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Katie's
Diary
(& Baby Daisy's News) |
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Jenson and Daisy ~ 20th August 2006
Sunday 13th August And finally....! Daisy was born yesterday afternoon, at home in the birthing-pool that we so nearly emptied and packed away in the morning! The waters broke whilst I was uploading an update to Flossy's Puppies Page at about 2.30pm, so not all of the pups got bathed yesterday. Daisy's card reads: Water Birth
Sunday 16th July - 14 days and counting... Stuck for present ideas for "new" mums? Well, when Jenson was born I was flooded with gifts. ... Including clothes he only got to wear once or twice (because they were all for "New Born" and there were so many of them that they didn't even get dirty), and enough Fluffy Toys to fill a reasonable sized warehouse. This was such a shame, because the toys have no second hand or charity value and I've got BOXES of them - most of which he hasn't even played with because for some STUPID reason, he prefers above all else, his beloved "Roger" a Rosewood Chudleaze toy for dogs... Which cost less than a fiver at Pets at Home in 2004, and, if I'd known how attached he'd get to it I'd've bought 10 - at least! So, if you're stuck for gift ideas this time round for me (ha ha!) or for anyone else expecting a baby, ESPECIALLY the second one (when they've got nearly everything anyway), pleeeeeeease look at these eBay stores for inspiration. I've not seen such a great selection of Breastfeeding Tops anywhere else (perhaps you can guide me?) - and that's what I'm going to be really short of, from August 06 right through to August 07 if I can do the same for Daisy as I did for Jenson. (I'll be a size 18 -20 if that's any help...) A serious breastfeeding mum can NEVER have enough breastfeeding tops or bras (38-40 E). I particularly like the "Sexy Goddess" top in the Motherwear store. You can't have too many duplicates as the second you forget to replace your breast pad someone's baby will wail somewhere and you'll end up needing to wash the one you're wearing whilst of course, having an identical one to slip into so no one notices! Saturday 15th July - 15 days and counting... My new front door signs! (And they're working really well)
Friday 14th July - 16 days and counting... Thankfully, a much, much quieter week than last. I had a "growth scan" on Wednesday, which was about the most exciting thing to happen all week. All that it confirmed was that Daisy is doing just fine, weighs approximately 7 1/2 lbs at the moment and everything is looking good and normal for a straightforward labour sometime around the due date. I look and feel like a beached whale, my stomach is itching most of the time - I've got nearly every "symptom" of late pregnancy and its too blooming hot - but otherwise everything is OK. Same goes for Flossy. Steve is now in OFPM (Official Full-Panic-Mode) as the Nursery is nowhere near finished and Mum is coming to stay with us from next Sunday (23rd). It doesn't matter if its not ready for Daisy who won't move into it officially for about 6 weeks after the birth, but it does matter a huge great deal thank you very much if its not ready for my mother to sleep in - in less than two weeks time! If he wasn't such a blooming perfectionist it would have been finished at least a month ago. My advice to anybody who wishes to remain sane? DON'T marry a builder...! If anyone local has any LARGE cardboard boxes could they call me please? I need to put Flossy's Whelping Box together next week and I'm not sure I've got enough. Tel: 01344 291465 Thursday 6th July - 24 days
to go...
