly.  That's not bad for just a little bit more patience is it?

Making Plans For Evalyn.

At my doctor's appointment this afternoon everything was fine, I hadn't lost any more weight, my blood pressure was good and I was hooked up to the nst monitor again; this time I actually had a contraction whilst hooked up to it, which was really interesting to see charted.

My OB/GYN practice doesn't allow pregnancies to go past 42 weeks (because the placenta ages in dog years I was told today! Hahaha!), so part of my appointment today was about co-ordinating when I'm going to be induced.  At this point, assuming that I don't go into labour naturally, then I'll be going into the hospital next week - I don't exactly when yet, but Tuesday looks likely.  Eeeh!

On the other hand, Evalyn could just decide to be born at any time before that, so who the hell knows?

Saturday's Non-Child.

Before you ask, no, no baby yet; which is fine actually, I'm quite comfortable and we can hang out for a bit longer if she likes.

The only annoying thing is that I've got through the majority of my pregnancy without any stretch marks, and it's only been in the last few weeks that they've suddenly appeared.  Damn it!  And I've been SO good about moisturising as well!  Oh well, the stretch marks were kind of inevitable really because I already had stretch marks on my arms, legs and hips just from weight fluctuation. Still, *sigh*.

Hospital Tour.

This evening we took a tour of the maternity unit where Evalyn will be born (at some point), and it is nice. Our tour was given by the same nurse who had run the infant safety class, so I immediately felt comfortable and she gave us a lot of great advice and information.

The rooms are large and well designed, with clearly a lot of thought put into making them comfortable, attractive and efficient.  Actually, I've stayed in hotels that were not as nice.  Four of the rooms have large birthing tubs in them, and all of the other mothers on my tour seemed very keen on those.  I was vaguely interested until they explained why you would also need to bring a small fishing net with you.

Anyway, the birthing beds themselves are amazing.  They can be folded up into a variety of shapes with hydraulics, have built-in inflatable lumber support and a nifty cut out in the mattress designed to accommodate the emerging baby.  They look super comfortable.  Once you move from the birthing room to the mother/baby recovery rooms, where you stay with the baby for two or three days after the birth, there are comfy beds for the mum, a cot for the baby and even large window seat sofas where your support person can sleep.  Assuming that the baby is healthy and doesn't need to be in the NICU, then it stays with it's mother for the entire duration of the hospital stay, there isn't a separate nursery where the babies are kept (you know the ones with the long windows along the side which you always see in films?  None of that!).

Also, our tour guide/nurse went through the security measures they have in place.  When the baby is born they take prints of the baby's feet and the Mum's thumbs on the same certificate.  They also have numbered bands that they put on the baby, mother and father (or whomever the significant other is), so, if for any reason the baby is taken out of your room and out of your sight, then when they bring the child back those numbers must match.  Add to those two fairly low tech security protocols the fact that the umbilical cord clamp has a tracking device on it, and I'm fairly confident that no soap opera style baby mix-up is likely to happen.

All in all, I found it all immensely reassuring.

Still Pre-Partum - Planning for Post-Partum.

We just got back from seeing my doctor and, yeah, nothing is happening so we are unlikely to be seeing Evalyn on her due date of Sunday. If things still haven't changed by the end of next week, then it's likely I'll be induced.

The weirdest thing for me is that I've actually lost a bit of weight, which is somewhat counter-intuitive at this point of a pregnancy - especially as I swear the bump is getting bigger!  My doctor didn't even mention it though, and I gather from the internet that it is really not that unusual.  I suppose it seems odd to me to have gone down from 215 pounds to 212 pounds in the last fortnight, mainly because I actually weighed more than that a couple of years ago and, of course, that was without being pregnant.  The average weight loss in the couple of weeks after birth is between 10 to 20 pounds, so there is a distinct possibility that I could be back under 200 before I even start actively trying to lose weight.  I'm not intending to go totally nuts with the post-partum dieting and exercising, but I do want to be a good healthy role model for my daughter by the time she's able to observe such things.  I'm not going to be ridiculously thin (ever!), but I do want to be fit, strong and happy with my body.  Basically I want to be able to go rock-climbing (or whatever she's interested in) with my daughter!

