Chickens in a box

....not that I'm counting. Very difficult this bit of pregnancy because in my job most of the projects are long-term, so for now there's nothing new that they can give me to do, and all my old projects have been handed over. So I think things are going to be quiet now until I go. My replacement starts on Monday so I can begin to indoctrinate her, and in the meantime must try to get as much tidied up ready for my departure as I can and avoid spending too much time playing on Facebook!

A bit of a mixture this weekend. Will and I spent Saturday morning with the NCT Ladiees, great to see the babies all galloping about and give Milla yet more pressies! Had a very cathartic moan about the later, uncomfortable stages of pregnancy and share our respective fears of impending birth....Then had a lovely 2 hours siesta reading the final installment of Harry Potter followed by a snooze before tootling off with Will for a walk 'The Toddler and The Waddler' as Helen called us when we saw her halfway round! I'm getting to the stage where walking anywhere feels like a bit of a marathon and it took a good 1 1/2 hours just to do a circuit through Heath End and East Woodhay. Ho hum... Yesterday Amber came over for Sunday lunch which was great fun, even if Father did drink far too much rose....Thank heavens for children, they're such a great excuse for escaping awkward situations and Will and I retreated to the garden to play football. Great to see Amber after 10 years,...

Pandemonium last Friday after torrential rain flooded the HQ. I escaped by the skin of my teeth to collect Will but the rest of the team weren't so lucky - they ended up being evacuated to the first floor of the building while water poured into the offices and the whole place ended up in complete gridlock. Came back in yesterday to a scene of devastation and strong smell of damp flannels. It all feels a bit weird now as we don't have a 'home' anymore and won't go back to our original desks for 4 weeks (which for me = never, as I'll be on leave then). So I'm living a nomadic life for the time being, working a bit from home and a bit from here. Not great, but then again, not long to go now...

In the office at 06.00 this morning to make sure the KPI announcement went out on time. Got everything lined up ready to go for 07.00 only to be let down AGAIN by the IT guys who've failed to get my banner up on the intranet. So now I'm driving myself mad refreshing the page over and over again just in case..... Feeling totally zonked after a relatively late night (didn't get to bed until 11.00), followed by a nosebleed and squeaking child at 04.30 and then the alarm went off at 05.15. Crawled into work armed with make-up bag and have forgotton my mascara. If I yawned I'd look like The Scream by Edvard Munch.

Will is a fantastic de-stresser - in the sense that you can't worry about work when he's around, you just get stressed about more mundane things: How much more mud/food/water/play doh can he get on his hands/trousers/face/hair/top/shoes? Will he poke his eye out with that stick/biro/knife/fork/spoon/brick? Is he going to fall off the garden table he's scaled while your back was turned for 2 seconds? How can you stop him galloping off into the road? Will Molly finally succumb to temptation and scratch his eyes out? Children are a wonderful diversion.

They say that babies come into light sleep every 45 minutes and I'm sure this is true for William. I know he also spends time awake in the night and either lies quietly before he drifts off again, or witters to Bunny for a bit. Well, at least he did, but for the past 3 nights he's woken up crying at around midnight I think after a bad dream. Eddie usually goes to him (as I'm now too huge to lumber out of bed in time) and he calms down after a cuddle. But as soon as Eddie gets back into bed and turns the light in our room out, the howls begin again. So now we've taken to leaving the light on in Will's new room and that's enough to settle him so he can go back to sleep. I know how he feels - I always insisted on having my bedroom door open and the light on no matter what. Typically I've married a man who can't bear light and has to have the door closed if the spareroom light's on. I'm with Will on this one, if Eddie's away I either have the lan...

Just when you thought it wasn't possible. Ended up collapsing for half an hour before supper last night - in bits. Thank goodness I did as made the fatal error of staying awake until a massive 10.30 watching TV before finally going to bed. Will then had a nightmare and refused to go to sleep unless the light in our bedroom stayed on. Every time we tried to turn it off there were howls from across the corridor. Ended up compromising and keeping the light in Will's bedroom-to-be on instead, which I finally managed to turn off at around midnight once he'd dropped off. Was then rudely awakened by wailing cat at around 4ish, who insisted on scaling my bump in order to purr loudly in my face before trundling off to do the same to an awesomely grumpy Eddie. Molly proceeded to add insult to injury by continuing to whinge for what felt like a lifetime, despite having been firmly deposited back on the ground and studiously ignored by both of us. The meowing woke Will at 05.30, who be...

SO. INCREDIBLY. TIRED. I thought the beginning of the year was bad, but this is ridiculous. Start to panic if I get to 9.30pm and haven't made it up to bed yet. The last two nights I haven't even woken up when Eddie's got to bed. Seriously consider locking myself in the loo at this time of day to try and catch 10 minute sleep and survive the afternoon, but am having to make do with a tea break instead. ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........

Into the last 3 months now and I feel like I've been pregnant forever. What I wouldn't give to be able to go home and collapse in the bath with a large G&T. Aches and pains are kicking in now - I've managed to crick my neck drying my hair upside-down and now have shooting pains down my left leg where I tend to lean. With Will I had sciatica on the same side so I obviously favour the left. It'll disappear once the baby's here, but it's excrutiatingly painful now. Fortunately I'm not going to the loo every half an hour which is a blessing. With Will it was a nightmare, and so painful to hobble to the bathroom in the dead of night. Ah well, still plenty of time for further discomfort! Must try to think positive, the last 6 months have been fine, I think I tend to dwell more on the later stage and the aches and pains that it brings, rather than the fact that for most of the time all is well and I feel fine. In the meantime the baby is bopping about all ov...

This is where I spend my days! Back at work after a great party weekend. My weather obsession is over, the sun shone and everyone had a fantastic time on Saturday. I only wish I wasn't a complete weeble and could have joined in the trucker dancing with Lisa-Marie. Ah well...maybe next year. All is well with the offspring. Will is amazing, he has caught up with all his mates who were walking from 11 - 15 months in the space of a few short weeks. He now plays football and runs round the garden non-stop (usually in hot pursuit of poor, long-suffering Mol), stopping only to clamber onto a chair or jump up and down in puddles. Baby Number 2 seems to be trying to join in - I don't remember William being this active. It boots and kicks me like you wouldn't believe. But no hiccups yet :) Feeling very big now and paid the price for all my manic post-party tidying with hideous backache which kicks in if I spend too much time walking around. Have now added to my aches and pains by c...

This was the last sunny day we had - a week ago on Eddie's actual birthday just before we headed off for the glamour of Gloucestershire. Am now obsessive about the weather after a relentless 6 days of rain - praying for a respite tomorrow for the party. The Met Office and BBC are my main sources of information, religiously checked every half an hour to the detriment of my actually doing anything constructive at work.

Back from an amazing weekend with Eddie at Whatley Manor. He loved his watch and we spent Friday in some rare sunshine, tootling about. We had lunch up at the Jack Russell with Will, Jim and Robin. Will is now beyond even walking - he has to run everywhere. Everytime someone came into the pub and left the door open he'd make a break for freedom and be halfway down the carpark, heading for the duck pond, before I could grab him and wrestle him back inside. We set off on our surprise weekend at about 5 when Sue and Jim arrived and Eddie had no idea where we were going until we got to the sign that said 'Whatley Manor 1 mile'. The place was amazing and even though it rained (of course) it didn't matter. We chilled in the spa, lay in, ate loads, drank champagne, watched TV in bed and generally relaxed and had a wonderful time. As Eddie quite rightly pointed out, it was 2 days of time to ourselves we need to cherish - because it'll be the last chance we have to do that ...