Auteur: Gudrun

Just returned from the gynaecologist, and the baby is healthy as can be. Still kicking pretty much, and somewhere between 3.5 and 4 kilo by now, with a head of 10 cm. Not a wee boy there :-p

The doc gave me a start though, my heart rate must have gone up by the dozens ! He asked me if I had my bag in the trunk. I said :’God no, why should I ?’ ‘Cos you might go in right now and have the baby by tomorrow’. Eeks ! Not ready for that !
Turned out he was just teasing me, grrr ! Yet there was some earnest in his words: I’m still a bit oedemic, but the iron level in my blood is dangerously low, in spite of all the extra iron pills I have been taking, and I’m anemic too. I’m on the brink of getting a blood transfusion, he said. So now I’m taking double doses of extra iron, and if the baby isn’t early, I have to go in on Wednesday night, to deliver the baby on Thursday. I’m at the end of my reserves, apparently, and it might get worse when I start to breastfeed.

Oh well… Within three days I’ll be a mom ! Sheez !

Went to see the otorhinolaryngologist for my nose and ear problems, which have continued now for over 5 months. Although all seemed pretty normal, he listened to my having troubles with underpressure in my ears, and he punctured both my ear drums. Was completely painless, yet I fainted, as I had warned him for and predicted. I hate this Nervus Vagus !!!! Every sudden change of pressure in my body causes me to faint, like drawing blood, getting an injection, even scratching myself or bumping into sth that causes me to have a black spot. Yet when there’s adrenalin involved, it’s no problem, like when I played rugby. Weird…

Then I went grocery shopping, and went looking for little phosphorescent stars for the baby room (which is finished, btw, just need to clean). No luck there, so guys, if any of you (Belgians) finds these little glow-in-the-dark-stars, lemme know !

Gonna heat me some food now (promised Bart I’d eat, it’s a little late though) and crash on the couch with the paper. Tonight my brothers are coming with their gfs for crepes 🙂 After that we’re gonna watch slides from when we were really little, should make a good laugh !

Indeed been a while since I last updated. Many things happened, and yet nothing happened.
We went on that weekend in Durbuy (Belgium’s smallest city in a valley surrounded with woods) with my parents-in-law and Koen, Bart’s brother. A good time was had: we stayed in this nice house with a big garden (too bad it was damn cold), much to the delight of our dog. We payed for the lodging, Bart’s parents payed for the food, which was extremely good. Strolled around in the city, took a walk along some menhirs and a dolmen, generally had a good time and lots of fresh air.

The rest of my days are filled with sleep, which I need a lot of, working on the baby room, gathering more stuff, doing the books, playing Asheron, washing the borrowed baby stuff, all kinds of little nothings. Reading the paper is a pretty important thing too :-p

On Sunday we had a formal dinner at Bart’s parents again, with lousy company (his dull far-away-family) but excellent food. Tuesday a week ago I spent on cleaning the house, together with the cleaning lady, since Bart’s mom came in the evening. She only comes like once a year, but always finds things that need to be done/cleaned/fixed/cleared away… She’s a lovely person, but man… This time, apparently, it was the garden that struck her, so Bart’s dad came over yesterday to clean up the pathways and the borders and such. She also took a bunch of shirts that needed ironing, for which I’m very grateful. She’s a very considerate person, but sometimes a little too… interfering.

Last Friday I went for dinner with kimmekepunk and Nathalie, two of my oldest friends, since I’ve known them since secondary school. We don’t meet often, and we really should more, since a most lovely evening was had. I hope I didn’t bore Kim too much with the baby stories, since Nathalie already has two kids and could relate to what I’m going through.
The weekend was nice and easy and very peaceful.

On Monday, I went to see the gynaecologist again. Hmm. The boy is big, already 3.6 kilo (and he should be in there for another 4 weeks), and doing just fine. The bad news is that I’m slowly poisoning myself a little. I gained 2 kilo in a week, all of it fluids. This means I’m developing oedema, and that is not very positive. Blood test and urine test came out well though, so it’s nothing too aggravating yet, but it won’t last long anymore now. I have to go back to the doc on monday, and he’ll probably induce the birth on Thursday or so, since he won’t take the risk that the boy gets too big and won’t pass through the birth canal anymore. And I definitely don’t feel like having a caesarian.