Instead of a goal weight though, I think I'm going to aim for a specific outfit - So I want to be able to wear my new leopard print cardigan, which arrived this morning and is gorgeous, with my skinny black jeans by this time next year.

Missions Accomplished.

Today I -

1. Read a couple of chapters of a YA novel and flipped through one of my Pilates books
2. Tidied the living room
3. Swept all of the wooden floors
4. Did a pre-natel Pilates routine
5. Watched an old season of "The Biggest Loser" (and was very disappointed when my two least favourite contestants won all of the money.  Damn it!)
6. Stopped Edith playing with a large bee
7. Started making Eva some sock/bootie things
8. Realised the yarn and crochet needle I have are entirely the wrong size for the sock/bootie project
9. Took all the plastic tags and stickers off some new baby clothes so that they can be washed
10. Had two cups of tea

Today I did not - 

1. Give birth

That's about it really, Doc C is home for the weekend now so we are at Evalyn's disposal should she decide to hit her due date.  Tomorrow morning I have a doctor's appointment, so we might get some idea of how likely that is.

Five Days Until Due Date.

Doc C is back after the first day of teaching and he brought me a sticky bun!  That man knows me so well!

Today he made a point to warn his students that he'll likely be cancelling a class either this week or next because of the baby, so they are forewarned.  Usually Doc leaves his phone in his office whilst he's teaching, but for the time being he'll be taking it with him into the classroom; and I have been told I am only to call in the event of waters breaking.  It is obviously extremely tempting to call and just be like "Hi!  I'm bored!  How are you?", because that would be funny.  I'm not going to do that though, because Doc would have a heart attack and then be really really unamused.

To stop myself pulling hilarious prank calls on my poor husband, I have been reading a lot today and I think tomorrow I might even crack open the yarn stash and start making something for Eva.  I'm thinking booties that look like black mary-janes with socks, but I might start her first Halloween costume.  Decisions, decisions.

Seven Days.

It's exactly a week until Evalyn's due date, so of course I'm over-thinking every twinge and movement coming from The Bump. 

Today, by way of getting some idea of what I'm dealing with, I've looked up the percentages, and apparently only 5% of babies are actually born on the estimated due date, so really that's a complete guess! It's more annoying to try and nail down a statistic for how many babies are born late, most of the data a quick google search provides say that 80% of babies are born between 37 and 41 weeks - Well, yes, thanks for that!  It's just as vague really, isn't it?

Again most of the information seems to suggest Eva will be about a week late, because she's my first baby and because 7 out of 10 of babies are apparently (oh, and the same website I got that from then helpfully starts talking about the elevated, although incredibly rare, chance of stillbirth at this stage of a pregnancy *shut-up-shut-up-shut-up-shut-up*).

So what does this tell me?  The baby will come when the baby decides to come. And I really need to stop looking stuff like this up on-line because it will invariably not be that helpful really and will also probably throw up some new thing to worry about.

Mind you, having said I should avoid the internet for this kind of information, I really like this webpage of birth statistics which was put together by a woman similarly frustrated by a lack of good data.  Surveys, spreadsheets and charts forever!

Cheese-Fest.

Doc C has to go to campus tomorrow for some start-of-the-semester stuff, so he had to make sure he'd done all of his homework today.  Whilst he was doing that I read and tried to find a comfortable position to sit in, because my lower back is killing me.  Ahh, the last couple of weeks of pregnancy!  So much fun!

The book I grabbed off the shelf was Jacqueline Susann's "Once is Not Enough", and it is unbelievably tacky and entertaining.  There is more plot in the first fifty pages of this paperback than in a year of any soap opera you care to mention, and I've just discovered there is a film version starring Kirk Douglas!  OMG!  Well, I'm going to have see that now clearly, I can't imagine it being anything but fabulously dreadful.

The Fourth Doctor.

