At this point I have no vanity left, so I'm sharing my enormous belly with the world. I hate all my maternity jeans with a passion - they all creep down and get very frayed and muddy around the bottom in this weather. I tried a skirt the other day thinking that would be better but no, it crept down too, taking the tights with it and revealing a builder's crack!
Nearly sent all three pairs of maternity jeans to the charity clothes bin at the end of the street today but thought better of it. If B2 hangs on for another couple of weeks I will be heartily sick of my yoga pants too.
And then of course there is the possibility that some of this hugeness is chocolate-related and will not disappear instantly on B2's arrival. In which case my ordinary jeans will not fit. Sigh.
I'm going to have a bath now. Any tips on bringing on labour gratefully accepted.
A busy day today - one cake to make, one Grandma to pick up from the airport, one little girl with an upset tummy (a virus already in evidence yesterday, and NOT related to excess cake consumption...)
In the end I made the cake while Sofia slept in the pushchair and Jules went to pick up Grandma. It seemed too risky to take all of us to the airport, considering Sofia's delicate condition - not to mention B2's imminent arrival.
Nothing so exciting as Grandma arriving has ever happened before, or at least that's what you'd think from Sofia's reaction.
Grandma and Sofia have both gone to bed, and now and then you can hear Sofia calling 'Hi! Hi Grandma!' hopefully. With any luck Grandma is so tired from the flight she will sleep through it. And now everything has suddenly gone quiet - a good sign??
The chocolate sensation cake was a modest success, if I do say so myself. Although not exactly slimming, with sour cream and dark chocolate filling and dark chocolate and butter icing, and extra whipped cream on the side...
Yes, I am HUGE. For comparison, here is Sofia at 38 weeks, the day before she was born.
Went to see my midwife today - B2 is doing fine and is engaged (about 1/3 of the head at least) but his spine is facing the wrong way apparently so I'm allowed to sleep on my right side for a change, in the hope of turning him over. Yay - I get my side of the bed back early!
Also got a tour of the labour ward and postnatal ward, neither of which are as bad as I had expected after the brief and stressful visit we had to the labour ward a few weeks back. Looks much better in daylight and when you're not worried about losing the baby...
Then I went to see the physio about my hip, which is not malaligned after all, just a bit flexible due to pregnancy. Anyway it is already a lot better than when it was I made the appointment. I have a new support belt thing and lots of exercises to do, mainly to do with core strength.
Quite liked the physio - she expressed great surprise that I was 36, which was nice of her. I'm pretty sure I look my age, if not more, especially at the moment!
Jules has just rung from work drinks to say he's at GBK having a kiwiburger. I note there has been no weighing in in 2009 - wonder how Harold's doing?
We had a lovely New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, even if the temperature stayed around freezing the whole time.
On New Year's Eve we had booked a babysitter so we went into town to celebrate. Had a pleasant if not outstanding meal at About Thyme, a little place near Victoria Station and then walked along to try and see the fireworks at midnight. A LOT of people had the same idea - all the viewing areas on the river were full by 11pm.
So we ended up in St James's Park, which is quite different after dark. From where we were you could see the top half of the London Eye, which was where the fireworks were let off from so we got an ok view and it was not crowded in the park at all. In fact it was kind of eerie and still, as this photo of the pond shows. 
Then on New Year's Day Sofia and I went to the park while Jules prepared a roast lamb, with sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, brussel sprouts, carrots and broccoli, which was completely delicious. We chased it all down with trifle, just to make sure there was no danger of starvation!
Today we babysat Sofia's friend Millie, who has a new baby sister, so her dad could spend some time at the hospital. An interesting experience taking TWO toddlers to the park but we managed to avoid serious injury. The two girls walked along hand in hand, which was endearing, and then played 'Row, row, row your boat' from their highchairs in the cafe. Just as they were in the middle of that, Millie's dad arrived to pick her up, so it was nice that they were both looking so cheerful at that moment!
