What a wonderful day!

What a wonderful day! We needed to drop off some papers at the doctor’s surgery, so we bundled B up into his pram, and took off into the outside world. It was actually sunny and warm today, and the walk was a pleasant one.

While we were out, we also stopped by the two nurseries at the Gilmerton Crossroads: the Mother Goose, and the Little Drummer. Both looked like fantastic, intensely stimulating places for us to leave B, and both were run by highly competent and genuinely interested people. However, we both came away from the visits feeling that the Mother Goose was the one for us. The space they have is not as airy and open as the Little Drummer, but we got a better vibe from them. Also, for older kids, they have a French teacher who comes in to teach, and they do all sorts of other activities, like music and swimming lessons.

Now the real question will be whether we can get a place!

After the nursery visits, we trundled on down to Safeway. On our way we ran into someone from Abi’s antenatal class–a new mother who had come in to answer questions at the breatsfeeding workshop. She lives just round the corner from us, and we’re going to try to keep in touch.

(Her little son, Daniel, is only four months old, but he looked huge in his pram! It’s hard to believe that B will be that size eventually. I don’t want him to grow up! I want him to stay just as small and cute as he is!)

In Safeway, we sat down for some lunch in the cafe, and Abi was able to breastfeed without any problem. (As usual, while we were standing at the food counter deciding what to eat, B was doing his “chick magnet” act. He seems to attract the attention of every female in the area. Go B!) Then, with a more sedate B in tow, we trundled around the shop, and walked back home, still enjoying the glorious sunshine.

The day seemed magical and peaceful. I wish they could all be like that.

Last day with the car

On our last day with the car, we took a trip down to Kelso this afternoon. It was lovely and warm when the sun came out, and Kelso is a lovely little town to wander around in. We stopped off at a tiny little tearoom, and B got hovered over and adored by all the women–as usual. He’s just a wee chick magnet.

We also stopped by the new Borders bookstore at Fort Kinnaird on our way back. As expected, we bought a whole heap of books, including Jill Murphy’s wonderful The Last Noo-Noo for B.


Earlier this week (I think it was Wednesday, but time is a bit of a blur right now…) I finally got the rest of the garage cleaned out and finished. The remaining wall is panelled; all the junk is now on our wonderful Ikea shelving; the old wood and other junk has been taken to the dump; and the old carpet from our living room is now in place to create a rather cozy little environment.

The whole purpose of it all is, of course, to allow me to set up my drum kit again now that B has kicked me out of his room 🙂

Not much I can add to this


Alexander Beowulf Sutherland

Not much I can say that isn’t probably said better in pictures on B’s pages. I might be able to string together a few coherent thoughts by the time the weekend rolls around…

Abi is recovering hugely well, and we’re hoping that she may even be able to come home on Saturday!

Well, now we know

Well, now we know when B will be born: Wednesday 11 April!

We had a visit with the consultant (Dr. MacPherson) from Simpson’s this afternoon. She poked around, and thought that B was lying more breech than oblique breech, which is the way it has been for the last two months. If it had been fully transverse, apparently Abi would have been trundled into the hospital straight away. But the degree if tilt involved, we had the option of trying to get it turned via ECV (External Cephalic Version).

Turning it would be done by a registrar at Simpson’s, in the labour ward, and with full baby monitoring equipment in place. The success rate is approximately 60%, and the risk of the baby getting distressed, and having to be extracted by emergency caesarean is 1 in 1000. However, if it didn’t turn, but instead moved to full breach, the consultant said that they could still try to deliver it normally.

This isn’t quite what we want, though. Abi and I have thought about it a lot, and we would both prefer to just have a simple, straightforward, elective caesarean. A) it’s less painful, and B) we can plan it. The recovery time will be longer, but the whole process is much more controlled, and we both like control. (We consider this whole vaginal birth thing to be a bit, well, primitive. Lois McMaster Bujold writes about uterine replicators in her Barrayar books, in which babies grow to full term outside of the mother’s body. These sound like good things to us.)

So, that’s what’s going to happen. Next Tuesday (10 April) we go in to Simpson’s to see the anaesthesiologist, and to get some blood samples taken (from Abi, not me), and then on Wednesday morning we show up at 09:00, and wait to be seen. We’re third in the queue, so we figure that by Wednesday afternoon we’ll have a baby.

BABYBABYBABYBABY!

I’m so excited! I had to stop myself from bouncing up and down in the doctor’s room this afternoon. I tried to put on my calm, unruffled face, but Abi said I just looked pale and nervous. Oh, well.

B! (again)

B! (again)

The picture below was taken during the scan on Friday. (And no, we don’t know the sex yet. B has its head stuck under Abi’s right ribs, its tiny little tushie under her left ribs, and its feet planted firmly in the pelvic cavity. This means that the ultrasound wasn’t able to scan B’s private parts. As per usual, B is proving to be an awkward customer.)

In case you’re wondering what the picture actually shows, this B’s head in profile.