Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Uncategorized category.
Fun.
Just a quick note to tell you all how delightful it is to have a stomach bug. Particularly when you’re 30 weeks pregnant and there always seems to be a body part in your intestines and stomach. Joy.
Was supposed to go for my third ultrasound yesterday, but spent the morning in the bathroom instead…
Privileges Meme
This meme is from “What Privileges Do You Have?”, based on an exercise about class and privilege developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. If you participate in this blog game, they ask that you PLEASE acknowledge their copyright.
Bold all things that apply to you.
1. Father went to college
2. Father finished college
3. Mother went to college
4. Mother finished college
5. Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
6. Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers.
7. Had more than 50 books in your childhood home.
8. Had more than 500 books in your childhood home.
9. Were read children’s books by a parent.
10. Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18.
11. Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
12. The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively.
13. Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18.
14. Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs.
15. Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs.
16. Went to a private high school.
17. Went to summer camp
18. Had a private tutor before you turned 18
19. Family vacations involved staying at hotels.
20. Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
21. Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them.
22. There was original art in your house when you were a child
23. You and your family lived in a single-family house.
24. Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home.
25. You had your own room as a child.
26. You had a phone in your room before you turned 18
27. Participated in a SAT/ACT prep course.
28. Had your own TV in your room in high school
29. Owned a mutual fund or IRA in high school or college
30. Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
31. Went on a cruise with your family.
32. Went on more than one cruise with your family
33. Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up.
34. You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family.
In the spirit of the exercise, each item you bold represents one step forward, or you can think of it as a bit of a head start or leg up. It is obviously designed to make us aware of how much privilege we did or didn’t enjoy growing up, and how our class background has affected our lives
Day 5: The post that never was…
There should be a blog post in this space. However, I have decided that sleep is the wiser choice at this point in time. Please think up some witty story or something to keep yourselves entertained. Normal service will be resumed shortly.
It’s not that I want everybody to agree with me, it’s… no, actually it is that I want everybody to agree with me
Gnaaaa! I am just so sick of hearing everybody tell me that my birth choices (which is saying too much – the things I am considering for the birth ofour baby) are wrong. I had a doctor’s appointment today (everything fine, apart from the fact that she prodded my erosion and set it off bleeding again – thanks for that!), and she asked me if I’d given any consideration to where I wanted to give birth. I told her I was considering the Geburtshaus, provided everything was fine and I was considered low-risk, and she was like “Oh no, don’t do that! Everything can look fine, but maybe it won’t be and then the time it takes to get you to hospital may be too long!”. Firstly, the hospital is less than 10 minutes drive away. In a big, busy hospital, it can take that long for the doctor to arrive anyway. Secondly, they are extremely careful about who they allow to give birth at the Geburtshaus. If they are even remotely concerned that the baby isn’t lying right, or as soon as they think you’re not progressing as they’d like, they transfer you to the hospital. They don’t have a higher “problem” rate than anywhere else, and in fact, the number of births during which problems occur is lower, because a) they’re so selective and b) the atmosphere is more relaxed and you really get to know the midwives beforehand, so that you feel much more at home, and able to let go than in a hospital…
Anyway, I’m justifying myself again. The point isn’t whether my decision is right or not, the point I’m trying to make is that it’s exactly that – my decision, with which Marc will help me. Sure, I appreciate my doctor’s advice, if I felt it was medically based. If she said, for example, I would prefer you not to go there for these medical reasons, I would listen to her and take her seriously. But the way she was talking about it today gave me the feeling that she is just against the idea of a maternity home in general, which makes sense in a way – of course she supports the use of modern medicine, large numbers of machines etc. I do too, as far as necessary for myself, and as far as anybody else wants them for themselves. But I also think that acupuncture, water births and various other methods can be of use too, and I want to try those for myself, as far as possible. It’s not just the doctor either – so many people have pulled faces, or made fun of me or whatever when I have told them of my plans.
It’s like those people who ask us if it was planned – at what stage do people get off thinking that our family-planning decisions are any of their business? Seriously, I’m beginning to long for those early days, when nobody knew we were expecting. At least I didn’t have to listen to their assvice…
NaBloPoMo
I am going to give NaBloPoMo a go this year. In case you haven’t heard of it, that means I will be attempting to post every day for the entire month of November. Which is ridiculous, as I have enough trouble posting once a week at the moment, but I figure that that is just because I am not making time for it. I spend so much time sitting in front of the computer, but don’t often use that time to write a blog post.A lot of the time, I feel it’s because I don’t have much of worth to say. Psychologically speaking, I think it’s maybe a bit of a low self-confidence issue – I don’t think that the boring details of my life are of interest to anyone. But then I think about a lot of the blogs I read, and the stories people tell there aren’t necessarily always exciting or out of the ordinary – and I still love reading them!
So, yeah, I shall be giving it a go. Obviously, pregnancy will be a big topic (although I’m lucky, in that it’s pretty uneventful right now – not much to tell), but if there is anything in particular you’d like to hear about, any questions you want answered or anything you want to see more of, let me know! I’m grateful for all the help I can get ;o)
Thursday Thirteen – better late than never version
I’ve planned so many entries with photos over the past few weeks when I wasn’t on here, so I’m going to sum them up into one “Thursday Thirteen” type entry. All photos will be thumbnails, so click for a better view…
1.
We had a day out in the Alps in September. This is a lake we stopped at along the way.
