More kicking

I was out of the country since Monday for work, only to get back last night. The wee one is definitely stronger now. I could feel her move before, of course – I've written enough about that here. But in the time I was away, movements are much more forceful. Last night I was a bit surprised and thought maybe something was wrong. But she's still at it today, so I don't think it's anything but her getting stronger.

It's weird. I notice things for the first time and thing wow, that's neat, only to be completely eclipsed in magnitude some time later. Several weeks ago, I finally managed to hear a faint fast heartbeat by putting my head to the wife's belly, and I thought wow, that's what they must mean when they say you can hear the heartbeat. It's really hard – it could be anything. Then starting last week when I put my head on the wife's belly the heartbeat has been clear as a bell, really easy to find and obviously a baby's heartbeat. This new movement is real. Before was just fluttering and shifting. Now she's really kicking and pushing.

The secret language of parents

I've been watching documentaries on birth and breast feeding. I'm finding I have absolutely nothing in common with these people. While it's theoretically interesting to know that a twenty-ish year old pregnant girl has body and self-esteem issues, it really does not add any insight into my life considering I live with a mid-thirties woman who is completely comfortable in her skin and knows what all her parts are supposed to do. That I could not see myself ever even having a conversation with any of the people on those shows.

On the other hand, I meet people in the real world who have kids, or are going to have kids, and we talk about it for ages. It’s not like it’s a secret language between parents. It’s more that everyone has so much stuff to say about conception, pregnancy, birth, kids etc etc that if someone says they're willing to listen, a floodgate opens a whole blatherfull of words come out. Besides, when talking person to person it is far easier to steer the conversation on the interesting parts.

Those parts do seem to be only be of interest of parents or expecting people. I suspect anyone else listening in would only hear baby repeated incessantly with the occasional poo and feed.

On a similar note, certain terms which also happen to be birth-related jargon seem to jump out at me and take their alternate meaning. Things like show and labour. And the song Express Yourself has taken on a whole new meaning.

Now we are reading

Quiet. It's been a while since I’ve posted. I've been rather busy. The job ended up not going all wrong. I was at risk of redundancy, but ended up moving to a completely different business unit that has nothing at all to do with the pit of despair my old job had become. The new job actually means doing things I'm good at and enjoy and seeing what I do have positive results.

The downside is that, by the time I get home I’m knackered, and have no interest doing anything with a computer. So blogging has kind of fallen by the wayside.

That and this bloody cold which won't end for two months now. It's faded out and come back so many times now. I'm finally on antibiotics, and I appear to be getting better now – we'll see if it keeps this time.

For the first few weeks of the cold, I tried avoiding the wife so I don't pass on my cold. But after I while I realised that if she's not got it by now, she's not going to. So I'm a bit more comfortable being around her, but I'm still a bit wary.

By the way, it's a girl.

We found out in week 12 and got confirmed in week 21. But I never go around to posting about it. I don’t see any reason to keep anyone in suspense anymore.

In other news, I've taken up reading to the wee one. I've figured that babies-in-utero have ears, and they should work. And I'd like mine to recognise me at least a little. The baby is bound to bond with the wife – everything about her is familiar. I'd like some baby-bonding with me, and the only way I can think to get through is by talking. So I read. Mainly fairy tales. It's practice, you see. However, with the cold, reading hasn't been so easy, so I've not done it much lattely.

Last night the wife pointed out research that says exactly what we thought and that babies do recognise sounds from when they were in the womb. So, with my cold at a lull, I started reading again. But this time I decided to be practical and read sections of the UCLH guide to their pregnancy services (a booklet in dire need of a copy editor – there are soooo many grammar and stylistic errors in there). After all, we're going there so we need to know what's in store for us.

Since I was reading mostly for the wee one's benefit, decided to change all the pronouns and read directly to her. Stuff like:

You will be thoroughly examined by a paediatrician or midwife or neonatal nurse skilled in examination of the newborn infants, to ensure that there are no unexpected problems and you have adapted to life well. This usually happens before you leave the hospital and is done in the baby clinic on the ward. If your patients choose to go home before you are examined you will be given a time to return to the hospital to be examined, this should normally occur within 72 hours of your birth.

After all, the little one needs to know what she's getting in to.

Ten weeks to go.