Isn't that a fantastic tomato picture - I'm drooling just looking at it!

Week 32 - and I can't believe I've still got 2 months to go!

For the last two months I have been tomato mad, they seem like the tastiest food on the planet and I buy big bags of them every week, they say if you eat too many carrots it turns your skin orange, I hope that doesn't go for tomatoes as well!!

Last Saturday we went to a super large Mothercare store and spent a fortune on buying all that we need for Sorley when he's born. It was fairly daunting trying to learn the language of mother-speak - working out what nappy sacks and top and tail bowls etc are! But that's us pretty much sorted apart from the pram which husband is being particularly fussy about - must have pneumatic tyres for cross-country etc!! Feels good having packed my hospital case so I know it's sitting there ready just in case things happen sooner than expected.

Today was my friend's funeral which was very difficult, I still can't really believe he's is gone though we have great comfort in knowing that as a Christian he is in a better place and we will see him again some day.

Yesterday I got my dissertation bound and handed in - it sure feels great to have it all done and out of my hands!

31 weeks pregnant and I'm a wopping 43 inches around the waist, my sis-in-law stretched to 48 inches so only another 5 to go to match her!

What a week, my sis-in-law from Australia (the funny bone) took ill and ended up with pneumonia so we cancelled Monday night's baby shower and had a family version of it on Tuesday which turned out to be great fun and i got plenty beautiful and also plenty practical pressies.

We are all very sad today as my sis-in-law, her beautiful baby boy and her two gorgeous wee lassies have all gone back to Australia. It has been so nice to have them all around and there was plenty of goodbye tears, I hope it won't be too long before we see them all again though her hubby will be desperately glad to have them all back home.

Also very sadly this week a friend of ours died in tragic circumstances and we are devastated at the loss, so it's been a week of ups and downs.
Baby had hiccups for the first time last Sat night - must have gone on for nearly ten minutes, I tried turning over in bed and drinking lots of water to see if that would help, he had them again during the Sunday morning service!

Good news - I finally got my exams and essay results - and I passed...horray. So just to hand in the final copy of this dissertation next week and that's me all done!

Some pics of the Australian contingent -

Sis-in-law with birthday tiara and big pants!

Baby Jonah with mummy's birthday tiara!

Natasha on the left

Ashley below - canoeing with hubby!

30 weeks pregnant today (32 weeks lmp)!

I'm really feeling time dragging, I'm as big as a house and can't imagine getting much bigger.
Sorley moves constantly and I can now see my whole belly move when he does which is pretty freaky.
Good news is that I've not being getting much pain in my back or hips for a while now but I get tired sooo easily. Some women seem to be able to function pretty normally right up till birth but for me this sure isn't the case. I went up to Glasgow for a uni meeting the other day and decided to do a bit of shopping - nightwear for going into hospital in case baby decides to come early - the day totally done me in, I was so tired and had an aching tummy so went to bed when I got home and stayed there all night and until teatime the next day, only then did I start to feel right.

My sis-in-law has organised a baby shower for me for Monday night, I'd never even heard of a baby shower let alone gone to one before - not really a Scottish thing, but I'm looking forward to it!
My sis-in-law who's over from Australia cooked us dinner last night - chicken korma with cauliflower and carrots with 2 different kinds of rice - it was beautiful and I love curries, I ate more than everyone else - this eating for 2 lark works as a great excuse to have extras! I also had my nails painted silver and gold by one of my lovely Australian nieces - so it was a good night!

Baby now weighs around 4 pounds ( bigger than me when I was born prematurely weighing 3 1/2 pounds) and is 16.7 inches long. All five senses are working and baby is practicing testing these out as much as possible! Toenails are completely formed and his hair continues to grow in. Brain scans have shown that babies have periods of dream sleep (REM) starting around the eight month, I wonder what he dreams about!

I've been tagged by my sis-in-law horizon with this meme:

Instructions: Grab the book closest to you.
Open to page 123.
Scroll down to the 5th sentence.
Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog - name of the book and the author.
Then tag 3 people.


I'm going to cheat a little since the closest books to my computer are my husband's theology commentaries! Instead I've taken the top book out of the hugh pile next to my bed which is Classic FM's One Hundred Favorite Poems edited by Mike Read - after Sylvia Plath it was the first poetry book I ever bought and I'm reading it at the moment to my unborn son.

On page 123 the 5th sentence is the start of a stanza of Keats' Ode to a Nightingate

Darkling I listen; and for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death.
Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstacy!
Still woudst thou sing, and I have ears in vain -
To thy high requiem become a sod.

Quite a poignant piece considering Keats died at the tender age of 24.

I'm now 29 weeks pregnant and have developed the itchiest rash on the top of my foot, I'm not sure if it's a pregnancy thing or not. I'm slowly getting through the house giving it a good spring clean and still quite a lot of decorating to do, I'm excited about going up to Mothercare next month to get all our stuff - I sound like a real mother-to-be now don't I! Husband put up a bike shed so we've finally got the bikes and the barbecue out of the spare room, I've organised my bookshelves and made space for all those cute little pop up books I'm going to get for Sorley. Desperately waiting for the results of an exam I sat before the summer and will be glad when this dissertation is finally handed in, I'm hoping to attend my graduation on the 30th November which I think should be okay if Sorley comes on time on the 24th!

I tag eipwek, socialworker/frustrated mom, and Pilgrims, Poets and Dreamers

I've decided on a water birth!

Myself and husband went to our parenting class on Sat morning - it was on the birth.
Way too much information, a three hour class including a video and tour of the delivery room!
Originally I'd decided on a normal hospital bed birth and thought the whole water birth was a bit of a fad, but after Sat it became apparent that a bed birth looked like fairly awful experience for me.
I'm not worried about the pain - I know it's going to be pretty sore so I've just accepted that but I am a person who really values their personal space and the bed birth looked way to interfering for my liking. Appart from the obvious pain I don't want giving birth to be a bad experience.
Hubby asked the midwife if they ever had scenes like out of The Exorcist, she said that there were two types of women giving birth - those that liked to be touched throughout and those who don't and it's those who don't that end up resembling that awful film The Exorcist! Hubby and I just looked at each other - we both know I'm the second type, I hate feeling like people are crowding me in, if I'm being sick I can't stand anyone near me.
In having a water birth I'd completely have my own personal space, the midwife said that they are basically redundant during a water birth until the baby pops out, I think it would be so much more calming in the water, perhaps even for the baby, and most of all the birth would hopefully would end up being a special experience to treasure rather than a nightmare to forget!

The Book Tag

Following Surroundings lead!

1.One book that changed your life?
The Way of the Modern World or, Why it's Tempting to Live As if God Doesn't Exist by Craig Gay
Long title eh?! My life was determinedly set on a political path until I read this book which made me question how I, as a Christian, ought to live in an unChristian world.

2.One book you've read more than once?
There's certainly a few I could put in here but most recently would be Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer - a personal account of the Everest disaster of 1996.

3.One book you'd want on a desert island?
Excluding the bible it would be Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath

4.One book that made you laugh?
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

5.One book that made you cry?
Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell - the death of otter Mijbil

6.One book that you wish you had written?
Jizzen by Kathleen Jamie

7.One book you wish had never been written?
Bored of the...sorry Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien

8.One book you are currently reading?
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Collected Poems 1909 - 1962 by T.S. Eliot, Constantinope by Edmondo De Amicis

9.One book you have been meaning to read?
Paradise Lost by John Milton

10.Five people I am tagging:
I'll go with Surroundings and tag no one - but No one feel free to have a go :)