Waiting for number three
It's very strange to go from having a full-time job, two small children to care for, a house to run and a husband to (for want of a better word) entertain, to having not much to do but sit around and watch my tummy grow. And so, in a moment of ante-natal selflessness, number three has thought up a way to keep me busy. Not just sorting through and washing the baby clothes that have been passed down from grandchild to grandchild (cue cute photo above), but also regular sessions of crawling around the living room and sitting with my head down and bum in the air. Yes, number three is breech, and despite my best efforts looks like it's thinking of staying that way.
And so I have entered a whole new world: turning breech babies. The above-mentioned exercises so far have given me raw knees and a sore back. According to the midwives and the internet I can also take my pick from the following: ECV, which is basically external manipulation by the obstretrician (30% success rate and we're doing it next week), acupuncture (willing to give it a go), bag of frozen peas on top of baby's head (er, well, ok, why not?), playing music through headphones stuck to my pelvis (getting very sceptical) and burning incense sticks pressed to the outside of my little toes (get real).
My no-nonsense obstetrician has given me the bottom line on what happens if none of that works: "You'll have to have a ceasarian." No discussion of a breech delivery. Truth be told, I don't think I would risk it anyway as the main problem with breech deliveries is that the head has a tendency to get stuck as it hasn't been compressed by engaging in the pelvis and the process of labour. Number three, according to the latest scan, has a slightly larger than average head circumference (in which it takes after number one and Dad) and so I wouldn't want to take a chance. But the thought of a C-section is a bit scary. I know that it's pretty straight-forward and of course there's the advantage of not going though labour, which has never been my favourite bit of motherhood, but still, it does mean someone is going to cut me open and then stitch me back up and I've never had any major surgery. Fortunately for me, I have a friend who has just had one, so I can get the low-down and I'm sure it wouldn't be so bad if it came to it. But, it's OK to be nervous, right?
Meanwhile, where are those peas...?
Slack slack slack - not my tummy!
Never mind New Year's resolutions, all my good intentions back in - when was it now - November - to be more assiduous in posting here went out the window in grand style. To which there is only one solution, which is to post a bunch of festive-season cute photos of the boys and hope that that will make up for it.
I love the concentration on Sebastian's face. Serious business...
Yes, that was our Christmas tree, and yes, it's still weird for me too that we decorate it in the blazing sunshine every year.
Note the dim quality of the next picture. That's because it was all of 4.45am when Sebastian came tearing into our bedroom shouting "Look what Father Christmas brought me!!!" and after the stocking frenzy came present madness, all well before 6am. Yawn.
I am proud to say that I did make it to midnight on New Year's eve, which is the first time in a long while, which we spent with friends in 3 little rented bungalows some 80km outside Pemba. The all-day pool session (followed by dinner, roasted marshmallows, and sparklers ) ensured that the kids were tucked up nice and early and we adults managed a very civilised dinner under the full-moon partial eclipse and brilliant stars of the tropical night sky. Lovely.
I like the way Paulo looks like he's wearing one of my earrings there, do you think they'd suit him?
And then next day it was more pool and more good food and enough nap time for all of us to head home happy and smiling and feeling up to whatever 2010 has to throw at us.
Which in my case, and very shortly now, is of course a new baby. I'm off to England on Wednesday, and so the next you may hear from me may well be some pics of a very new number 3.
Cheerio!
Labels: holidays
A weighty problem
The things you can learn on-line. I was checking on the progress of number three (almost 27 weeks) on one of those all-about-pregnancy sites, and discovered to my delight that over the next 9 weeks I'm really going to pile on the weight. That would be on top of the 10kg+ I've already gained then. Great. But despair not, tells me the site, as this is necessary for a healthy pregnancy and furthermore it will be distributed over various parts of my anatomy. The average breast, I am authoritatively told, weighs 7 ounces before pregnancy and can increase to 14 ounces by the end. Apart from the fact that I am delighted that my own frontage has recovered its pre-motherhood days of glory, however many ounces that is, I am intrigued as to how they weigh the "average breast". I once had a friend/colleague who was exceptionally well endowed. She told me that she and her boyfriend had tried various ways of weighing her breasts - from placing each individually on a kitchen scale, to floating them in water while she stood on a bathroom scale - but with no satisfactory result.
Any ideas, dear readers? Or perhaps you'd like to share your own experiences with the world?
(Sorry, did I promise you a proper post?)
Busy busy busy
It's been pretty busy here over the last week or so, not helped by the fact that internet access has been erratic to say the least. I'm off to Ibo in a few minutes to do some birding with Malcolm. I'll try to post something more interesting next week!
Just and bit of an update
Hmm, not doing very well in keeping this blog up to date, am I? It's been a month since the last post, and what have the Phillips-Marques clan been up to? Much of the usual as it would turn out.
