Well here we are at 20 weeks pregnant and having just had out scan. Thankfully everything is fine.
At the start of my pregnancy there was some concern from medical people that the tablets and pain killers I had been taking for the first 5 weeks of my pregnancy (before I knew I was pregnant) might have done some damage to baby – thankfully
they were WRONG! The scan was great baby is the right size and is sucking every bit of goodness it can from my food and from me which apparently is why I look like shit!!
It was really interesting watching the scan if a little scary, I did have a huge weave of panic as they called my name! At one point I could see all baby’s ribs which looked a little weird like a big rack of ribs for dinner! Ha ha!
Have got a call in to my midwife and to my crohns nurse as I am in a LOT of pain at the moment – the dietician said it makes no difference whether its baby related or chrons related – I ant be left in pain for another 4 months which is good to hear!
Have been hesitant to mention the pain in case they do something awful like make me have bed rest or something – yuck! But now you can see it on my face, I can’t hide it.
My 30th birthday celebrations have been pared down from a night at the dog track and a meal out with family to just a night out at the dogs, not sure I can do 2 nights in a row!
I am busy making Christmas cars and have just bought some cute stuff to use so am excited to start using them. The kitten is magnificent and as crazy as ever.
Mark has a Doctor Who story being published in a book called “short Trips – The Ghosts of Christmas” so I am totally proud of him – mwahh!
Also I am hating on the people going to see the spice girls – Rachie and Miranda and Janie! You lucky buggers! I am green with envy!
Enough of my jibber jabber for now.
Get well soon Laura Lou, Bagpuss, Graham and anyone else who is ill.
Ann xxxxx
Hello! Since my last entry I have heard our baby’s heartbeat twice which was nice. I think it’s a boy because the sound is slower like a train rather than fast like galloping horses. When I told my Mam that she peed herself laughing at such a ridiculous story but then she has to come back and admit that her friend’s daughter had been told the same thing by a midwife! So ha!
I am chugging along ok – trying to get the house straightened up because I am a bit less tired – I wouldn’t go so far as blooming but things are looking up in the consciousness stakes!!
On Tuesday I did the 2 upstairs bedrooms which was great because they have been getting me down – hard to tidy around the boxes and tubes and syringes though haha!
Have been on facebook now and again and having a great giggle at some of the terrible photos people have been posting – it’s so funny how young and daft we looked!
Progress on this years Christmas cards is slow because I am a lazy moo basically – I have stuff to make them I just never bother to do it –once I sit down I like to be there for hours so if I think I will be interrupted I don’t bother!
Am busy making a rug for in the baby’s room – it’s a kitten in a basket playing with balls of wool – I thought it was good because one ball is pink and one blue so it’s suitable for a boy or a girl.
Am going to try and add a vote on here – not sure I will succeed just to see what people’s views on names are really – Mark and I still cant agree – I have a huge list of boys and girls names and he hates them all!! Let’s see what the great worldwide public thinks!!
All for now so I can try and set up a vote.
Much love as always
Ann xxx
Well it is over 2 months since I posted on my journal and I apologise. There has been an awful lot happening and I just couldn’t find the time, now I am more organised and SHOULD update at least once a day if I have anything to say that is!!
In my last entry I talked about our little kitten Pixie who was 8 weeks old – she is now 17 weeks old and getting to be a big girl though still not cat size. She is such a cutie but a little bugger for playing rough!!
The big news since my last entry, which most of the people who read this will already know, is that I am pregnant!! If you look at the ticker at the top of my journal that will count up to my 40 weeks so you will know just when my baby is due. Right now you can see that I will be 17 weeks tomorrow.
Life has been good since my last entry, Mark was off work for the summer and we had some lovely little trips out, meals put, walks along the beach and so on. We also stripped out smallest room ready to turn into a nursery, mark does the heavy jobs and I do what I can when I can.
On the down side I had to have my feeding tube put back in last week because without any medical intervention my Crohn’s disease has started being a total bitch and I couldn’t eat enough to feed myself let alone the baby – poor little thing probably thought I was on hunger strike!
