Don’t know how often I’ll feel like posting, but have had contractions since last night, hurting my back when lying down.  Managed to get some sleep in the night but of course, being excited and hopeful, found it quite hard!  The contractions have continued into the morning, now about every 10 minutes or so - still irregular but getting more painful.  MW has been here for the last couple of hours and is off out now for a bit - she says that if things go off the boil, she suggests a sweep to get things started again, rather than waiting for labour to start all over again.  I kind of feel the same way so am happy with that.  Other than that she’s very hands off so is happy for no VEs unless I want them etc.  DH is back from work now and Mum is on her way so after DH has changed out of his suit (not exactly good clothing for a birth!) we’ll start getting the house ready for labour.  I’m still only niggling, now, though, so don’t expect any birth announcements just yet - I’m thinking of middle of the night kind of time - hope Flopsy gets to see it as she really wants to!  I’m feeling very excited and a bit disbelieving after all this time that it is actually it (and it’s not even the due date yet!) but have got to that point that I’m relishing the pain!  What a saddo!

yay!  Mopsy wants a feed - I can’t get on with my work while she’s feeding!

Seen this all over the place and resisted it up until now, but can’t resist it any longer!  Bold are the things I have done… 

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain - not a very high one!
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise - initially thought I hadn’t done this, then remembered I’ve done night duty and had two babies so I must have done a few times!
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game (and survived the crush afterwards)
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables - it just tastes better
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne

24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland - as a baby…I have no memories of it!
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero - Dottyspots says: “not pretended, I am, all mothers are” and I’m shamelessly going to pinch her answer as it’s so brilliant!
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football

61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken - well I’m very happily married right now so that one’s easy to answer!
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo - two actually!
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason - my darling, darling hubby brings me home flowers every time he takes the girls food shopping, which he does every week!
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children - in the process of doing so!
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback

108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - almost, but keep losing interest
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life - not on my own, when I was nursing.  Nearly everyone who’s filled this in that I’ve read has saved a life…is it because this last question entices ’life-savers’ to fill this in and tell people what they’ve done?  Or is it because there really is a higher number of people than we expect who have saved a life?  Hmm…

Sorry I keep changing my theme - the lovely Andrea & Ron keep adding new ones and I haven’t found the perfect one yet…having said that, I love this one loads!  Purple is my favourite colour and I love the layout, so hopefully I’ll be sticking with this one from now on.

…twice, in fact.  Once by Erika, a book meme that I tried doing but got really stuck on (sorry Erika!), and now by Carlotta which I think I might be able to do.  So here goes:

Meme of three: 

1.Things that scare me:
(none of these things really ’scare’ me, I just don’t like them at all and try to avoid them at all costs!)

Fast theme park rides

Slugs

Animals (except for dogs and cats!)

2. People who make me laugh:
DH

Flopsy

Mopsy

3. Things I hate the most:
Slugs

People/companies/government that undermine, or even flat-out deny informed choice (particularly when it comes to breastfeeding)

Child abuse

4. Things I don’t understand:

How anyone can think controlled crying is good/necessary for babies

Why people think children can’t manage to grow up without nursery school/baby music classes/baby gym classes/baby swimming classes/television/bottles/dummies/cots/intensive school testing/being bullied etc. etc. - how do they think children grew up before all these things were invented or became the cultural norm?

