Housewife.

Okay, so I've been somewhat lax, I'm back now. I started my life as a housewife this morning by staying in bed til 11 and getting up to watch House Doctor. I have remembered to take the beef out of the freezer so am still managing to feel smug and productive! My last gig was yesterday - the Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia - nice as that's the first professional orchestra I ever played with and it was a full house & reasonably short show (of course the most important thing). Did feel a little dizzy in the long slow bits but haven't had any trouble playing at all really. Managed a Mozart Piano & Winds the other week & needed only a few more breaths then I think I'd normally take.
Am now supposed to be counting kicks - must be at least 10 a day - but seems to be moving pretty much all the time so not concentrating too much. I seem to have been given everything we need already... Have put 2 binbags of 3+ months clothes into loft so far. Bought muslin squares on ebay last night & might have a look round Mothercare this week for bits & pieces such as newborn nappies & things we might have forgotten. Still on the list - rearrange bedroom so moses basked won't be right next to the readiator, wash all clothes and blankets we've been given, pack hospital bag & go to see the birthing centre. Hopefully have at least a month and a half to get it all done. Oh, and read all the books, of course. (Probably in the bath). (With chocolate).

Underground

Since getting the all clear blood-wise at the 20 week scan I've been very excited to start feeling a few kicks (or punches... or headbutts I suppose). Am also starting to look pregnant - which I know since someone gave me their seat on the underground for the first time yesterday. I was exhausted - I'd done 3 hours of Messiaen with the Philharmonia at Henry Wood Hall and walked, with my horn, to Borough station only to find that it is an exit only station at certain times of the day as one of the lifts is being fixed. So, I then walked to London Bridge where it turned out the escalators to the Northern Line weren't working. After lots of stairs and corridors from the Jubilee line I got to the platforms as a train was pulling in - squashed on and was given a seat, which I collapsed into gratefully. Of course, it turned out to be a south bound train, but still... Too embarassed to get straight back off, I stayed on 'til Stockwell - where the Victoria line crosses again. Of course this meant it took about 2 hours to get home instead of one, but I was still chuffed about the seat.

Sweets for dinosaurs.

Picked up my first freecycle 'purchase' this morning - a bag of retro sweets! The lady had been sent a care package from her sister, had picked out the ones she liked and didn't want to throw the rest away. She'd said she'd be in as she had 2 small children so I took round a couple of dinosaurs to say thank you and was met at the door by her and her 12 week old son... It turns out she had a big bleed on Christmas Eve and believed she had lost the baby so it was lovely to see him all happy and healthy. She also has a 20 month old daughter but had lost a baby at 10 days old after a premature birth three years ago in September so every year her sister sends her a care package on the anniversary to cheer her up! I have eaten the flump, one of the drumsticks and am moving on to the candy necklace next. Bliss...

Outing

Braved the outside world the other day (very exciting) to meet some friends in town for coffee. Took Dom with me (just to be safe) & got on a bus to the tube station. After going about half a mile in around 10 minutes I decided we should give up & walk the rest of the way - another half a mile - as I was feeling fine. Strode out for about 15 seconds and felt like I was going to collapse! Absolutely ridiculous feeling - really didn't appreciate the effect 6 weeks not moving can have on physical fitness. So we finally made it to the station - stopping every few yards for me to gasp - and found that all the proper seats on the platform have been replaced by tiny ledges to perch on. No good at all - ended up crouched on the floor. (yuck). So Dom went to ask the guy in the ticket office for a newspaper or something I could sit on and the lovely man brought out the comfiest office chair & set it right next to me! (Had lots of jealous stares from other people standing - so for once didn't try to hold in my tummy!) Anyway - made it in to town, had coffee & spend the rest of the day hunting out chairs in shops whilst Dom looked for summer trousers to take to Athens this week. (Very hot there still.) Need to start working this week so am learning to take every opportunity to sit rather than stand and be transported rather than walk...

1st purchase

Very excited - have bought the first baby thing. Well, not very babyish - but it's for the nursery. Have bought a lampshade. The room's quite small so I want to keep most of it white on the walls so it's still light, but there's a picture rail two feet from the ceiling so I'm thinking I'll paint (get Dom to paint) the top of the walls & the ceiling light blue and sponge some fluffy white clouds over it. My new purchase is a paper globe shade in yellow - to look like the sun! Hm. Was planning a new carpet - maybe a dappled greenish thing to make it like grass... Am I going too far... ooo oo flowers on the walls...

Doctor, Doctor...

Had a fun time at the doctor today. Really need another scan before working again - have playing work from 11th September & don't want to be blowing the horn worried that something's going to burst! After leaving unreturned messages for the midwife, who I think is on holiday, I gave up & called the Early Pregnancy Monitoring Unit where I had the previous two scans and found out I needed a GP referral. So turned up & waited two and a half hours for a fit in appointment with the one GP who does that (the only one I ever seem to see anyway.)
Not that I have huge confidence in him anyway, since he estimated Dom's weight at 27 stone (actually 18) and I failed to understand what he was saying when trying to take my blood pressure - a procedure which took about 10 mins in the end, but he really has reached new heights of incompetence.
I gave him the sheet from the hospital showing the nature of the bleed, all the measurements of the baby which are normal and the fact that it's still a viable pregnancy at 14 weeks. He peered at it through his magnifying glass (seriously) and said "so you lost the baby?!". (Seriously.) Then, having totally failed to understand my condition, he went on to say I should be on total bedrest. I mustn't leave bed except to use the toilet. If I stand up the bleeding will start again.
Apart from the fact that I've been upright for two weeks since the first bleed & it's not happened since: he then left me standing up at reception for fifteen minutes whilst he and his receptionist tried to work out how to book a scan.
Oh well. I have my scan booked for Monday so I'm happy. (Actually I've been shopping - but don't tell him...)

Slight hiccup

Well, that was nearly the shortest blog ever! Last Friday night - woke up thinking I was having a bladder malfunction & spent the next 8 hours firmly believing I was having a miscarriage. Went to A&E after one hour of it - at about 1am & was given a quick scan & exam - everything looking fine then (apart from all the blood, of course) - but after another 7 hours of it and then a week's wait before a full scan was feeling completely hopeless.
Went for the scan yesterday, though, and the baby is still moving & has heart beat. I have a sub-chorionic bleed which could be seen to one side of the baby. Apparently these 'usually' resolve themselves & get reabsorbed... I googled what happens when they don't & wished I hadn't.
Anyway. Now on sofa-rest - no lifting, carrying, exercising, doing anything fun basically. Am determined to make the most of it (Dom's under doctor's orders to do everything for me!) and am watching Battlestar Galactica whilst knitting an orange dinosaur. (Desperately trying not to keep eating since I can't do anything to shift the extra weight now...)