I am being well looked after by loads of doctors because I am classed as “high risk” because of the Crohn’s but that doesn’t matter, it just means I spend longer than I might like at doctors and hospitals!
I have already had my first scan, here is the photo
And I go for my next one on 2nd October and promise to post the photo as soon as I can.
That’s it for now, just wanted to get the journal active again. More soon
Ann xxxx
Well, well well I have never known a few weeks like it! Usually the end of term for teachers is marked by reports, day trips and kids whinging "Can we not do this stuff outside?" This never changes from year to year no matter how many time you explain to them about the insurance stuff and hoe we aren’t allowed to take them outside in case one of them gets hurt, stung blah blah and sues the school!
Never have I seen the end of term punctuated by such heavy bouts of rain and I have come to the conclusion that I know the reason!!
This rain nightmare is divine retribution for thousands of schoolchildren year in, year out, changing the words of the song to :
“Who built the
Who built the
Look at it – it’s the ONLY logical explanation.
Not really got anything to tell to be honest, the usual round of hospitals, doctors, tablets and injections have filled my time. Slowly I am getting the house cleared out and cleaned up.
On a bright note I have joined Facebook which is totally cool and means I can be in touch with people I thought I had lost touch with forever.
One of the lovely things is that I found lots of the girls I used to care for at the Boarding School so I can see how they are all doing.
Pixie the kitten is 8 ½ weeks old now and is a total menace. You can’t walk through the lounge without shoes or slippers on or she chews your feet, she got on the window sill to watch Mark gardening and knocked one of my lovely soapstone ornaments off which of course smashed completely in half! She is off to the vet on Monday for her first round of injections.
I went for a little swim this morning on my own – if ever you are tempted to go swimming alone but cant really swim but just have to plash about so you don’t hurt your tummy – let me advise you not to bother – I was piss bored in 20 minutes and got out into the coldest changing rooms I ever encountered. Not to be repeated in a hurry!
Not much news as I said but thought I had better post before I get abusive tags on my board!
I shall end with possibly the funniest bit of TV I saw in years!
God Bless xxx
Ok here it goes I AM SORRY!! Once again I have been shit at updating my journal so here goes from the top – things that have happened that are important to me.
On 12th June 2007, my sister’s 32nd Birthday, my lovely cousin Janene gave birth to a healthy baby girl, who weighed a pretty hefty 8lb 8oz and is called Niamh Freya and she is gorgeous!! Mum and baby did well after a planned C-Section as baby was laying across mummy’s tummy like a kebab!! Typical awkward Brodie!
Hope is adapting well to big-sisterhood though is not sure why this pink thing is stealing her mummy so much! Kevin, the Daddy, my cousin, is doing well too and went back to work today and I know he is missing his girls because he told me so!
I love the baby already and I have only seen photos of her! Totally cant wait to get up there and visit damn it. She is a hairy little bugger, no wonder Janene had such bad indigestion!
Sad news – on 13th June we had to have our gorgeous cat Kinny put to sleep. We had held off as she seemed to be picking up but then suddenly on the Wednesday night she started falling over and looking really unhappy and confused. We took her to the vet and he said it really was for the best. She had a good scratch at him as he sedated her which I was secretly pleased about, I was thinking “That’s my girl”
The vet sedated her before putting her to sleep because it’s nicer for her and she looked totally drunk! Her eyes were massive and Mark and I stood stroking her and holding her paws. Just as he was going to give her the injection I nearly said Stop! But then I remembered her falling about the living room earlier that day and I couldn’t see her like that bless her. We rescued her from the back garden so she wouldn’t suffer outside, how cruel would it have been then to make her suffer here just so I wasn’t sad at losing her.
I found a poem on the Cat’s protection league website the next day and I felt like Kinny had sent it just for me, to make me realise that what I had done was the right thing.
