the fantastic weekend

quite a bit happened over the weekend. it was a great weekend really, i enjoy everything about it immensely. so in no particular order, below is a brief description of the weekends events.

1. we had thunderstorms. and it was fantastic! sure, we get rain ALL THE TIME, but that’s all it is. rain. this weekend, 3 days in a row, we had thunderstorms. in fact, it was so loud, and so unexpected, that the claps of thunder woke me up Friday night and kept me awake for quite a while. it was either the thunder or the crazy pregnant tummy that kept me awake...but regardless. the storms were great. and because it was actually a storm, with wind and thunder and heavy rain, the lack of sun didn’t bother me one bit. ah, and that smell. the particular scent that comes with the thunder which signifies summer. it smelled like home. and it really warmed my heart.

2. I am FINALLY the proud owner of two ever so coveted tickets to see AC/DC when they come to London. IN TWO WEEKS!! and i cant wait! sure, i will be 8 months pregnant but who says hugely pregnant ladies cant rock out at concerts? for obvious reasons, we had to get seated tickets because no matter how much i tried to convince Rhys that i could stand right in front of the stage for the entire show, he still said no. so we are sitting pretty far away...and up really high. i can only imagine the funny looks i will get as i slowly waddle up countless flights of stairs to find my seat. and as i slowly waddle back down those steps go to the bathroom who knows how many times during the show. but it will all be worth it.

people keep saying that the show will put me into labour. but think of it this way...if i do go into labour at the show then perhaps our little eleri will have some famous visitors at the hospital. a family picture with Angus? that would be one for a frame :)

3. we got another bookcase for the living room. we needed another bookcase. not necessarily because we have a superfluous amount of books strewn about the living room, but because we needed storage space for Eleri's books, toys, blankets, pictures etc... we figure baskets make for great storage and nice decor. Rhys put it all together last night and i am really looking forward to organising it tonight when i get home. at the moment the living is just full of crap, so any organisation would really be welcome.

4. Saturday was the NHS hospital/ante-natal class. it was interesting. to be fair, we did get some good information regarding birth and hospital policy/procedure, but at the end of the class, both Rhys and I were REALLY glad we had scheduled to have private classes as well.

the only real benefit was the tour. the tour simultaneously reassured me about birth and made me freak out about the hospital. no matter how much i thought i was prepared for the NHS vs. American Private care....i was not. it was night and day difference in all ways. it smelled different, looked different, the people acted differently, they have completely different policies and well...it was just different. and i had a bit of a meltdown. thankfully rhys was the only one who could tell that i was having a meltdown and he held my hand and cracked jokes the rest of the tour in an effort to make me smile. but it was just such a shock.

the tour did offer one great point though. it solidified my decision to have the baby in the birthing centre, assisted only by midwives, with no choice of pain relief. now before all the mom's out there tell me i am crazy and that i will want an epidural, listen to the options. the birthing centre offers me a private room, a private bathroom, one to one midwife care, a private delivery suite and the option for rhys to be with me the whole time. but because it is midwife led, there is no pain relief as they are not authorised to administer it. The regular hospital maternity ward however has all the pain relief you could want, but no private rooms… they offer 2 person delivery suites, 5 people to a room for after birth, a community bathroom down the hall for the entire ward, rhys cant stay the whole time, no personal doctor care, just 2 or 3 for the ward, plus hospital visiting hours. now you tell me...which would you choose?!

But I really do like the idea of midwives and active birth. And i shouldn’t complain because thousands and thousands of woman give birth everyday in situations far worse than mine. plus, i always say i am up for an adventure and this is an adventure for sure. so really its not as bad as the previous paragraphs made it sound. Readers such as Saskia can vouch for me that whilst there are downfalls to the NHS, there are good points too...right? but regardless, that was Saturday and despite everything, i am glad that we went.

5. pregnancy finally hit me over the weekend. all throughout my pregnancy i have been reading books, articles, trolling the internet, basically trying to gather all the information that i can relating to babies, birth and pregnancy. whenever i would read something that occurred at some stage in pregnancy i would always disregard it, thinking oh that wont happen to me. like swollen limbs, or difficulty in breathing, eating, bending over, seeing your toes. or things such as mood swings or tiredness. Yet when those things slowly started to happen, i was always surprised. 'man, i am really tired today! i cant understand why?' or 'gosh its really hard to bend over and pick things up, that’s strange' hmmm....or could it be that they are just normal things that happen to woman who are pregnant? i think so. and this weekend it all hit me. my feet are starting to swell, as are my hands. I am exhausted all the time. I can still touch my toes when i stretch, but if i stand up straight and just look down i cant see them. all i see is giant stomach. its harder to eat normal sized portions. its harder to breath. Basically this weekend, i felt like i became a pregnant person. i need help getting up off the couch when i have been sitting a while, i really struggle to bend over, and sleeping is a nightmare. nice. i am finally a pregnant statistic.

6. rhys. we spent so much time together. So much. And it was great. Words cannot express how much I appreciated spending so much time together. We watched t.v and movies and cuddled on the couch and went on a walk and really were just together. I love my husband tremendously. I wouldn’t trade a second of the time spent with him for anything.

Combine countless hours of quality time with rhys, with NHS tour, thunderstorms, AC/DC tickets, and a new bookcase…and it was a superb weekend.