Counting down the days...

It seems like everything I think of at the moment is a countdown. After a knackering Saturday at work, I am literally counting down the days until I go on maternity leave. I cannot wait. We have a load of staffing issues at work at the moment and I just want out. I can't be bothered to deal with this crap any more, it's like shovelling snow when it's still snowing. 24 days to go!

I can't wait for maternity leave because it's work that makes me feel like crap at the moment. Having to get up when I need another 4 hours sleep, having to go to work and be active which means I spend all of my free time tucked up on the sofa like some sort of strange hibernating creature. Having to haul myself about in a wheelchair and have people give me their "pitying look".

In the same moment as being excited about it, I'm also worried about being on mat leave. Being at home and not doing much is a recipe for boredom, and therefore an inclination to spend money we haven't got. I just know my Mum is going to be suggesting I go over to hers, but at £20 a pop (at the moment) for petrol and a 3hr round trip drive, I'm not going to feel like doing that for much longer. If at all to be honest. I just want to be at home, and potter about. And get things ready for Mal Jr. Lord knows I need to after yesterday's meltdown-freakout!

I don't know if either Mal or I have made it clear, but Mal Jr appeared to be a boy on the scan that we had done about 4 weeks ago. I am glad we know as it makes it easier to get things and be done with it rather than thinking "we'll buy everything in non-gender specific colours" and then wishing we'd bought something else to give people a visual cue as to what gender the baby is.

Big things like the cot, pushchair, etc will all be in neutral colours anyway because if we had another Mini-Mal in the future, there's no guaranteeing it will be the same flavour. And at this point in time I really can't be arsed to shop for it all again!

We've just taken Buddy out for a mammoth walk and I think it's nearly killed him. And me. He had no fight left in him when we tried to put the lead back on him. This is rare. When I say fight, I actually mean run, because he is small and very fast, and difficult to grab when he's trying to avoid you. Mal's at the supermarket, buying necessities and dinner. I wonder what he'll come back with...

The Other Half

I suppose I'd better let everyone read Mal's posts too in the spirit of fairness!

www.malseyeview.blogspot.com

24 down, 16 to go.

I am now 24 weeks pregnant with Mal Jr. 16 weeks to go. 16 weeks sounds like ages yet, but then again, a baby born at 37 weeks or later is considered "term". So really, that could be as little as 13 weeks to go. At which point I am about to start freaking out.

13 weeks is no time at all. We've got some stuff organised, but not everything. We've got a pram and changing bag, and a cot-top changer... but no cot. We've got a few clothes and a blanket or two, and a pack of nappies... but I can't help feeling that I'm missing something huge.

I feel horribly unprepared for everything. I am doing NCT classes but they don't start until September. I am also doing Hypnobirthing with a friend (mates rates, huzzah) and that starts in about a week. Apart from that though, I feel like I know nothing and I should be starting to panic.

Technically If Mal Jr arrived tomorrow he would have a 40% chance of survival. It goes up to 50% at 25 weeks and 60% at 6 weeks. But I feel like I know nothing about anything and won't know anything until a long while yet.

I'm off to find a bag that would do as a Hospital bag. And start filling it up. What with though? Argh.

He forgot the canary.

Hello, I'm Mrs Mal. Spurred on my by husband's new blogging experience yesterday, I thought I'd better join in too.

I'm Mrs Mal, I'm 28, currently sharing the space inside my skin with Mal Jr. and I am chief lover, cuddler and groomer of Buddy the dog. Mal forgot to mention that we also have a canary, Birdie Mal, who sings and showers a corner of our living space with feathers and seed husks. I work as an assistant manager in a shop that sells reasonably posh ladies' clothes. We live in the Home Counties, which appears to be "reasonably posh lady" heartland. So the shop does OK. I make clothes (and a lot of mess) in my spare time, much to Mal's annoyance and despair.

Mal Jr is set to make an appearance in October, and most of this blog will probably be made up of the fears, joys, irritants and tear-jerkers of being a new parent.

Hope someone other than Mal reads it!