Dinah was really ill on Thursday, feverish, sleeping for most of the day, not eating nearly as much as usual and not wanting to nurse at all during the night, even though she woke up a lot. Thankfully she was much better the next day and is pretty much back to normal now, with only a lingering cough (which doesn't sound as nasty as it did) and runny nose.

Having to wipe snot off your nipple after every feed is kinda gross.

On Thursday I was thinking I hope it's not swine flu I hope it's not swine flu... But now I'm sort of hoping that it was (which is doubtful, really) because that would mean that we won't have to deal with it in the future... when I'm back at university, for instance.

On the whole I'm not really looking forward to going back. I'm not looking forward to leaving Dinah for 10 hours a day (though probably only 5 1/2 on Wednesdays, which is good). I'm not looking forward to homework, and to trying to finish it before I pick Dinah up every day. I'm not looking forward to being back in a place where I hardly know anyone (hello, spending my money on trips to London!)

I am looking forward to Dinah and I having our own space, though I'm not looking forward to not having my parents around to keep an eye on Dinah while I take a shower or nip to the shop. I'm not looking forward to taking Dinah away from them, and more importantly I'm not looking forward to taking them away from Dinah -- she loves my mum and she adores my stepdad. She will be able to see more of my dad and stepmum when we're in the UK, but she doesn't know them nearly as well (we haven't seen them since September) and they'll be a two-hour drive away, not in the next room...

But I must admit I am looking forward to not having to distract her from my brother's Lego which he refuses to remove from the living room every five minutes.

I think I am sort of looking forward to being farther away from Dinah's daddy. I'm hoping it'll stop me thinking about whether or not he's seeing enough of her so much -- after all, it won't exactly be possible for him to drop by before work anymore... And I won't be seeing him at improv every week, which will stop me from feeling bad for seeing more of him than she does. I hope.

I am not looking forward to going to Leicester in two weeks to find somewhere to live. I'll have to take Dinah with me and I doubt she'll think it's much fun, and I'll be staying with my dad's cousin's wife's parents, who I've only met twice (briefly) and really feel like I'm imposing on. I'm really hoping I can find somewhere quickly and get it over with as soon as possible.

I am looking forward to being able to sleep on a matress on the floor so I don't have to worry about Dinah falling out of bed.

Mostly though, I'm looking forward to next October, when I'll have finished my degree and can move back again...

Dinah has six teeth now and finally seems to have stopped teething for a while, but she's just getting over her first cold.

A few days ago she out of nowhere started to pull herself up on things. It's kinda cool, but also kinda terrifying! I think she's had more bumps on the head in the last week than in the whole previous eight months of her life.

Oh yeah, she's eight months old, which I think is ancient. It's two thirds of a year, after all.






On a different note, I've had conversations with two other women lately (one pregnant, one not) who seem really afraid of the pain of giving birth. Whereas I was... well, not really. Not that I was all blasé about it, but I would say that at worst I was a bit nervous or apprehensive. What concerned me more was the thought of something going wrong, but even with that I wasn't overly worried because I felt it would be counter-productive. So, mini-poll question:

Are or were you afraid of giving birth?

Am intensely curious. All answers appreciated :D

So at lunchtime today I was letting Dinah sip water from my glass (and spill a liberal amount down her front, of course). She thought it was funny, I thought it was funny that she thought it was funny, many giggles were had.

Later on I had to change her because she had a really, really dirty nappy. I always have a little pot of water for wiping her with down by her feet, which she has never shown much interest in before. Well, today she launched herself at it, spilling it all over the floor and smearing the contents of her just-unfastened nappy all over the front of her clothes.

D'oh.

One lives and learns not to play with glasses of water again, and to put other water containers a little more out of reach!

My dad's cousin got married a few weeks ago and Dinah and I flew over to Ireland to attend the wedding. I was dreading the travelling but actually it went okay and we had a really good time! Dinah slept through most of the ceremony and when she did wake up she only gurgled from time to time. It was great to see all the family -- and to receive all the "what a good baby!" comments ;)

It rained a lot, but that's Ireland! The sun came out for the wedding photos, which is what counts.