I also developed a terrible itching. Doc says it’s a pregnancy allergy, but completely harmless. Harmless my ass !!! Yesterday morning I woke cos of the itching on the soles of my feet. Can you imagine ? I spent an hour trying to control myself not to rip off my skin. Feels like I’ve been stung by at least 20 mosquitoes, all over my body ! Luckily it got better during the day, so I went to buy sugar beans and little pots (Belgium custom) and went to see my mom. At night though it got worse again. Bart even suggested to get me a pair of mittens, so I couldn’t scratch anymore. This morning it was bearable. I sure hope it won’t get worse again tonight, but I fear the worst. Harmless, yeah right !

Already put the sugar beans in the pots, ready to take them with me to the hospital. Won’t be long now… I asked Bart to post the website of the little guy on my LJ, when he’s born. You’ll know :-p

In the little secluded part of the garden next to my office, I hung a little bird food ball in a tree. I love to watch a robin come and sneak in, but usually there’s this big blackbird guarding it.
Yesterday, Bart watched the bird enjoy the food, and remarked: ‘I think that must be the spirit of our first baby we lost…’ (If we had had a daughter, we would have called her Merel, the Dutch word for blackbird.)

For a moment I didn’t know what to say.

I’m making invoices here for Netlash for the new year, while the fireplace is burning, me sitting in my nightgown, a pancake in front of me, the New Year’s Concert playing on telly, and I’m having a good time…

Call me weird…

Quite a different one than the ones before: we had a dinner party at our home for 5 years in a row, and if no one had the decency to invite us back (not even the people who were here 3 times in a row), we decided to stay by ourselves, and have a good evening. And a good evening was had indeed !!!

We both worked on the company stuff till like 7 (lol yep, workaholics), then I prepared some food and set the table in the living room, not with the very fancy cutlery and stuff (cos that can’t go into the dishwasher), but with nice enough stuff and lots of candles 🙂 We had rented a movie, Pirates of the Caribbean, thoughtless entertainment but fun nonetheless, so we started out with foie gras and toasted raisin bread in front of the telly. Next course took less than 5 minutes to prepare: pan fried scampi, flambéd with pastis and put out with cream, with bread (also gobbled up in front of the telly), and then we had fondue at the table, which was very nice indeed too. Very cosy also. For dessert I had made a lytchee cream, 10 mins work, but delicious :-p

By that time I felt more like a whale than ever before :-ppp, since we were back on the couch for dessert, wearing pyamas and nightgowns, under a duvet…

But I must say: I hope next year will be as pleasant as last year, and I have three wishes for myself (apart from the obvious no sickness, no deaths, no disasters)
– having a great son
– having a lot of business for Netlash
– finally getting appointed at school

May you all be as lucky and happy in life as I have been so far, the world might be a better place…

Felicem annum novum tibi dico !!

Gudrun

On a last note: we might not have had a white Christmas, but man, do we have a white New Year !!!!

Nothing much has happened here. However…

Went to my favourite LARP last weekend. Yep, being 7 months pregnant and all. They all took very good care of me, and I enjoyed myself beyound belief. Stayed indoors most of the time, but also wandered around outside around the lake (promised not to go into the woods by night) from one inn to the other, helping people, stitching their bodies back together, healing, repairing their leather clothes, doing general shaman stuff. My barbarian tribe was really considerate too, and the magic is back 🙂 Yep, had a very good and relaxing weekend 🙂

Finished the base coat painting in the baby room, gonna start on the drawings today, and have to do the books for Netlash too. Yay.

On Christmas Eve Bart and I went to my parents, just the four of us, we had pancakes and played Trivial Pursuit. Was fun. Nothing more, nothing less. Got a nice pen I asked for from my mom. We’re not much of the gift giving kind, it’s the only present I got.