This week has been just FAR TOO EXCITING. Where do you start? Tuesday 4th July I think was the hottest day this year in Ascot. So its not really surprising that it was also the largest Blood Clinic that I'd run all year, or that the vet was dealing with an emergency so was about half an hour late. Everyone was on a tight time schedule and needed to go first and we were all terribly conscious of dogs "cooking" in cars whilst they waited their turn. Thankfully Jenson, who has slept as badly through this heatwave as I have, did sleep right through the clinic, waking just as the last dog was done. I spent the afternoon processing paperwork and the best part of the evening wrapping the bloods which Tim had returned. Its a fiddly job - sellotaping all the tubes, wrapping them in bubblewrap, enclosing the right paperwork with each sample etc. So I was pretty knackered by 10pm and headed off to bed. At 11pm-ish I woke suddenly to the noise of people yelling obscenities in the street below my window. Then to my horror I realised Steve was involved and could hear him calling for the Police... "Have-a-go-Hero" that he is, he'd interrupted an attempted burglary of either his van or his bike and chased the two offenders up the road. Unfortunately for him, when they reached the car, they realised there was only one of him (naked except for shorts) but FIVE of them (another 3 were sitting in the back of the car) so they turned on him. The coke can we recovered the next morning hit my van with such force that it had split open right down the seam. I think it would have done severe damage to Steve if it had struck him. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, Steve beat a hasty retreat and called the Police. The lovely-neighbours-next-door were straight on the phone, Alex had a description of the Silver BMW 3 Series and Steve with his photographic memory had the Plate No. The police, however, never bothered to show up. Much later that night it started pouring with rain and I doubt whether they'd have been able to lift prints off Steve's van by then. I have to say, since it was such a hot night and everyone had their windows wide open to catch even the slightest breeze, I was rather surprised that the neighbours next door to Debbie and Alex did absolutely nothing to help. The get-away vehicle was parked right out side their house and the thugs were screaming at Steve who was screaming right back at them and yelling for someone to call the police. Their apathetic attitude is particularly galling because I happen to know that they'll be first on the phone to Environmental Health if they hear my dogs barking at anytime of night or day. Which is why Flossy, David and George have been wearing anti-bark collars every night during this heatwave and were unable to let us know what was going on. Needless to say, the collars are back in their boxes and will NEVER be used at night again, sod the neighbours-from-hell. The CCTV system has been switched back on and is recording 24/7 again, Steve has altered the camera angles on every one of the 4 cameras to maximize viewing area. If they come back for a second go, we'll have them on tape. We didn't get back to bed until about 1.00am that night and of course every time I heard a car slow up outside I woke up thinking the thugs had come back for more or that the police had actually turned up. I spent whole of the following day (Wednesday 5th) having contractions. At one point they were only 20 minutes apart and we were all ready (girlfriends on standby for Jenson) to wizz off to the hospital. Thankfully after taking myself off to bed and sleeping for a couple of hours late afternoon they stopped altogether and the disaster of having to go to Wexham instead of Heatherwood was averted. Last night Steve rang the police again to find out what had been done/was happening. There was no record of him saying he was being assulted AS HE CALLED THEM, in fact, they seemed to think he'd called just to say they'd been caught acting suspiciously on our property and that he'd sucessfully chased them off. Which was why they'd not visited the owner of the Silver BMW 3 series car with the plates that Steve had reported. Honestly, why the hell do you bother? So we ran the Licence Plate through one of the free-search engines after Steve's abortive call and discovered that they belonged to a silver Zaphera. This morning, some 36 hours AFTER the event, the police finally called Steve who was told that the Licence Plates had been reported stolen. The Officer was quite surprised when Steve told them that we'd actually already worked that one out for ourselves! Well, that ends this weeks rant - I could go on much further, but Jenson's finally woken up and we were supposed to be at lunch with Sheila about half an hour ago. Quick special thanks to Sue Pinn, who was a real star yesterday and looked after Jenson while Steve panicked and I contracted!