At this point of the pregnancy, ten days until the due date, I am getting weekly check-ups to see how everything's going; as ever, apparently everything is fine with Eva and she passed her non-stress test (which was being done because 36 is so very ancient to be having your first child) in record time this week.  Last week she wasn't keen on co-operating, so this time I came prepared with a chilled drink to wake her up a bit first and that really did seem to help.

After the appointment today we have met all four of the doctors at my OB/GYN practice now, which means we'll be somewhat familiar with whomever is on call when I go into labour.  Of course, we don;t get to choose who that is, so now I'm trying really hard not to rank them mentally, because that would inevitably mean that the doctor I want the least will be on duty that day/night.  Fortunately all of these doctors have been perfectly professional and pleasant, so any slight preference is purely based on how much I like them personally and nothing at all to do with how compotent they are, so I do feel confident in placing myself in their care for the delivery.

I've now decided that I would definitely prefer Evalyn to be about a week late, so she's born in early September.  Naturally this means that she'll be decide to early, because she already picked the hottest summer on record for her gestation period and the first week of the semester for her due date (yes I'm aware I may have had some involvement in these decisions, but I really feel she had a bit more in-put), so clearly she is a comedian.

 

Practice Run.

In the spirit of "I could go into labour ANY minute", whilst we were out getting a few things for dinner, we also drove over to the hospital and made sure we knew where the maternity ward is.

I think Doc C feels a little bit better about the impending panic run now.  Not good, but a leetle teeny bit better.

Bag Packed (Finally)

When we went to the baby safety class yesterday, as always with these type of things, the instructor went around the room asking everyone's name; she also asked whether people were expecting a boy or a girl and when they were due.  When she got to us and I said that the due date was 26th of August, she joked about us having left the class until the very last moment - so I didn't like to add that I didn't have a birth plan printed out and laminated (or, ok, actually written out), or even my hospital bag packed yet.

It's weird at this point of the pregnancy because people keep telling me it could happen ANY moment now, but if I say something like that then they, and often it is the very same person, will chuckle knowingly and tell me that first babies are usually about a week late.  And why if I do something now, like take a baby safety class or try to book a tour of the hospital (the only tour they have any space left on is two days before my due date - So either pin-point perfect timing, or utterly useless!), do people act like I've been lollygagging around doing nothing much for the past nine months and should have done this earlier?  Actually having moved house so recently is a great explanation for leaving all this so late, so I'm cutting off a lot of tedious conversation with that!  That sounds a bit mean doesn't it, but at this highly visible late stage of the pregnancy I am getting a lot of unsolicited advice, and some quite personal questions that I'm just not that inclined to answer fully, so saying "Well, we have only just moved here so we still have a lot to get organised!" really helps for some reason.  Anyway, if I'm not meant to be taking my pre-natal classes now (and ok it is a bit late in the day for some of those), then what exactly am I meant to be doing now?  Mostly, according to the books and the websites, it seems I'm meant to be resting and pampering myself, which sounds great in theory but gets old pretty quickly if you ask me.

Today, spurred on by the it could happen ANY moment thought over the more likely three weeks from now thought, I packed myself a hospital bag, and one for Eva as well.  Mine has clothes, snacks (which seems odd, but all the books & websites are most insistent on this point - I've got a box of cereal bars, some plain oatcakes and a handful of green tea bags), toiletries and various types of pad (again - Odd!) Eva's has clothes, a sun hat, one of those "My Birth Books" (which we are filling out only so we can cull the information from later and make a new one which doesn't have teddy bears and bloody duckies all over it) and two blankets.  One of the blankets is a thin swaddling blanket and the other is a slightly thicker cotton blanket which I'm bringing just in case there is a really sudden cold snap (unlikely), but mostly because the fabric is a Keith Haring design and the idea of wrapping my baby up in modern art pleases me.

Isn't that fabulous, with a nice twist of the 80's to it?  This side is clearly Haring's signature Radient Baby whilst the other side is black and white radient hearts with the occaisonal red heart.  Evalyn is going to be surrounded by good design and aesthetically pleasing objects from the moment she is born, and that's all there is to it!