Why our government persists in pretending it aspires to democracy
5. Things I’m doing right now:
Listening to fun pre-bedtime games going on in the next room

Wondering at what point I ought to go and take an antacid

Fiddling with a loose part of my computer chair with my foot
6. Things I want to do before I die:
See my daughters have their own babies

Celebrate a big, important wedding anniversary

Some more nursing - maybe elderly care…real nursing

7. Things I can do:
Give birth

Breastfeed

Touch-type

8. Ways to describe my personality:
Impatient

Happy

Open

9. Things I can’t do:
Stop worrying about my children/DH/all my loved ones having horrific accidents or getting seriously ill

Juggle

Stop my heart bursting when I hear Flopsy and Mopsy playing together happily

10. Things I think you should listen to:
Mopsy’s giggle

Flopsy saying ‘oh, my darling little precious baby, I love you, poppet’ for no particular reason to Mopsy

My 3.5yr old niece’s incredible singing voice

11. Things you should never listen to:
Mopsy’s angry scream

Flopsy’s angry scream

My incredibly rubbish singing voice

12. Things I’d like to learn:
How to have a baby at home and *not* end up in hospital at some point in the first week!

Dressmaking (I can sew relatively well, but would like to learn how to make things really neatly and professionally)

Social anthropology

13. Favorite foods:
Roast lamb

Treacle pudding with custard

Green & Black’s chocolate-coated almonds

14. Beverages I drink regularly:
Tea

Apple juice

That’s it!

15. Shows I watched as a kid:
Hartbeat (that children’s art show)

Grange Hill

Neighbours
16. People I’m tagging to do this meme:
Erika at What We Did on our Holy Days

Deb at Notsheep

Maia at Touchingly Naive

Ok, I admit it, I can’t stand Amanda Platell!!! I watch her on Richard and Judy ‘debates’ sometimes (ok, you can all stop laughing now - Richard and Judy is very intellectual, I’ll have you know!) and she says the stupidest things. Before I went on holiday they were discussing (along with Vanessa Feltz and some other mother of teenage daughters) the 18th birthday party of Princess Beatrice - an 1888 masked ball. When I read the news at the time, and saw the pictures, all I thought was ‘what a lucky girl!’. At that age, I would have given my eye-teeth to be able to dress up as a Victorian (or a party-goer from any other period of history, for that matter!) for anything, let alone my own birthday party! However, according to Ms Platell (and Vanessa Feltz, whom I also can’t stand), that actually makes me rather strange and someone to worry about! I admit, it’s not every teenager’s dream to dress up, but I certainly am not the only person who feels like I do. Poor Princess Beatrice, though, is pitied by these so-called experts as being too much under the control of her mother! This theory is ‘backed-up’ by the fact that the two Princesses often dress in very smart clothes that aren’t normally chosen by teenagers nowadays. Ms Platell & Ms Feltz think that this is unhealthy and something to worry about. I say it’s actually a good thing - unless they are beaten into submission (which I very much doubt), what teenager really would wear something just because their mother’s told them to wear it??? Ms Platell & Ms Feltz think that they’re worryingly strange because they are not trying to dress up as tarts! I reckon they’re healthier than most teenagers nowadays because they are self-confident enough to resist the peer pressure to dress like this and to say “stuff mini-skirts and see-through tops with push-up bras - I actually don’t like them. What I *do* like is grown-up clothes and I’m damn well going to wear them!”. Maybe I’m wrong, but it does strike me as worrying that people think it’s wrong that some teenagers have the strength to buck the trend and do what they want. In fact, what I’m jealous of is not the fact they had the means to dress up as Victorians for Princess Bea’s party, but because she had the *guts* to do it - she had the guts to have the party she genuinely wanted, not the party she felt she ought to have in order to live up to the stereotype of a modern teenage girl (ie. one who dresses up in tarty clothes and longs to get plastered and possibly laid at her 18th birthday party). What is truly sad, though, is that not only does the pressure to dress and behave a certain way come from one’s peers as a teenager, but clearly also from grown women who should know better! How would you feel if your mum had asked you what you’d really, really, truly, love to do for your 18th birthday, and made it happen for you despite the fact it’s not what most teenagers apparently want, only to be heavily criticised and put-down by the press afterwards? No wonder so many people find it difficult to step off the path and refuse to conform if they face constant criticism and derision at every turn. I hope my girls have the guts to do what they truly want as they grow up, and not simply conform just because of peer pressure and the risk of stupid women like Ms Platell criticising them.