We were home for less than two weeks before heading down to Sicily for our family holiday with my mum, stepdad and little brother. I was dreading the travelling even more this time because it was a much longer trip, but it was a little better than going to Ireland because I had other people to entertain things while I did vital things such as going to the toilet. The only bad part of the journey came right at the end, driving from the airport to the apartment we had rented. Dinah doesn't like cars anyway and it was the end of a really long day, so she was screaming anyway, but the hirecar had a really strong brake which jolted us all violently every time my stepdad had to use it, and then we got lost trying to find the apartment! We went down one street which was eerily abandoned, inhabited only by dumped trash and stray dogs, so we turned back to try the next one. It was about 10pm by that time and we were despairing of ever finding the place, so we parked opposite a house which had some people sitting outside and my stepdad went over to ask directions. He came back to the car several times, to fetch the map, to fetch the landlord's phone number, to fetch the map; a lively discussion took place to which those of us in the car were not privy, with lots of pointing at the map and some walking up and down the road; then about ten minutes later my stepdad comes over, starts up the car, points at the house next to the one with the helpful people and says, "Yeah, I think it's that one."

D'oh.

Once we were there and settled things went much better! We went to the beach (five minutes walk) every day but one (it rained). Dinah liked the sand but not the sea, especially when the wind was making big, noisy waves. What she liked best though was having a big double bed (well... two singles pushed together) to roll around on in the apartment! I liked that part too. We do alright in my small bed at home, but if I could get a bigger one I definitely would. Hopefully we'll be able to have one in Leicester.

By the way, while we were travelling to Sicily the hermionebigbang archive went live. I wrote a 24000 word story for it, which I'm very pleased about! It's about the only non-Dinah-related thing I've accomplished lately (not that Dinah-related things aren't good) and I'm kinda proud of myself for writing something that long (and, apparently, coherent!) whilst having a small baby to take care of. Now, if only I'd been able to polish it more! Oh well :)

Travelling back from Sicily, we found one of these at Palermo airport. It was so much fun! They should have them everywhere. And the pizza didn't taste half bad, either.


Dinah has been growing and changing so fast lately. Her new favourite position to be nursed to sleep in is lying next to me on her stomach, with only her face twisted towards me. This is alright if she's sleepy (though it does leave her sleeping on her stomach, something she had finally started to accept doing less of), but if she's more awake she gets up on all fours and rocks energetically back and forth while drinking. Ouchie.

She's almost sitting -- basically she sits unsupported until she sees something shiny off to one side and lunges for it, which makes her fall over. Yesterday she pushed herself up into a sitting position on her own for the first time, and then sat for about ten seconds. I was pretty impressed.

She is definitely perilously close to crawling. I'm not sure I can even say she's 'close' anymore; she has definitely mastered forward motion and has definitely mastered getting up on her hands and knees, she just hasn't worked out that combining the two would make for faster movement. (Here's hoping she won't do so too soon...)

And this morning I noticed that she's got her first tooth coming in. Perhaps that explains why she took the piece of cucumber I gave her at lunch and sucked on it for 20 minutes instead of licking it, screwing up her face and refusing to touch it again like she did the first two times she tried it.


at the beach

So I was putting Dinah down for a nap this morning. She was all floppy, definitely asleep, so I very carefully rolled off the bed and turned around... to find her lying there with her eyes wide open, grinning.

With increasing age comes increasing mischievousness!

Happy six months and one day, kiddo :)

- The way she gets distracted by her own hands

- The way she chews on her toes

- The loud, high-pitched squeaking noises she makes when she's happy

- The way she sometimes turns 180 degrees in bed so I wake up with her feet in my face

- The excited noises she makes when she's about to be fed: "Hee! HEE! HEEHEEHEE-- Slurp."

