Twenty-Six Weeks (and three days)

Well, here it is, the latest belly shot. Six months down and still people aren't sure whether Flo's pregnant or just had a few too many beers. The kicks are getting stronger though and my brother will be happy to hear that I got my first kick in the head when I was listening to Flo's belly a few nights back.

The past few weeks have been a bit uneventful though really; no traumas or scares. Flo's been eating probably more healthy than ever and has been impressively regular with her yoga classes, plus the cycle during the week. Things seem to be going well... let's hope they continue to do so!

Worm Power!

A couple of years ago, the local council here in Den Haag decided to stop enforcing that households separate their "green" waste. Turns out that it's just too expensive to process this green waste and that there's not sufficient need for the products that come from it.

This upset me a bit... I liked the idea of me making a difference and doing my bit for the environment, limiting my waste sent to landfill sites. I had settled into the routine of separating out bio-waste. This has been niggling in the back of my mind for some time, so the other week I decided to do something about it and ordered a worm composter!

So from now on, all our green waste will be collected again and fed to the worms! After a few weeks, the waste will have been eaten a few times by the worms and converted into compost and very nutrient fluid which can then be used to feed the plants in the garden. Well, that's the theory at least, but time will tell how well it works. But at the very least, it will have been an interesting experiment... I find the little fellas quite fastinating!

Spring is here

Three nice days in a row... it must be spring!

Inspired by the good weather, Flo and I decided to head out for a bike ride in the dunes after work today and I got to try out a new toy in preparation for our holiday to Germany next week.

You can view our route here!

Are you with child?

Today we ran into one of Jonny's Welsh colleagues during a walk in the local park (erm, not literally, so it did not hurt). After one look at my abdominal area he cautiously enquired whether I was 'with child'. At my affirmative answer I could almost hear his sigh of relief, which he then explained by saying that in Wales the chances of it rather being a beer belly were quite high...

Picture proof that my now protruding belly cannot really be mistaken for a beer-and-bitterballen-belly anymore will soon follow!

Pet stress

Last night we took Boris and Boika to the vet for their yearly injections. This involved some running away (them), catching manoeuvres (us), nails (them) and lots of meowing (also them).

The good news is that Boika has lost the 10% of her body weight she had previously gained. We thought that was really quite impressive, given her enormous love for biscuits and no amount that satisfies her hunger. The vet simply said she still had love handles. Better than being called a tea cosy!

We also asked the vet about the bold patch just above Boris' tail. He had a quick look and then sort of tore off what skin was left with his lice comb. Dunno why he did that, since it ended up being a big bloody patch instead. Needless to say I was absolutely horrified! The vet went on to say it would have come off soon anyway, as the skin looked like parchment. If this had happened during my first trimester I probably would have cried. Or shouted at him. Or both. In hindsight, I should have... Poor kitty!

The bold patch is most likely from him being stressed. Given that we have had builders and painters around for the last 9 weeks, no wonder. It would get the most balanced of cats slightly stressed. Both cats spent most of their days hiding in the spare bed. Under the duvet.


We got him a pheromone diffuser. The diffuser mimics the natural feline facial pheromones creating a state of well-being and happiness. Or so says the packaging. I really hope so because I would love to have a happy kitty again. After all, soon he will have to get used to the idea of not being the baby of the house anymore and somehow I think that might be a shock for him too....

So now Coca Cola makes prenatal vitamins?

Yesterday I confessed to one of my friends that the episode last week had a moderately high level of drama queen-ity. But she assured me it was very good to be aware of the amount of movement or the lack thereof. Bless her! I felt a little less like the mum who takes her kid to the peadiatrician at the first sniffle, convinced it is severe pneumonia...

Meanwhile my cousin suggested drinking some Coke or Pepsi, to get some movement going next time our little girl was in a mellow mood. That's a thought, some caffeine and sugar to jolt the baby. :-)

Now, I admit, I like my daily skinny latte. I drink decaffeinated coffee with the full knowledge that decaf still contains some caffeine and that the jury on any amount of caffeine during pregnancy is still out. The milk makes it a bit nutritious though, I tell myself.

Oh and I love the occasional Coke. The real thing. But not at the moment... Something about fizzy drinks stripping calcium from the bones and Bad for Baby. Yadayadayada.

What about Diet Coke Plus for nutrition? We saw loads of ads for the latest (vitamin-fortified) brainchild from Coca Cola when we were in Paris recently. Apparently it is a "good source of niacin, B3, B6, B12, zinc and magnesium." Wow, it's gotta be better than Diet Coke Minus, right? Surreal. I think I'll just stick to decaffeinated coffee!

Another Scare

On Monday evening Flo started to get concerned that she hadn't felt the baby moving around that afternoon. Despite me having a prod around and having some stern words through Flo's belly, Tuesday morning came still without any movement and Flo was getting increasingly upset and distressed. This of course started to increase my own stress levels as I inevitably began to think what this could mean and the consequences...

We agreed that the most we could do was to call the hospital and ask for their advice, which Flo did as soon as the reception line was open. We then had to wait until 2 p.m. since this was the earliest available appointment with a registrar. I think I aged another 6 months during the wait (another grey hair), not helped by Flo's ongoing reports of no movement.

So, we arrived at the hospital, both extremely nervous. We explained the circumstances to the registrar (and intern) and they promptly whipped out the microphone and had a listen to Flo's belly. It was then that I exhaled my first sigh of relief as I distinctly heard a fast heart beat pumping out the speaker.

The registrar then left the room and returned a few minutes later informing us she'd found an empty ultra-sound room. Another couple of minutes past and there was our little baby on the screen. The heart was clearly visible pumping away and we could see some small movements of arms and legs. That called for another exhalation.

Back in the consult room, the intern managed to unintentionally get a laugh out of me and Flo. He's not the first intern we've been subjected to and as a result we're now more in tune with how completely useless they are. I don't mean this in a bad way, since everyone needs to be given an opportunity to learn and you have to start somewhere. But it made us giggle that it took him two attempts to take Flo's blood pressure (which looked very good by the way) and what topped it off was that, back with the reistrar, when Flo asked what the result was, he replied very precisely "One hundred and five over sixty two". Normally the result is rounded to the nearest five or ten, but even the registrar picked up on the intern's precision. This explained why it took him two attempts... he wanted to know precisely!

The third sigh of relief came in the evening when I asked Flo if she'd felt any movement that afternoon. She smiled and said "Yes, pretty much straight after the visit to the hospital". We both envisaged the baby chuckling to herself inside the womb having tricked her mum and dad! I think we're going to have our hands full with this one...