Joaquim's doing well at school; his report card for last term mentioned an exceptional ability in maths for his age. I think it's a bit early to be proclaiming him a maths genius, but it's certainly his favourite activity after drawing. His drawings are great: full of dinosaurs, boats, planes, aliens (not usually all together), very dynamic and detailed. Sebastian has also discovered that he can draw. It all started with planes - still an abiding obsession - which continue to be his favourite subject, but he's branched out into cars, dinosaurs and stick people. Our fridge is that stereotypical item of a young family's household: an exhibition of frequently changing, many-hued young people's artwork. I love it!
Paulo is as always busy on many fronts, but especially pouring lots of time and energy into the houses in Chuiba. They're really coming together, and we're hopeful that we may have two or three finished by the New Year. Many compliments have come our way, and we think they look pretty good. It occurs to me that I should post some photos...
I am fattening up nicely, a combination of slack tummy muscles and a desperate chocolate craving. Number three is a busy child, wriggling and kicking and generally making its presence felt on a regular basis. I'm in that happy window between the nausea and prodigious burping which characterised the first three months of this pregnancy (completely unlike either of the previous two), and the last three in which I will inevitably be huge, lumbering, and hot. Why do I always time my pregnancies so perfectly so as to coincide with the hottest time of the year here? Have I not learned my lesson? Oh well, bit late now.
Been spending time on Ibo. Last week I was there for a few days, discussing the community camp on neighbouring Matemo island with a possible investor. I hope it works out. The camp is in a beautiful spot, and has huge potential. As I flew back I saw breaching humpback whales from the air for the first time. They were tiny, little white tic-tacs leaping from the water and causing a huge splash. We've been lucky enough to see lots of whale activity from the shore this year, even Joaquim and Sebastian got a good view the other week-end and were suitably impressed. It's an astonishing sight, no matter how many times you see it: this huge creature rearing out of the water almost to its full 14 or 16 metres, 60 or so tons of whale flesh shooting up into the air then falling in apparent slow motion into a pure white explosion of foam. Definitely one of the highlights of the year.
Another of which is of course the season of the beloved mango, officially opened with the consumption of my first two yesterday.
Marvellous
Aromatic
Nectar-filled
Glorious
Orange-fleshed food of the gods. Sigh.
Labels: Ibo, Joaquim, mangoes, Paulo, Pemba life, Sebastian, waxing lyrical, working mum
Summer loving
So I realise that reading about other people's holidays is not always thrilling and as such I shall keep this year's resume to a hit and miss list and a few photos.
HITS:
Family. An all-round winner; many happy hours spent in the company of parents/grandparents, siblings, cousins etc.
Friends. Many and varied and best of all several whose path we haven't crossed for far too many years. Wonderful.
Dinosaurs. The Natural History Museum once again scored highly on the boys' holiday satisfaction reader. The animatronics, the big teeth, the toys! What's not to love?
Aquarium. Going strong in its third summer holiday, the Lisbon Oceanarium is a must-see, and the sea otters don't get any less cute over time.
Food. Daily ice-cream, real cheese, stylish sea-food restaurants, awesome take-away curry, freshly picked figs and super-Maman's home cooking. Yum.
Dentist. Unlikely one this, but we all got the all-clear. Result!
Murtal. 3 days in the country cottage where we got married, eating fruit staright off the trees, swimming in a glorious fresh-water tank, reminiscing and the rest.
London Zoo. Much changed since my last visit (decades ago), my sister and I enjoyed this as much if not more than the kids.
>
MISSES:
Lost luggage. My bag did not turn up in Lisbon. I think it's still in Heathrow. BA have no idea where it is. Grrrrr.
Sea. Lovely beaches, shame about the bloody freezing water in bot the UK and Portugal. I have clearly lost my nerve. The boys overcame their initial reluctance to romp gaily in the frigid waters of the North Sea/Atlantic. Obviously take after their maternal garndfather.
Pregnancy-related anxiety. I was very much looking forward to sharing the good news of our forthcoming thrid child with all my friends and family when a very dodgy nuchal translucency result - implying a heightened possibility of all sorts of chromosomal and heart abnormalities - went and threw a spanner in the works. Cue biopsy of the placenta (large needle stuck into my tummy, no pain but no fun either) and several weeks of background anxiety until the final results and a further two scans showed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the little one after all. Not exactly what we had in mind for the holidays, but on the other hand our final HIT is that we are indeed expecting a perfectly healthy baby at the end of February, and no we don't know whether it's a boy or a girl, and although it's pretty obvious what I might be hoping for (Paulo is genuinely indifferent to gender) I am just grateful that all is well and I will love equally whoever turns up in 5 months.
After all, going on past form, we won't do too badly!
Labels: holidays