2. 
Yes, we were in the Alps. Look, a mountain!!
3.
We bought a new stand to roast chicken on. This is the first thing Marc did with it…
4.
We also spontaneously had a couple of days in the Fränksiche Schweiz, a national park close to where Marc’s parents live. One thing we did whilst we were there was visit a cave system. Meet the Cave Bear, who lived there 30000 years ago!
5. 
Interesting Stalagmitey things. I can totally blame the impure thoughts I had looking at them on the pregnancy hormones, right? ;o)
6. 
Oh, come on! Like you wouldn’t have been thinking exactly the same thing?!!
7. 
Marc outside the cave. The whole area was really woody, I just love all the autumn colours!
8. 
Seriously, all the towns round there look like this. It’s amazing!
9. 
Need I say more?
10. 
Marc and the proud grandparents-to-be at his Mum’s 60th birthday party last Saturday.
11. 
I took this one about 10 days ago. Think we can officially call that the beginning of a bump?
12. 
Flowers I received today, not from Marc, but from a colleague of his, who had been supposed to come around at 11am today, and then had to postpone and came at 4pm. He felt guilty (unnecessarily). Aren’t they gorgeous?!!
13.
The button on my jeans at this very moment in time. Good job my question about maternity clothes was answered in Amalah’s Advice Smackdown today. Yes, I know, I can’t believe it either!!
Anything to make that last post go away!!
Dear me, pregnancy would appear to have turned me into a neurotic drama queen. I’ve been noticing that a lot recently. I have always been the laid back one. I am the person friends come to with their problems when they want someone to tell them to buck up and get over themselves already (want to be my friend?). Right about the time we met, Marc told me that one of things he liked most about me was the fact that I wasn’t “a naggy, whingy girl who is prone to hysterical fits”. Only now? It would seem I am, and I don’t always recognise myself. I know it’s the hormones, and my current life motto, “This too shall pass” can be applied to my… let’s call them mood swings shall we? So let’s just add Monday’s post to the extremely long list of things I have done that have left me shaking my head and wondering who on earth this person is and move swiftly on, shall we?
Fact is that my doctor has assured (and reassured, and reassured again for good measure) me that the bleeding I was experiencing has absolutely nothing to do with the pregnancy (apart from very indirectly – increased blood flow generally = increased blood flow and chance of bleeding from cervical erosion). I saw the baby on the unltrasound. My mad googling in both german and english has failed to come up with one single example of a woman diagnosed with cervical erosion who has gone on to miscarry or have any other problems whatsoever. The doctor even said I could go to work and should carry on as normal, because it has to stop bleeding of its own accord. Which it has. So thanks to all of you who commented to tell me I wasn’t overeacting, but seriously? I was.
I’m now in my 11th week of pregnancy, and starting to feel much better. Nausea has been replaced by occasional indigestion, and I’m generally a lot less wiped out, apart from in the evenings. The highlight of my past week has been a gift received from my husband (it’s my birthday next week, but he wanted me to have the small gift now - I actually have had my big gift for ages, which was my bike, only I haven’t had my bike for ages because it is still at the bike shop waiting for my lawyer to give me the go ahead to get it repaired, hopefully before it starts snowing for pity’s sake!!! Ahem.). It’s an extremely long (2 m – the pillow is longer than I am!) body pillow. But not just any body pillow. Oh no.One of Marc’s main fears about the birth of the baby is that we’ll become boring and clichéd. Not that we’re mad party animals now, but we can be silly with the best of them. The clichéd bit refers to friends of ours, who Marc likes a lot but considers to be walking proof that children turn you into strange alien beings who hang garlands on their doors (very german thing, but you know, kind of Über-Mommy like). I’ve tried pointing out that they always were those kind of people, but he’s having none of it. So, yes, he bought me a body pillow, which I will probably use for breastfeeding later on as well. But he decided to make a statement at the same time ? How is this possible? See for yourselves:
I’m sure there is a wittier, more subtle and more memorable way to tell you this but damned if I can think of one
erm… so… it would appear I am pregnant!!!
Monday morning
Crikey, summer has arrived here in Munich in full force. It’s like 35°C outside, and last week I was wearing a jumper because it was 15°C. I wish I didn’t have to work today. It’s not exactly like I’m being very productive anyway, as the boss is on holiday, and has left me a number of menial tasks to do, which I, of course am putting off. I’m hoping to at least get outside for my lunch break…
Had quite a busy weekend – some friends of ours moved house on Saturday, so we went along to help out. Discovered that the move is partly to do with the fact that they’re having a (second) baby. It wasn’t planned, but they seem quite happy about it now they’ve got used to the idea. A friend of mine from school is pregnant as well apparently. As is half Munich. We’re clearly not the only ones who’ve decided to go forth and multiply ;o)
Then yesterday, my football team from back home Blackburn Rovers played a friendly game just outside of Munich, so I went along with some english speaking friends. We lost, of course, but it was a nice way to spend a sunny summer evening, and I got to meet a few of the players! You can see some pics of me and them here.
Marc and I are planning to sit in a biergarten this evening. It will most likely be this one, my favourite. Am looking forward to a litre of Radler (shandy) and some Obatzda (a bavarian cheese dish, yummy!)…
Why…
when I have been attempting to convince myself all month that I am not pregnant, am I still gutted about the fact that I have been feeling premenstrual all day?