:)

On the tram yesterday Dinah was fussing, because it was hot and she'd been in the pram, which she hates. This old lady across the isle piped up:

Old Lady: You know, in this hot weather they can't go between bottles without getting thirsty. They need some tea or something in between.

Me: Oh, we're breastfeeding. I fed her before we got on the tram and I'm sure she'll be fine until we get there. It's not far.

Old Lady, looking at Dinah, horrified: Oh, you poor thing!


We could have done without that last part, thanks.

There was another old lady at the tram stop who was very sympathetic and just told me that hers used to cry at this time of day too. I liked her better.

My baby is five months old today! She's almost-but-not-quite there on learning to do several things, namely

- rolling from her front to her back: she's done it a few times now -- but none of them intentionally!

- sitting: she can almost sit without support if she's just sitting up straight, but usually she gets distracted by something shiny and makes a grab for it, thereby losing her balance :D

- crawling: she wants to crawl so badly and can get incredibly frustrated about it. She can hold her front or back ends up but not both at the same time -- I think it's still going to take a while for her to get the hang of it, which is good for me because I still need to babyproof a lot of stuff.

She's got so much better at the hand-eye-coordination thing. Whereas before she would pick things up and try to put them in her mouth but end up sucking on her hand, they now acually reach her mouth, though she often loses interest and goes back to sucking her fingers anyway.

We took a trip to England a couple of weeks ago to see various friends and relatives. It all went so much better than I was afraid it would. Dinah was incredibly well-behaved on various planes, trains etc, even garnering a few compliments from fellow passengers! She didn't like the car so much at first (the carseat was all fun and interesting until she discovered she couldn't sit up straight), but thankfully it also seems to put her to sleep.

My dad drove us to Leicester to visit the daycare place she'll probably be attending when I have to go back to university in January. Dinah loved it; her reaction was basically OMGSOMANYTOYSANDOTHERBABIESOMGEXCITINGTOYSTOYS! I quite liked it too; the staff were very friendly and seemed very open to catering to each baby's individual needs. The only thing I didn't like so much was that the younger babies seemed to be in their carseats or bouncy chairs most of the time, but as Dinah will be 10 months by January that won't affect her. Overall it's quite a weight off my shoulders to have been there and seen it, and I feel confident that I'll be able to leave Dinah there without worrying overly much.

I dropped my camera and broke the lens about two months ago so have had to borrow my mum's in order to take pictures, but I do have a few:

( piccies! )

Today:

After thrush, a milk blister (which I'm pretty sure was caused by the thrush medication irritating my skin) and some really bad plugged ducts (which I'm pretty sure were caused by me pulling Dinah off the breast before she'd finished a few times because it hurt too much) Dinah and I finally have a pain-free breastfeeding relationship again. Yay! About time, too...

We also went to a La Leche League meeting the Friday before last, which was pretty cool. There were mothers who think like me! In real life! Who weren't related to me! Next meeting is in August :)

My gran and one of my cousins are coming to visit in mid-July, and then on the 20th my mum, sister, brother and Dinah and I are going back to England with them. We'll be coming back on the 31st. I'm trying not to be nervous about travelling for so long with Dinah. I'm glad that I'll have my mum with me for this first trip, though. Hopefully it will build my confidence for when Dinah and I have to do it alone!

Dinah had her 3 month check-up yesterday. She charmed the doctor and smiled the whole time he was examining her :) And she is growing like she should (5.4kg now -- almost twice her birth weight) etc, which is always nice to hear!

This afternoon we went my old school to watch my brother's final dancing lesson (dancing is extracurricular and he's the only boy in the class!) Dinah was very well-behaved and had fun watching all the big kids prancing about. When I put her on the floor to dress her ready to go outside again my brother came up to talk to us and leaned his scooter up against the wall. Someone spoke to him, which made him turn around, and he knocked his scooter over and it hit Dinah on the head! She screamed, and cried... and then quietened down about two minutes later and was back to smiling by the time I had her in the sling. She was still cheerful and alert an hour later so I told myself not to worry, but man that was scary!