I will post it when I get chance. I miss her horribly and we are going to get a new kitten but every time we went to get one there was none at the shelters or the pet shops. Mark said when Kinny is ready for us to have a new one we will find one and see in it’s eyes that it wants to be our baby. I hope so, with Mark at work and no Kinny I am a very very lonely lady these days!
I am tootling along ok. My tummy is being a bitch as always but hey-ho I am used to it and hardly notice it as being different to the way everyone else is, except that I often cant get my trousers on because I am so swollen!
Actually made it to church yesterday can you believe that?! Oh yes, at 9.25am I was there with my hair done and my make up on and everyone saying how well I look and how nice it was to see me looking well. I didn’t have the heart to tell the poor buggers that it took 40 mins of expensive make up to look that way. It was just great to hear people being positive with me instead of looking at me like I might drop dead at their feet!
I totally enjoyed the service, the singing the quietness and of course seeing people I have known for years, including a lady (I wanted to say girl) who I was friends with for a lot of years a long time ago when we were both in the church choir. She goes every week with her little girl. It is so odd to see people I was friends with having babies. Like we are still playing or something if you know what I mean!!
On the subject I nearly spat out my false teeth in town when I saw a lad I went to school with pushing his baby through town. He was one of those lads who thought he was frigging Noel Gallagher with the stupid hair and daft hats and converse trainers and thought he was so handsome and hilarious, personally I thought he looked a bit simeon!! Anyway to see him pushing a pram gave me such a jolt! It was a very odd experience!
I had my B-12 injection last week so I had my energy rushed and pulled out all the kitchen cupboards, bagged stuff for the charity shop and a whole bagful for the bin, the cupboards looked great now, oh yeah except for the leak that peed water all over my kitchen last week!!!!!!!!!
I am hoping to start going swimming soon now that the weather is getting brighter (she says as she looks out at the peeing rain!) I can get a bus to the nook and walk to the leisure centre. The only problem is they built it in the middle of a bloody green area thingy so it’s about a 15 minute walk to the doors from the bus – am worried I will be too knackered to swim by the time I get there!! hahaha!
This week I have no plans except church on Wednesday night which I always enjoy cos it’s a short quiet service, a different one each Wednesday of the month. This week is the rosary service and while I never thought it would be something I took to, I actually love the peaceful repetition of it all.
My sister-in-laws fiancés mum died the night before last so your thoughts for them would be appreciated. She was young and the boys are not 21 until August so they are young to be without a Mum. I hope she gets the peace now she didn’t appear to have before.
What else – Can’t really think of anything though I know as soon as I click to send this through I will remember something.
Oh – if you shop online be sure to check out nectar e-stores. If you have a nectar card you can earn points shopping at Amazon, Play.com,
All my love
Ann xxx
Hello there and firstly an apology. Due to circumstances beyond my control I have not been able to update! There, that sounded official!
So, I won journal of the week while I was away in
Speaking of the bump, tomorrow it will be entering the world at around noon so prayers for a safe delivery please as Janene is having a section. I am very very excited about the new baby. I know it won’t be my god child like Hope is but that doesn’t mean I won’t love it just as much.
Some bad news though. Kinny our pussy cat is a very poorly little girl. She has tumours in her ears as I think I may have mentioned but now there is a huge infection behind the tumours that they can’t treat. She is getting petty poorly and we are very near the stage when we will have to have her put to sleep. It makes me very sad because although we have been caring for her for only a couple of years, and if we hadn’t taken her in she would have died long ago, she has really brightened us up when things have been hard, she has such a cheeky personality. Even now when she is so ill she is making us laugh with her antics!! More news on that as the situation changes.
So, I had a trip to
I also went to Jumping Beans which is like a little exercise thingy for kids to build their confidence and show them how their bodies work and stuff. It was so cool but so nerve wracking! They had to do this little assault course and the kids had no fear, she was climbing ladders three times her height and walking over narrow beams barely holding my hand – my heart was in my gob most of the time!!