Yesterday we went to this formal annual lunch at Bart’s aunt, where sometimes with 15 grown ups in the room it gets silent, even though there is no food being served at that moment. We left as soon as we could, around 5 in the afternoon, and went to my mom’s family, a gathering of 35 people at my uncle’s. Was nice, even though we didn’t feel the urge to eat anymore. Everyone was there, including my granma and granpa, and it was good to talk to everyone. Oh, right, I did get another present: my cousin’s wife, who has two small daughters and to whom I can talk very well about being pregnant and everything, got me this little book to write every significant moment of the baby in, and a baby bonnet. Cute !!!

Bart didn’t get anything, apart from a big plant for me for his office, which he had been wanting a long time.

All in all, we survived the first part of the holidays pretty well.

So, in case you didn’t know yet: merry Christmas to everyone :-p

Cthulhu session just ended, and man, laughing like this just can’t be healthy !!!
We met Nyarlathotep again, and yes, we all survived this time, but hardly unscathed ! All of us have/had mental disorders, and that combined with a lot of fumbles and bad dicerolls, and the typical Bartish remarks, led to a more than hilarious session ! I don’t think the baby agrees with this much laughing, my cheeks and belly were positively aching, while Steven was wiping away the tears from his face and randallsilver picked himself up from under his chair to go to the loo. Definitely not the style Lovecraft had in mind, but man, soooooo relaxing after two weeks of intense correction work, which drove me nuts.

Nearly all my stuff is packed for the larp this weekend too. Bart isn’t coming, alas, but yes, I’m going to play my barbarian shaman again, being 7 months pregnant. Yes, don’t worry, I promise to be careful and to sleep enough, and not to roam the woods in the dark.

Had a very relaxing evening yesterday too: a date with my beloved husband 🙂 I made lasagne first (so yummy when you make it yourself) and then we retreated to the couch, with a lots of candles burning and the fireplace crackling, the dog at our feet, watching the extended version of The Two Towers 🙂 A very good evening was had indeed, followed by a lot of dreamfights in stunning landscapes with the most gorgeous people and the most horrifying creatures.

While correcting, I usually listen to the radio, the national youth station Studio Brussel. All of a sudden I heard this appeal: the students of the Lyceum in Gent, who have philosophy exam tomorrow by Miss De Tollenaere, were asking the students of Mariakerke (where I teach) for the questions, since they have the same teacher.
Lieve De Tollenaere happens to be a good friend of mine, so I picked up the phone and told her about it. She laughed, and said Mariakerke has this exam only on monday, so no go. Besides, the questions were different. Her comment: ‘Shouldn’t they be studying instead of listening to the radio ?’
So I sent a short mail to the radio station, explaining this, and they quoted me on it, luckily not mentioning my name.

Heh, wanted to see the faces of those students as they heard the reaction of their teacher on the radio. *grin*

Don’t ever try to pull a prank on a teacher who’s correcting ! We’re a mean species, and especially now !

Heh, had a very nice and pleasant Cthulhu session tonight. Of course there was some out game talk and some good laughs, but mostly we were very much in character. We managed to introduce three new characters very elegantly into the party, to set up a new expedition into those maledicted labyrinthic corridors with a very valable reason, and to explore quite a new part of the labyrinth itself. No new clues though, alas.

On another note: exams have started, and I already have the first pile of correction work awaiting, sigh. Alas it’s part of the job too.

Spent the day doing generally nothing much, going with the car to the garage (since Bart’s uncle is taking it out of our hands and we get the ‘old’ car of my father-in-law in return, with an addition of € 2000), stopping by at the hairdresser to get my fringe cut out of my eyes, and spending the rest of the afternoon at Vallery’s, pleasantly chatting away. I just wish my back hadn’t given up on me :-((( Hurts like hell, don’t know what I did to it. I hope it will get better overnight, it’s a hernia, so it might just be that way.

Gonna correct tomorrow, get the car to the ‘state revision’, cook with unterm_galgen and generally do more of the nothingness thing, I suppose. Probably have coffee with the guys in the late afternoon, as usual 🙂