...And here I am still obsessing about it when I'm sure Dinah's forgotten all about it. As far as I can see under her hair there isn't even a bruise. Ah, the joys of motherhood... ;)

Dinah learned to roll over this morning!

She's been trying for a couple of weeks now, and this morning I told my mum that I was sure she would manage it within the next few days. Then a little later I was sitting on the floor with Dinah and was telling my stepdad "Look, she can nearly do it..." And then she did! And has done it three times since!

I never thought a baby rolling over would have me grinning for hours. Dinah seems pretty pleased with herself too :D

So I was walking into town earlier with Dinah in the sling and this random guy walked up and asked me if I had a light.

Um, I'm carrying a small baby. What makes you think it's likely that

a) I have a lighter, and

b) if I did have a lighter, I would let you use it to light a cigarette right next to my aforementioned small baby?

I just told him no and walked on, but I felt kind of offended... perhaps I'm being oversensitive though.


On a slightly different note, did you know that the German word for 'lighter' is 'Feuerzeug', which literally translated means 'fire thing'? I've always found that amusing.

Dinah was two months old last week, so I guess it's time for another update :D

She's so big. And way chubbier. When I hold her legs I don't feel like I could break them anymore. They're so much stronger, too -- she likes to kick them. A lot.

Her newborn acne is finally starting to clear up (yay!), but now she's getting cradle cap instead (never mind).

The bald patch on top of her head where all the hair fell out is not bald anymore.

And she's starting to get eyebrows that are actually visible!

My theatre group is doing a show at the moment, so on Wednesday I dropped by the theatre with Dinah. I was going to just hang out backstage before the dress rehearsal for a bit (we'd been invited by the director), but Dinah was so well-behaved that I got to see almost the entire show! I had to take her outside about halfway through Act 1, but she slept through Act 2 and I fed her during Act 3. So yay! She's had her first trip to the theatre and she's only two months old :D

In the last few days she's discovered how to roll from her back onto her side without having to be naked to do so. She seems quite pleased with herself whenever she does it. This is good because she hates being naked (even though having just her bottom half naked is the Greatest Fun Ever.) It makes it very difficult to bathe her. I've tried the basin in the bathroom, the sink in the kitchen, taking her in the bath with me, sponge bathing... she screams like it's the most horrific torture. She liked it the first time (in the hospital when she was a couple of days old), but she seems to have changed her mind about it rather radically. I'm not quite sure what to do about it. I'm sort of hoping that eventually she'll get used to it like she did with the pram -- though I think that's because she can see better now.

Apart from that, everything is awesome. She's sleeping really well (usually 9:30 til 4 and then til 8), and she smiles All The Time :)

Dinah is one month old today.

She celebrated this by sleeping for eight hours straight last night! It was from 8pm to 4am, so I still had to get up in the middle of the night (if you can call sitting up to feed her 'getting up'), but I very much enjoyed it nonetheless. I've told her that it would be very nice if she would be so kind as to do it again, if not on a regular basis :D

At the moment she's waking up every time I put her down to sleep. She didn't have a problem with it the first couple of weeks, but now if she sleeps on her own for five minutes like she did this morning I'm amazed. So she's spending most of her time in my arms, which is fine by me as long as I can put her down for a couple of minutes while she's awake to get dressed, brush my teeth etc. She usually permits this!

It's amazing how much she's grown up already. She can hold her head up. She doesn't do it much when she's lying on her stomach like she's 'supposed' to because she's quite content to just gaze around for quite a while; it's only when she gets tired of that that she starts kicking her legs (they are strong! Must be all that practise she had kicking my insides) and moving her head around. She's awake far more than she was, often for most of the day, and when not otherwise occupied she seems to enjoy staring at all the interesting things the world has to offer. And in the last couple of days she's just started to make 'talking' noises in addition to panting, grunting and crying (and hiccuping -- she did that a lot in the womb and is still going strong.)