We went to a soft play area which Hope loved. Had to help her a bit because she was still a little bit small to climb some of the bits to get to the slides, we had a lot of fun but I got very tired very quickly, good job she is such a forgiving child!
We did lots of jobs during the week, like washing the pram, the car seat, the bouncy chair etc etc ready for the new baby, and Kev got all the baby clothes out of the attic which we sat and sorted into bags by size then washed and hung out the teeny tiny ones. It was so lovely standing in the sun hanging out these tiny little babygros and stuff. We also had to wash all the nappies because they use cotton bottom nappies which are what I will use if I ever have a baby. They are great and very cost effective too. Also they are clearly good for your baby because Hope has never ever had nappy rash, or even a red bum which I reckon is great.
Lots of the jobs were sitting down jobs because Jan was very pregnant and I wasn’t really very well a lot of the week. Quite a few times I had to go and have an hour and a half’s sleep on a tea time so that I was ok for bath time and bed time.
Since I got home I have been busy just pottering really. Not been up to doing anything world changing or life altering but am happily pottering about weeding bits of the garden if I feel up to it, making dinner, keeping the house nice and so on. I am sure a lot of people will think it is terribly boring but I love it and it’s great that I can still find things to do, even if I have to sit down to do them!
Oh, when I was in town a couple of weeks ago I bumped into an old friend called Emma. Emma and I were in the same class right from Nursery School until we left school and used to go to each others houses for tea. We even had a club in her shed, remember the Get Along Gang?! We had our own version, Emma got to be the Dog, I think she was called Dottie, because it was her garden, I think I was the little lamb!! Emma if you are reading this, do you remember??????? I think the lamb was called Woolma!!, Maybe I was the one called Portia I can’t remember but we had badges and everything!!!!
Anyway it was such a delight to see Emma, but I always feel humiliated when I see people from school because I am not working, I know it’s because I am sick rather than because I never bothered but I worry so much about people thinking I am useless amd a waster.
Anyway, we agreed that we would have to meet up soon for lunch. Emma if you read this click on the comments thing and leave me a message!
Right that’s it for now, am going to attempt a wheat free, dairy free apple, pear and rhubarb crumble for my hubby for tonight.
Much love Ann xxxx
Woohoo - and I didnt even put my name in for it!
Very Exciting.
Well, I did it! I completed the Cancer Research Race for Life 2007! And as a thank you to the people who helped me raised just under my £1000 total, I did as promised, and did the race in fancy dress.
It was an interesting race in many ways this year. Firstly, my friend Cathryn fainted at work last week and banged her face up and I was worried that really she shouldnt do it! Then when I got up I realised that due to the weather I would have to alter my costume slightly, then I found out Cathryn has had a funny turn again this morning before they left for the race, then as we stood around to warm up I got one of the crippling spasms that are so typical of my Crohn's in a flare. I stood very still and squeezed Mark's hand and Mam's hand until it passed, there was 2 very worried mother's walking with daughters today to say the least!
Then to top it all off the inflatable start/finish line wouldn't inflate which was fine for the start but made the finish a bit of a let down as the finish was just a pile of boxes and people giving out the medals and goodie bags. Rachie they didn't even play THE song!!!
However, I am very proud to have raised so much money and I was more proud of the gorgeous girl with Down's Syndrome who was racing for life to celebrate her own survival! What a star, she was near me the whole race and really kept me going.
Thank you thank you to the people who sponsored me, and to the people who supported me, especially all at Planet Ostomy, Markie, My Mum Dad, Dawn, and Cathryn and the congregation of St Lawrence the Martyr Church.
Here as promised are the pictures - please keep laughter to a minimum there may be babies sleeping!
Deliberately left this one big so you can read it.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I was Superman!!!!!!!
What do you mean I look more like Blunder Woman!!?? How Rude!!
Getting near the end and still looking greeeeeeeeaat!! haha!!
Us doing the warm up - just look at the enthusiasm on my face!!!
Winners!!!!!
Weeeeeeeeeeeee are the championssssssss my friendsssssssssss!
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