Baby on board - who gets the seat?

I had an appointment in Holles St today and got the bus in. Mine is one of the first stops on the route, so it was almost empty when I got on. I took the single seat immediately behind the stairs, the one in front of but not part of the priority seating. The priority seats are doubles directly behind the one I was in, one on either side of the aisle. The bus filled pretty quickly (wet morning) and 4/5 stops before mine, an older man got on, probably his early 70s. I had a quick look around and there were a couple of seats right at the back, and a good few young, able bodied people sitting, including 2 in the priority seating behind me. Anyway, I was listening to my radio with my headphones in, but the man bore down on me, saying something (I'm not sure what, I couldnt' hear him) but clearly wanted me to get up to let him sit down. I probably would have offered him my seat anyway since no-one else looked to be moving, but I obviously wasn't levering my enormous bump out of the seat fast enough and he was getting very annoyed with me :o( I also have a lot of pelvic pain which makes me slower moving, and I know there's no way he would have known that, but he wasn't at all happy that I didn't leap out of his way. Another man who was standing pointed out a seat to me further down the bus, but it would have been too awkward for me to get to it and get up into the high seat so I just stood for the last few stops. I have no idea if the older man even noticed I'm pregnant, but I do have a fairly significant bump, and I think I look more like the 8+ months I am than that I've spent those last 8 months eating pies!

 A friend of mine told me a while back that in London, women often wear baby on board stickers on public transport - probably more for other people to avoid bumping and jostling them than for anyone to be so gallant as to offer a seat, but I'm starting to think they could be useful here too, if only so we Preggie Peggys could avoid arguments with older curmudgeons...

Morishness

Biscuits are good. I can and do eat them all day. But yesterday I managed to restrain myself long enough not to finish the whole packet of all butter white choc chunk M&S cookies. How great am I?? I am in the process of finishing them now though. And I feel sick. I'm sure another biscuit will make it better... It's ridiculous, I have no will-power. I was planning to go to bed more than an hour ago, but here I am watching last week's episodes of the Colbert Report. I can't be blamed for that though, the man's a genuis. Oh, and he's just said he's a chocaholic too! While the hubbie was away last week, instead of going to bed at a reasonable hour each night I sat in bed reading until stupid o'clock. And it's not like I could have a nice long lie-in any day, my junior alarm clock goes off at 8.15 every morning - you could set your watch by her - when we had to do battle over the dreaded nappy change. Thank God for YouTube and Charlie and Lola. My Beautiful Girl seems to have it sussed though. She's amazing, whatever she's having, she eats til she's had enough and then she stops. I don't know where she got it from, but I'm glad she has it. There are some days she'll eat 3 breakfasts and then nothing for the rest of the day, I think she's part Hobbit in that way. At least I guess I can blame my expanding waistline on the bump and not the biscuits.

The missing "S"...and the missing posts

Well, it turns out I'm not good at New Year or new quarter resolutions and I've been a very bad blogger. But, in my defence it's been a very busy 11 months. After finally settling my Beautiful Girl into the creche it turned out I wasn't very happy at work. Nothing interesting - just fed up of a job I'd done for too long with few prospects for going much further. So I decided the skills I'd developed wrangling supposed professionals in the previous 5 years could be put to better use in one of two ways: 1) herding cats or 2) setting up my own business and having more time at home with a munchkin. Thus I became my own boss and more at home Mum.

We've been incredibly lucky and I feel like I've the best of all worlds. I work (usually) 3 days a week, when Beautiful Girl is off having fun in the creche, and I get to be at home or out having fun with her the other days. We've started baking and making and had our first make and do on Valentine's Day to make a card for her Daddy. The older she gets though, the more glad I am of the bit of work, bit of home balance - and I feel an increasing awe for all those women and men who have the patience for planning dinners for a week, endless animal noises, all day energy balls and tantrums.

But, there will be a decision to be made in a few months when (pg) Junior 2 arrives. He'll (we're not finding out whether he's a he or a she, but I'm sure he's a he!) be here in July I hope, although BG's timekeeping wasn't spectacular so I'm banking on another 42 week pregnancy.

So, until he arrives and I have constant nappy changing to use as an excuse, I will do my best to be a more frequent blogger and brain dump on a more regular basis.

Oh, and my "s" key keeps sticking on my keyboard, so excuse the typos!

The Wifeliest of duties

The Brig has a headache. He is in bed with his eye mask, ear plugs and a life time supply of paracetamol. He's wrecked; not surprising when he's been such a trooper - yesterday, he got up with Beautiful Girl at 10am and kept her entertained until I got up at shock horror, 1pm. He then got up with her twice last night, once just after he came up to bed and again an hour or so later. I think it's pre-emptive sleep storing as I've warned him that if BG is going to be weaned onto bottles before the end of the month, he's going to have to bite the bullet and get up to her more than once in the night to give her a feed.

And so I need to be sympathetic, afterall, didn't he give me a lovely break yesterday morning when all that was wrong with me was a tummy bug and cold. So the Wifely sympathy gene must be kicked into high drive and the tenderest of mercies must be applied.

Well see how long it lasts...

So much for New Year's Resolutions...

So I'm going to make it a new quarter resolution, and actually start posting again!

The last couple of months have been hectic. I went back to work in January, a week after Beautiful Girl started in the creche. Since she started, one or other of us has been sick, unfortunately mainly her. But we are coming out the far side of the viral bombardment - long may it last!

I'm not sure if it's the carols on the tv or seeing Beautiful Girl all snuggled up in her Christmas pjs, but I'm feeling very warm and fuzzy, and counting my very extensive blessings. We are an extremely lucky family. We've had a wonderful 2010, getting married, the arrival of our wonderful daughter, and being able to afford our beautiful home. The Brig's job is secure, and although I don't want to, I have a good job to go back to from my maternity leave. We have a warm and cosy home, a beautiful Christmas tree surrounded by shiny parcels, and food for our table tomorrow. Perhaps most importantly, we have amazing family and friends – my Dad trekked through the snow today to make sure he saw us before Christmas and my Mum and brother will do likewise tomorrow. We will have some friends calling to say hello, and we will welcome some people to our home who are far from their own families. For all they drive me mad, The Brig's family would give anything for us to be sharing this lovely time with them. Instead we will get to have another warm, loving family gathering for New Year's Eve.

So, I hope Christmas brings you peace and the New Year, joy.

I've been a bad Wifely

In so many ways, but I'll start by acknowledging my lack of presence for the last 6 weeks. I'm going to claim sleep deprivation and the fact that we still don't have a reliable internet connection... The Brig is failing miserably in his primary duty of IT support on this one.

So, I hope everyone is having a lovely run up to Christmas. I'm starting to get a little panicked so now I have a giant turkey (for 6 people), half a gallon of diet coke, presents for people who may or may not drop by, and half of firebox.com for The Brig. He's impossible to buy for, so I'm stockpiling for his birthday too. I have been very good though and bought and written Christmas cards. They have stamps on them and they will be going in the post box tomorrow...definitely. I'm determined that I won't end up with yet another pile of written cards that never get sent.

Actually, all this card writing is bringing back memories of sending wedding invitations this time last year. I was frantically sticking card and ribbon to more card and ribbon while The Brig compiled spreadsheet after spreadsheet of guest lists, their addresses and table configurations based on varying response rates. Thank God all that is over...I keep threatening The Brig that if he isn't nice to me I'm going to make him renew our vows next year. That keeps him in line.. :-)