My brother came over from London for a couple of days to see his new niece, and he held her for me while I made a chocolate and hazelnut torta (yum!). I nipped round the corner to buy ingrdients -- the first time I'd been out without her. It was weird, especially as the main thought which went through my head was none of these people can tell that I'm a mother; even though in some ways I feel totally, totally different.

The weather has abruptly (finally!) turned warm, and I realised yesterday that Dinah didn't have a sunhat that fit so today I went out and bought her one. I was looking at ones in the newborn size until I remembered that she's started to grow out of some of her newborn clothes. So I bought the next size up :D

Dinah's newest trick is to put her index finger in her mouth, suck on it for a couple of seconds and then look adorably confused when she can't figure out how to get it out again. She looks at me all "help, what's this strange thing in my mouth!" and sometimes she gets so frustrated that I have to help her to remove it. It's cute.

We went to get her photos taken for her passport the other day. Apparently "[i]f the baby’s head needs to be supported, it is important that your supporting hand cannot be seen." Why? Will whoever is inspecting her passport look at the photo and go "Hey, what's that strange growth on the baby's head?? And why is it there in the photo but not on the real live baby in front of me?" Somehow I doubt it...

We had a check-up with the doctor on Monday, who basically said "everything good, come back in a month." He also reminded me that I need to think about which vaccinations I want/do not want her to have. "You weren't overly vaccinated, if I remember correctly," he said -- he's been our family doctor since we moved to Switzerland, so since I was 6. He didn't recognise me at first though, as I haven't actually seen him since I broke my finger playing volleyball when I was 15. When the penny finally dropped he said that I was probably the first woman he had seen as a child who had then registered her child as a patient with him as well. He seemed quite pleased :D

We have got rid of the nipple shield, yay! The downside of this is that it's taking her longer to latch on properly, and she often swallows a lot of air trying. Last night she was obviously very uncomfortable and it took forever to get her to burp as she screamed and screamed... then one big burp later and she was perfectly cheerful again. I'm hoping that as she gets better at latching on (which she is -- she's even got it on the first try once or twice now) this problem will become less frequent.

Three weeks old today! That's nearly a month :D

Dinah is... perfect. She's so well-behaved. She usually only really cries when it's time to oil her.

She's had very dry skin since she was born, so I rub her all over with almond oil every day, which does seem to be helping a lot. When she was a day old she had bleeding cracks in the skin on her hands and feet, but those are gone now, with the exception of a couple of scabs. The skin on her belly is normal now, and yesterday the dead skin on the soles of her feet came off, leaving soft pink baby skin underneath. I am hopeful that she'll stop being all peely sometime quite soon :D

Breastfeeding is going okay, which is much better than it started out. At first she wouldn't latch on properly, and would get so frustrated that she couldn't latch on at all. It got so that if I put her to the breast she would either lie there with her mouth up against my nipple doing nothing or she would scream her head off. The nurses brought in a pump for me, then decided that wasn't enough because her skin needed to be hydrated and insisted on giving her formula as well. Sigh. A lactation consultant came in on the Monday but she wasn't much help. I wanted to go home on Wednesday but because of the feeding issues they wouldn't let us, said we needed more time to work out how we were going to handle feeding at home. They made this big complicated plan involving expressed milk and formula and how much and when I was to give it to her, which seemed detailed to an incredibly over-the-top degree to me.

On Wednesday evening Cindy visited. Dinah was fussing and I didn't really know why, seeing as she had just been fed. Cindy said, "Well, what happens if you put her to the breast?" I replied, "She'll either do nothing or start screaming -- look, I'll show you."

So I unbuttoned my shirt, put Dinah's mouth to my breast -- and, lo and behold, she latched on and she drank. And drank. And drank.

And did the same a few hours later.

And then again.