I often get asked this, in particular to do with the Nestle boycott.  I’ve also been interestedly reading lots of discussions about the Homeschool Blogger Boycott on various blogs and internet forums (I always think that ought to be ‘fora’ but it sounds too daft for words!).  It appears that many people really don’t understand the reasons for boycotting something.  My reasons are this:

1. It might stop something happening that you disagree with, or at least diminish it a little.

2. It educates people and brings to their attention the presence of something you disagree with, something that they may well disagree with as well.

3. For your own peace of mind - you know you are not lending any support to something you disagree with.

I don’t buy Nestle products because I hope that my little part in the organised boycott might press them to change their unethical marketing practices of breastmilk substitutes (and it has actually worked in the past).  When people ask me why I won’t eat Kitkats, I tell them - sometimes they are horrified and ask me to let me have more information so they can boycott Nestle too; sometimes they don’t believe me, or don’t believe that marketing breastmilk substitutes can have such a dire effect; sometimes they don’t believe boycotts work; sometimes they don’t think they’d be able to boycott such a huge multinational.  I don’t buy Nestle products because I am very unhappy with the idea that they will be using my money to support their unethical practices.

I boycott most unethical clothing companies.  There are no official boycotts of these companies, so it’s unlikely to have much effect on their behaviour but it does allow me to educate others and to ensure that I’m not helping finance their unpleasant behaviour.

Although I don’t have the logo on my blog, I also boycott Homeschool Blogger because I simply don’t want to have anything to do with anything that supports (or even recommends) a practice so abbhorent to me as corporal punishment.  I think it has an effect because so many people are boycotting it.  And it’s educating people - making people aware of the issue.

So that’s the point of boycotting. 

…because it’s going to be a baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We’re expecting our third baby at Christmas time!  After spending most of the holiday feeling tired and sick, we came back home on Saturday, did a test and…hurrah…it was positive!  We’re all really excited and am also chuffed to bits that I have now told all the important people so I can at last announce it on here

Mopsy’s wearing a t-shirt that says ‘I let my parents sleep in the big bed with me’ (from lactivist.co.uk).  Flopsy just said to me: “What does Mopsy’s words say on her t-shirt?”.  I told her.  She said “no, they don’t.  They say ‘I think your milk is called gak’” 

I’ve discovered something about myself I don’t like:  I get put off whole books/ideas very easily when I find out something I don’t like about them, even if it’s just one little thing.  What made me realise it was reading Liberated Parents, Liberated Children.  It’s the third book by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish I’ve read as I really like their writing and their ideas.  On the way to being TCS without being self-righteous and directive (I know most TCS-following parents aren’t self-righteous and directive, but the TCS website could hardly be described as anything else!).  So I liked what they wrote so much, I bought and read another book on it.  I see their concepts working well in real life and think that nearly everything they say is right.  And then I suddenly find my mind changing as I read that wants and nedds are different things.  Ok, that bit’s fine with me.  But the example they give is: “[a child] wants to sleep with his parents.  He needs to be in his own bed.”.  What????  I agree that wants and needs are different things, but who has the authority to decide the difference for different people (and that includes children)?  The actual discussion that this example relates to is pretty sound, and I agree with it wholeheartedly (it’s about not sacrificing one’s own needs for your children as that makes you resentful and is too bit a burden for your children to carry), but I found myself being put off the whole thing by just one silly example!  Then of course, I read the example of babies needing a bottle in the middle of the night!  I know, I know, I know it’s based a cultural norm and will mean something to more parents (and potentially offend fewer parents) than talking about needing a breastfeed in the night.  But it just adds to the bottle-feeding culture that we live in and wasn’t a necessary example to use and that just irritates me.  Why oh why, though, can’t I just take what I want and leave the rest, as Hathor so brilliantly illustrates?  Why do I find myself thinking “well if that’s what they believe they can keep their stinking book!”?  It’s so restricting!