Today has been very productive and positive, and I am ending it on a very high note

Firstly, my second and final workshop that has been cancelled twice now, and has been holding me back from finishing my course, is finally going ahead.  If this one had been cancelled too, I wouldn’t have qualified until this time next year - as it is, I’m on course for finishing all my work by the time the baby is born, submitting it to the Feb exam board and qualifying by April 07.  I can’t tell you what a relief it is that it’s going ahead, and hearing the news has really galvanised me into cracking on with everything else I’ve got to do before baby number 3 arrives!  I’ve booked the hotel for us, and DH has arranged to spend the two days with his brother, who the girls adore.

Secondly, after spending a week trying to work something out, I have finally managed to sort it.  One of my last lot of assignments is to tape record a role play with a ‘mother’ and me being the BFC, then I have to write a critique of it.  I had done the recording, and written a first draft ready to send off to my tutor, but I couldn’t work out a way of making a copy of this very important tape.  I was trying to decide whether it would be easier to buy a special lead to record from one machine to another; or to try to find someone with a two-deck cassette recorder that I could borrow.  Then today, the above news made me take the bull by the horns and have a go at simply recording it onto another tape with the two tape recorders close by eachother - it worked out!  The recording is clear enough to be a good copy, along with my transcript.  So DH is posting off my first draft of my third-to-final essay tomorrow morning

Thirdly, after taking forever to get my act together to call the pregnancy yoga teacher I’d been recommended, I finally got round to calling her and leaving her a message yesterday.  My motivation for that was losing my temper badly with the girls for the third time in three days.  I think my body is realising how close I am to the third trimester and remembering to push a few extra stress hormones into my body!  Not very welcome, after the last few weeks when I’ve been feeling very calm indeed.  I quickly realised I needed something to help release some of the tension I build up caring for two very young children day after day.  The yoga instructor rang me today and said that a course started yesterday, but that there were spaces on it and I could have one, and just pay for the classes yet to come.  She also said I’d probably be able to fit another course in before the baby arrives, which is wonderful news - I’m hoping that it’ll not only make for a calmer 3rd trimester, but also an even more peaceful birth than I’ve experienced already.  My next mw appointment is in a couple of weeks - she’s all for me birthing as unassisted as possible, and has agreed to stay in another part of the house until I say I really want her, however late in the labour/birth that is, so I’m chuffed to bits about that. 

Fourthly, last night the lovely woman who’s been doing the antenatal class bookings for our branch in my place while I was puking all over the place, came over last night to hand back all the paperwork ready for me to handover to the brand-new volunteer who is all keeness and organisation tomorrow afternoon.  I can’t tell you what a relief it is to know that someone is taking it on and it won’t be my job any more.  It’s not a difficult job, just a bit too much for me when I’ve got so much else going on.  Unfortunately, it’s not a role that the branch can manage without - pretty crucial, really, so, as vice-chair, I really am relieved that someone keen has taken it on.

Fifthly (is that a word?), I’ve finally got round to updating our very out-of-date branch directory so that’s one less job on my vice-chair list!

Sixthly (these words sound great!), I managed to make it to one of the breastfeeding groups today and spoke to two lovely women about baby-led weaning - they were chuffed to bits to find someone who wasn’t telling them off for following their instincts.  One of them said “I love this group - I seem to spend all week fending off unwanted and unwarranted advice from people determined to tell me I’m doing all the wrong things, then I come here once a week and top-up on the confidence I get from everyone just supporting me and seeing things the way I do!”.  What a boost!

Seventhly, DH and I worked out a way we might be able to fulfil and encourage Flopsy’s growing interest in the sky - she’s not only mad about the moon, but also about how clouds work (”the clouds are moving, Mummy!”; “The clouds are dark - it’s going to rain, Daddy”.); what the sun looks like as it’s setting and the sky starts to get dark; thunder and lightening.  So we’ve devised a really fab art project which should hopefully be interesting and fun for Flopsy (and Mopsy), but won’t go over her head too much, and will help preserve some of the mystery of the universe as it won’t be going into huge detail as to how things work.  We’re going to make a series of paintings/collages of the sky.  Today we painted three sheets of card a pale blue colour to make different day-time sky pictures.  Over the next week or so, we’re going to add to them - clouds, the sun, some rain, a few birds, an aeroplane, a rainbow - things that both girls notice and wonder about in the sky.  Once I remember to buy some black paint, we’re going to paint another sheet of card a bluey-grey colour and add to that a black cloud, some rain and some lightening (anyone know how to dye or paint cotton-wool black?).  Then we’ve got some black sheets of card so the girls can spatter some white paint on for stars, and stick a lovely foil pie-dish moon on.  Together they should make a really nice frieze for our living room wall.  I’m also thinking of printing out some words to stick onto the pictures, as Flopsy’s so keen on learning new words at the moment.  So I’m all fired up about that.

Eighthly, mum and DH (separately!) devised a brilliant folder game that consists of a blank 3×3 grid, and coloured squares that can be stuck onto the grid in a pattern.  I made it the other day, with a sheet of smaller grids with patterns on them for Flopsy to copy.  She had a go at it the other night and it was just lovely to watch.  She got really absorbed in it and DH and I found it so interesting to watch her method for working it out - of course it was nothing like the method I would have used, but then she’s a 3-year-old and I’m an adult.  It’s lovely to let them work things out the way they want to.

Ninthly, Mopsy’s gorgeous and has gone to bed with blue paint in her hair.

Tenthly (and lastly), we worked out that we are again eligible for the maternity grant so we will be able to afford a) Christmas and b) a new, much better quality single mattress for our giant family bed - the current one we bought on the cheap when we were expecting Mopsy and it’s now pretty knackered and making those of us who sleep on it have a bad night’s sleep.

Plans for the next 7 days:

1. Hand over bookings clerk role to new volunteer

2. Ask parents-in-law to order birthing pool

3. Prepare all the materials for making our sky frieze

4. Make our sky frieze

5. Buy some bulbs and compost and plant up our pots ready for the spring - hopefully the girls will enjoy that and Mopsy won’t eat too much compost!

6. Hopefully get my draft essay back ready for next Tuesday when DH has the day off again and I can get to work finishing it off so I can hand it in properly - then it will be just two more to go!

Right, off to lie next to lovely warm cuddly Flopsy while she goes to sleep then to watch tv. for a bit with DH before going to lovely big, cosy bed with my lovely warm, cosy family

ps. Watch out for the ‘I knew things were going too well’ post tomorrow