The hospital staff still insisted that I rent a breast pump from them, and told me I had to buy a supply of formula "just in case" (which, oh dearie me, I didn't do...) , but she hasn't had anything but breast since :D

She still takes a long time to latch on. The visiting midwife who came the next day gave me a nipple shield to help with that -- with it she latches on straight away, but I'm hoping to get rid of it soon. We nursed without it in a restaurant the other day, so I'm hopeful it shouldn't take to long. In the meantime she's regained her birth weight and her cheeks and fingers are looking distinctly chubbier, so the midwife is very happy with our progress!



In conclusion, I was very happy with the hospital for the birth, but they were way too anal afterwards. It's supposed to be a pro-breastfeeding hospital, but I felt they wanted me to give up far too easily. Could the difference be attributed to the fact that midwives attended the birth, but afterwards we were handed off to the nurses? Hmm...

But speaking of nurses, I was changing Dinah under the watchful eye of one of them one time when another one came in... who I'd been at school with. It's a small world...

Anyway. Piccies!

( x3 )

I have a new desk chair (belated Christmas present from my parents). IT'S SO COMFY! WHEEEEE!

38 weeks and 4 days now... not long to go :D

I went for a check-up last week. Everything still good. The midwife said to me, "I'm just looking through your notes to see if there's anything else we need to check... most women have something bothering them... it's really unusual to have someone with nothing wrong!"

I just smiled and said "No... I'm fine!"

I think either I'm just not complaining about the "normal" things because I know there's not much that can be done about them (e.g. not being able to find a comfortable position to sleep in despite multiple pillows) or because this is the hospital women get referred to when there is something wrong there is a disproportionately smaller number of women who are doing fine... I'm reluctant to believe that I'm really lucky because it makes me sad for all the not-so-lucky ones! My mum says they said the same kind of things to her during her pregnancies, though -- until she went overdue (with my sister and I -- my brothers were both born on their due dates!) and they tried to convince her that that was somehow "wrong"...

...but I will cross that bridge if and when I come to it.

I finally finished rearranging and tidying my room yesterday, so theoretically it's ready for the baby, although I really want to get a small chest of drawers for clothes and things because there's no way anything more is going to fit in my wardrobe and the baby clothes are currently stored haphazardly in two big IKEA bags. I also still need to wash the covers on the pram -- it's been in the basement for the last ten years and is therefore kind of dusty :D

Because I'm
a) unmarried and
b) a foreigner
I need to take a whole bunch of different documents with me to the hospital when I give birth so that they can be forwarded to the authorities who will register it. I need to take my passport, my "foreigner's permit", a copy of my birth certificate less that six months old (why??) and a "certificate of civil status" from the British Consulate to prove that I'm single. I finally have all these documents, but I also need an "official translation" (i.e. translated by an agency and not just by me) of my birth certificate into German which I've only just got around to organising... so with respect to paperwork I'm not quite ready for the baby to come yet. Hopefully it won't take too long!

I'm very glad that the UK is a member of the EU because it means my passport contains translations into all the EU languages -- otherwise I'd have to get that translated too.

My improv group has a performance on Friday which I'm hoping to be able to participate in... so no baby until then would be good :D

Oh, and I got my exam results! All A's. My tutor said that I was "probably one of the top three students" and that he "would definitely encourage" me to come back and finish the degree next year. I am very pleasantly surprised :)

For Nan ;)



35 weeks 3 days
( two more... )

So, here I am back home again :)
( Click for lengthy update... )

A couple of people have asked me recently if pregnancy has been what I expected. The answer is... yes and no. I've had practically no morning sickness (I had mild nausea for a couple of weeks and mildly worse nausea for a couple of days, but I never actually threw up!), no cravings, and am still, at 35 weeks, feeling generally comfortable as long as I walk a bit each day (though I am looking forward to being able to sleep on my stomach again!) I've found that I'm familiar with most of the information the midwives have given me on pregnancy, the birth process, breastfeeding etc, which must be at least partly due to my lovely LJ friends who have shared so many of their experiences.


