It's all been a bit quiet here lately. Not due to an early arrival of Baby C I'm pleased to say, but instead due to the simple fact that there haven't quite been enough hours in the day to get done everything that needs doing.
In addition to looking after Little Miss C and being generally tired from being pregnant my body appeared to decide that a simple cold was too much like hard work this last week and seemed to stop working properly in protest. Two weeks of not being able to breathe properly due to a bunged up nose and sinus pain, coupled with a hacking cough became far too much and I finally had to give in to antibiotics from the Doctor and instructions of having a bit more rest. Quite how you rest with a toddler in the house I'm not sure. Apparently in "olden times" the Doctor might have recommended a week or so in the sea air to make me better, but my NHS maternity exemption certificate doesn't seem to stretch to that. I did ask the GP when I saw him and he promised me that had he been allowed he would have prescribed a week long holiday on a hot beach somewhere, but rules are rules…
Things at home aren't exactly relaxing at the moment. As soon as we learnt about number two being on their way we decided that now was the time to properly convert our loft space into something habitable. A previous owner had installed a carpeted ladder up there, but it wasn't at all safe for small children and the space up there wasn't properly insulated and not all that usable other than for storage. After a successful 12 week scan we bit the bullet and signed up for a full loft conversion to make a master bedroom suite. It will be wonderful when it's all done, and the builders themselves are lovely, keep themselves to themselves, hard working and are very polite and tidy, but it does still mean weeks of having strangers in the house, noise, dust, possessions in all the wrong places and a skip in the drive. Not exactly conducive to nesting, which my hormones seem to want me to do right now, or being able to snuggle up under a duvet in peace whist LMC naps.
Even just the writing of this blog post has amazingly taken over 12 hours. Interruptions included three toddler tantrums, a cup of milk emptied over the kitchen floor, delivery of three Velux windows, one parcel (hopefully for my birthday next week), a book from Amazon, a new shower cubicle and a man to empty the skip! And most of that was before 10.30 this morning. I did also manage to squeeze in time to cook meals, hoover the house, go to my knitting group, attend an aquanatal class and spent some time building towers and drawing pictures with LMC.
The time I set aside yesterday (when LMC was at nursery) to catch up on blog posts instead got eaten up with trying to discover whether our car actually had a valid MOT or whether we'd been driving round illegally for the last six months! (In case anyone from the police is reading I'm pleased to report that actually we're completely legal, but the paperwork at the local car dealership is atrocious and the receptionist there that I think left no long after out last visit got the blame for it all!) Phone calls with companies are always interesting once they pass you on to a manager without you having to even ask to speak to one.
There are plenty of things to look forward to though. We've had a tour round the new local maternity unit where we hope that Baby C will be born and that's made us realise just how soon we should hopefully become a family of four. With the building work progressing well there's also been the opportunity to put into practice what we've learnt from all those Channel 4 property shows that we've watched for years by trying to come up with decoration designs for our new bathroom and bedroom. I've spent more time looking at tiles, paint colours and carpets over the last fortnight than ever before. I'm still not sure we're completely agreed on a design yet, but progress is definitely being made – even if it does mean my kitchen table is currently buried under paint tester pots, sample tiles and swatches of carpets!
It's strange, whilst I like a busy life and love all the progress that is being made I'm still just wishing things would slow down just a little bit. At half past ten tonight we were stood there with a torch trying to decide where we want new plug sockets to go in the loft so that the electrician can start the first fix work first thing tomorrow morning. One of those little jobs that you can't really do with Little Miss C up, but that needs doing so as not to slow down the builder's progress and hence can't wait until the weekend. Ho, hum.
Maybe it's just all too much to take on at once, especially when pregnant, but then again life would be dull if I was just sat around for the next two months waiting for baby to arrive. Sorry if this all sounds like one long moan as that wasn't my intention – just a realistic snapshot of life at the moment!
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