CharlieBeth's "My Life As Mumma Walker"

I woke up on Thursday morning about 6 or 6.30 am with bad back ache. Not much worse than I've been having on and off for t he previous days, but there and bothering me. So I got up and started pottering about as normal. I went to the loo and saw I had some tiny bits of blood... SO I checked up in my NHS Pregnancy book, and my Pregnancy & Childcare book, and they both said "Could be an early sign of labour. Contact your midwife" But it was still early, and we had to take Fizgig to the vets and call into B&Q for some more DIY stuff so I left it for a while. In fact I left it until we'd done all those things and it was going on for 10.30am. There was still bits of this blood when I went to the loo and even if this was a "show", baby could still take days to get here. But I thought I had better not take any chances. Plus this back ache was starting to throb a bit. Yorkie was getting a little more stressed as I kept him updated, and chain smoked a bit m

So I went to see the midwife today. I left Yorkie at home this time, partly because he was hung over (hee hee hee, teach him for staying out till 1.15am, although he did cook a scrummy meal when he got in) and partly so he could get on with sorting out the kitchen. When I get there, a good 10 mins early for once - the practice is SHUT! Training on Tues lunch time it seems, and it was bloody cold out there waiting for the doors to unlock. Eventually made it in and watched the midwife run about panicking about getting parking ticket on her car before finally getting in to see her (even the staff don't get free parking round Dalton Square). She checked my pee, ok. She checked my blood pressure, ok. I asked about my massively swollen feet, but since my BP is ok and there's no itching it's nothing to worry about. She did admit that they were VERY swollen indeed though. Then it was up on the table for a measure and a prod. I'm still measuring big, so I explained about

Spoiled again... And completely blindsided by my mates with this one. Jill had invited me over this weekend ages ago to have a celebratory lunch on my first day of post-work-freedom. I'd toyed with the idea of doing my hair nice and slapping a bit of make-up on, but thought "Nah... Jill'll understand that the last thing I an be bothered doing is tarting myself up" (She's also pregnant) so just tied my hair back and went out with a flaky, un-moisturised and un-made-up face, maternity jeans and baggy jumper. Of course when Gary dropped me off there it's not only Jill, but Jen and Sarah and Fran too, with banners and posters up for "Chiglets baby Shower", a table laden with gifts and a buffet in the kitchen! We had a great afternoon, with mum-of-two Jen, Mum-of-one-and-one-on-way Jill, and first-bun-in-oven-me freaking out Fran and Sarah with stories of pregnancy, child-birth and motherhood in all it's glory! We stuffed our faces and drank about

*Sniff* What a lovely day I've had at work! I miss them all already. Went for lunch with the Boss today, we drove to Caton and had a pub lunch (more yummy scampi and sticky toffee pudding! One happy, dancing Wiggle Bump) and nattered about everything from my new roll when I come back, to all about Wiggle and our plans/experiences, to his attempts at converting my to be a Witness (fighting a loosing battle there Boss, but feel free to try anyway) and back again. Odd combination of topics, but fun anyway. When we got back to the office we all gathered together in the Ops Office where Boss gave a little speech about ow wonderful I am (beam), how I will be sorely missed (glow) and read a letter that came this morning from one of my sites singing my praises and mourning the fact that I would not back at site visitor when I return (smug). Then I was given a lovely bunch of flowers, and a box of Thornton's chocs, and a card signed from the guys and gals in the office, and hugged

Tonight it's the Biba awards . We've been nominated again. Pretty much everyone from work is going. I had to bow out, can't afford the ticket, or the posh maternity ball gown style frock, can't enjoy the free booze or the dancing... seemed pointless to go. Saw everyone dressed up to go as I was leaving work tonight and feel gutted not to be going. Guys in tux, girls in glam frocks... me in my jammies and off to bed early. Boo.

And not happy about it. Still, just one week left at work now, and I'll be glad! Been having a hard week this week. Not at all helped by the fact that I have been completely taken advantage of by one of our customers. Long story short; when the new tender was sorted out earlier this year the customer agreed to a set number of days additional clean at a set price. This was then filed away by the sales team in the correct place. Customer then comes to me asking for more cleans and I - coming at the task from an Ops point of view and desire to keep customer happy - do as asked. I made sure that the Ops team knew and that wages knew, but did not know that things had changed in sales and they also needed to be told. The customer spotted this mistake and exploited it - and me - resulting in them getting a hell of a lot of work from us for nothing! Costing us money, and making me look like an idiot in front of my Boss. Where did I go wrong? Simple, I did not know about this agreement!

Well, I've just come back from our last parenting session, and felt like I had to off load. It was scary this week. Last week was icky (what with the pop-your-waters-hook and suck-your-baby-out-hoover-attachment and all) but this was actually frightening. Very useful - essential actually - but I freaked me out. This is something I have avoided reading up on in the books we are given. We did baby first aid. Not on real babies I hasten to add, on dolls. And it is stuff that we NEED to know, like how to resus' a baby, and how to stop it choking. It's just that I was happy in my state of pure ignorant bliss that my baby would never need to have any first aid. My baby will be perfectly fine and fit and well and live forever, without me having to slap it on the back, or breath for it once it's out side the womb. Stupid, I know. So now I am going to read up on it in the books too, and feel confident that I will know what to do in an emergency, and not have nightmares

This is all getting to be too much for me now. I want to stop. I want to stay in bed and sleep. Only got a week and a couple of days left at work, 3 things which I need to get sorted, and the rest I'm going to see about cutting back on. Very tempting to just not go in any more. I had monday off this week because I felt like death. Went in for a half day today to do a site hand over. I'm seeing the boss at 8am tomorrow so I'm going to explain how shattered I am and cut right down on my last week The kitchen is still a way off being finished. Poor hubby keeps coming on problem after problem. Now the celing needs artexing because it's such a mess under the layers of woodchip and paint. So that means I'm still confined to the bed or PC when ever I'm home. Went to Mums for a bit over the weekend. It was so tempting to just stay there till the baby came! Only I missed Yorkie so much, and felt that I was depriving him of 'bump time', so came home. Had a