However, here is a short list of Things That I Have Learnt:

- when you're short and round, reaching the taps on a big sink (such as they have in, say, student halls of residence) can present difficulties

- seeing your belly button slowly turn inside-out is a very strange experience

- for the first time you're actually glad of the stretch marks you got during puberty, because you know that it's true that they won't be so red and visible forever

- people will ask whether you can feel the baby kicking as soon as you tell them that you're pregnant -- even if you're only eight weeks along

- other frequent questions include "Any cravings?", "Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" and "Have you chosen a name yet?" (The answers to which are no, no and sort of)

- every woman you know suddenly wants to tell you about her own birth experiences -- which you think is very helpful at first, and then as people start to say contradictory things (e.g. "This hospital was great!" -- "This hospital was awful!") you realise that you really can't predict what your experience will be based on those of others

- it's very nice to be offered someone's seat on the train, bus, etc. -- it's not so nice when you've somehow become used to it and then it doesn't happen, and you find yourself standing there trying to look as miserably pregnant as possible before thinking, suddenly, "What am I doing? I'm perfectly comfortable and I'm getting off in less than five minutes!"

- having a baby involves a lot of paperwork

- after a certain point, shoelaces are more trouble than they're worth


I may add more to this list at some point in the future.

( random pictures... )

This is my beginning-of third-trimester bump. As you can see, I'm still tiny! Hopefully this will help me to avoid any fuss at the airport next week.


Yay for going home for Christmas! :)

I'm sick :( :( :(

I started coughing on Wednesday night and I've been feeling awful ever since. On Thursday I still went to my lectures, on Friday I decided I couldn't get out of bed in the morning -- but then in the afternoon I had to go to a rehearsal and hand in a form. I would've stayed in all day yesterday but I was running out of food so had to go out again, came back carrying copious amounts of soup. Soup good, but carrying soup bad.

Today the coughing hasn't been so bad (good thing! Coughing hurts my poor stretched stomach muscles) but I've started sneezing as well, and have to breathe through my sore throat if I want to get any oxygen whatsoever. This makes it nearly impossible to sleep -- not that I've slept properly the last three nights anyway.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to have lectures 9-11, 12-1 and 3-4. The last two I think I can safely skip, but the first one is the final lecture for that course and I really think I should go... argh, but I don't want to, it'll probably make me worse again. Then I'm supposed to have a rehearsal at 4. I'm going to try to get them to hold it here so I don't have to go out again. I only live 10 minutes' walk from uni, so they might agree...

I've got an appointment with my midwife at 2.30 tomorrow anyway, so depending on how I feel and what she says I may see a doctor as well.

The worst thing is that I'm all alone, which just leads to me feeling even more sorry for myself. The only other person I've seen today is Silent Ashley from across the corridor, who of course didn't speak to me. I've been phoning home every day (and probably getting on their nerves with it by now!), but I still feel lonely! I really, really hate being ill when I'm all on my own.

So, phone calls/text messages/e-mails/whatever from any of you would be incredibly appreciated. I need to feel loved! :(


Edit: And now I've got a nosebleed. Yay.

I'm going to London for the weekend. Wheeee! :)

I just heard my baby's heartbeat for the first time.

:) :) :)

...you misread "bombs" as "zombies" because the word "Zimbabwe" is on the next line.

*facepalm*

The pay date for both my LJ accounts is coming up (10 July) and I have no credit or debit card with which to pay.

Woe! Woe is me!

(Stupid bank promising to send me things and then never doing it... bah.)

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed.
There were rules for this, but Molly changed them. So I'm stealing hers.
1) Bold the ones you've read.
2) Underline the ones you actually liked.
3) Strike out the ones you started but found too fucking boring to finish.
4) If you only read it b/c it was required reading in class, make it red.
5) If you saw the movie instead, make it blue
6) If you read the book b/c you liked the movie, make it green.

( Turns out I've read 24 of them. )