I hate being ill, I’m not a great patient to be honest, I’m not good at having people fuss around me, it’s much better to let me just get on with stuff and hand me a tissue or some cold remedy.

Last Friday I realised that I really was coming down with a cold but generally I shake them off pretty easy, not last week… I spent the weekend coughing and sniffing, by Sunday it was full on Manflu which as we all know can be fatal. I did all the right things, fluids, extra box of extra big hankies, lemsip cold remedy… but nothing was shifting this beast, I blew my nose so much at one point I thought it would explode! To add to the fun my sinuses were very blocked and my head hurt like I’d done 5 physics lectures in a row with Einstein!

By Sunday night we’d agreed that the best thing I could do was sleep in the spare room to let my other half at least get some sleep and to reduce the risk of her coming down with it… i couldn’t take the risk of my pregnant other half getting manflu… it’s just to terrible to think about.

I did however try to do a bit of work from home, it was a challenge though, I mean I can log in to email but not much else from here and as I’m trying to co-ordinate some work to our China plant next week it was important to get these things done, but, even when your feeling great there are things that just get you wound up.. so add manflu and by close of Monday I was pretty much ropeable! Not to worry.

Tuesday came around and it was another visit to midwife to see how Bub’s was getting on, and the answer is fantastic!.. we got to listen tot he heart beat again and it’s still racing around at 140 beats per min which is apparently perfect. The midwife seemed more relaxed with us this time, I think I was a little more relaxed with her too… still not sure I pass muster with her yet though.

Wednesday it was the turn of the ultrasound scan again and off we went, the machine this time wasn’t quite as good so the images weren’t as clear but you could still make everything out. We’d talked before going in about finding out if it was a boy or a girl…. when people ask me what I’m hoping for I’m still replying.. “Oh.. A ginger!” We’d both decided that we weren’t that bothered and in the end we forgot to ask anyway! Still Bubs is doing great, still dancing around in there, shouldn’t be long now before we’re starting to feel and see the kicks and punches as bubs dances and wriggles around in there.

We’ve also started to go in search of baby stuff… I say stuff as there is a list as long as your arm that you ‘need’ and then there’s the 2nd 4 pages that is stuff you’ve seen that you think… oo that’s cool or the shop assistant has made you feel like your a terrible parent if you don’t buy it.

That said we met a fantastic woman in a shop just outside Christchurch called MILK who really couldn’t have done any more for us. For example, on the Saturday we’d been in a department store looking at Prams and buggies and cots… Now I’m an engineer… I’m pretty practical one at that… so you can imagine my shock when after lifting the side of a cot in this store… I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how the heck you get it down again… AND it’s meant to B e a one handed operation! I decided I liked the one with the two handed clips after that. We saw the same one in MILK and I steered clear…. we were going  to concentrate on prams and buggies…. but you know we’ll come back to that cot.

So I never thought I’d be excited about buying buggies or prams I actually remember taking the Mickey out of all of my mates who had kids a long while ago about their sudden conversion to all things baby… now I get it! Anyhoo… this pram was fantastic… I’d been looking at another which needed a Doctor’s degree in Mechanical engineering to take apart and even then I think you’d need to be driving a Semi to fit it in the back. Along came the Mountain Buggy range! it’s like a transformer but as a buggie… and you dan drop the darn thing in 5 secs flat… so i was pretty sold on this thing, and I was thinking good job done.. no then we need a car seat.. and then of course… the cots…

As it turns out the 1 handed cot side is designed with mum or dad holding baby in mind… so you only have one hand free.. as the lady was telling us this I was starting to feel a little dumb… had yes… if I’m holding onto bubs… I’ll only have 1 free hand… OK.. so show me how to get the darn thing down!…. up in easy… as it turns out, down is easy too… if you know the knack! You lean your leg in on the bottom bit lift the top and then it simply slides down… all those years at engineering school… for what!?.. oi vey!.. anyway, I left feeling like I may have a chance… possibly….

 

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