Thursday 29th June - 31 days to go... I'm HUGE. And very itchy, and its going to get even hotter, which makes the itching worse. Had a manic grooming day yesterday - many thanks to Sue Pinn who did the lions share of the work. I get to do the fiddly-twiddly bits which I love, so it was a lovely day for me. Happy Birthday Mum! Can't wait to have you up here! I'll call you later. XXX K. Sunday 25th June - 35 weeks pregnant Steve was working today, so he can take tomorrow off to finish plastering Daisy's nursery. I am getting increasingly fed-up with the offensive and insensitive comments that people feel free to make when you're this pregnant, so I designed the following teeshirt:
After a quick visit round the Cranbourne Dog Show, which was, as usual, excellent - I picked up a couple of pink Cherokee Teeshirts (how DO Tesco make them so cheaply?), got home and used the good-old epson Cool Peel Ironing Paper to create a couple of masterpieces. I gave the first one to Debbie (next door) who is at the same stage of pregnancy as me and it was a conversation with her this weekend that prompted me to make them. I also picked up the last of the stuff I need for my hospital bags and some chicken to roast for tea. Once both bags are packed I'll be a lot more relaxed. I just need to persuade Steve to get the larger bag out of the loft for me as I don't actually fancy climbing ladders right now... Friday 23rd June - 34 weeks pregnant Thankfully this week has been a MUCH better week than last. I've just got back from a hugely entertaining, very informative and immensely enjoyable session at Baby Debut, a small and very personal company who are based at The Bishops Centre just outside Maidenhead, Berkshire. Steve had a sudden panic attack this morning - after all, we only had the single sonographer's word for it that Daisy is in fact a female. What if she were wrong? We'd have to return all the wonderful clothes we've been given AND I'd have to give in over the colour of the walls in her nursery. ... So he actually suggested going for a private scan, and I remembered someone mentioning Baby Debut (I think it was Susan Owen) so I called them up and got an appointment for 12.30 today. I'm absolutely delighted to confirm that Daisy is a girl (!!!) and here are some of the delightful pictures taken by Maddy and manipulated by Steve at Baby Debut. All we need now are some similar pics of Flossy Flo's babies. I believe they'd be the first 3d Puppy Pictures anywhere on the internet. Of course, as usual, if you can prove me wrong, just drop me a line! Mum, don't worry about printing these off, there are some originals winging their way through the Snail Mail to you.
Wednesday 21st June Had a fantastic weekend. It started with a surprise Baby Shower on Friday night, then lunch with Wendy Volhard on Saturday. On Sunday I was at Wendy's seminar all day, which was blooming excellent, and we all had dinner at The Thatched Tavern on Sunday night. A whole baby-free weekend - I really needed it! It was brilliant to have Jenson back. When I came in late Sunday afternoon his little face lit right up and he said "hallo Mummy" to me for the first time - I was utterly choked! Hey, guess what? The late payers still haven't paid ... Just shows how wrong you can be, eh? Thankfully two of my clients will be paying this week so we'll be OK, even if the bank transfers are a bit tight.. If there is a god it will piss with rain until they've paid and they won't be able to enjoy their patio. Doesn't really matter now anyway, we're trapped at home because of Royal Ascot Week. If you don't have a helicopter, you just don't bother trying to go anywhere. Last night Cheapside Road was gridlocked for a couple of hours - coaches trying to get up and down the hill and not a copper in sight. I took Jenson out at lunchtime in his buggy so he could wave his flag at the Queen going up Watersplash Lane in her coach. It was a magnificent procession. She smiled at him ! So did Princess Anne ! Charles was too busy chatting with the chap opposite. Jenson, however, was more impressed with the "nee-noors" going passed on bikes, in cars and in trucks. He loves the blue flashing lights. Perhaps he'll end up being a policeman? Flossy can be scanned a week from today. Yipee! Steve is "at home" all week, creating a nursery. Anyone else's husband would do a bit of rubbing down, followed by a bit of painting and that would be it. Steve is moving walls, removing and remodelling doors and "creating" stuff from scratch. I think we might all have to move out!
Monday 12th June I had a casual enquiry about Pedigrees today, which of course led me to thinking - maybe more people would like this service? If you'd like your dog's pedigree done, in glorious technicolour (!), or you'd like your own labradoodle / goldendoodle litter pedigrees done, click here for more information. Of course Flossy and Violets puppies will come with one of these beautiful pedigrees free of charge! Thursday 8th June I'm delighted to report that my truck is FINALLY fixed! It drives in a straight line. You can take your hands off the wheel and it still goes in a straight line. You can go over bumps and the steering wheel remains utterly stable. Its absolutely brilliant! Many, many thanks to Mark Lamben of Feltham Tyres who are based in Slough, Berkshire, who took a half hour to diagnose the problem and two hours to fix it yesterday. Mark is also an instructor at Cranbourne Agility Club. Dog people stick together. Its really nice. Flossy's nipples are getting bigger - I know its only been just over a week - am I imagining it? Wednesday 7th June Hey! My truck's back at the menders - this time its gone to Feltham Tyre in Slough to have something fancy done with the front left tyre or wheel mounting. If it gets fixed I'll be absolutely delighted. Even if it isn't, I had the utter pleasure of meeting Mark Langdon (head honcho) who runs Cranbourne Agility Club. What a small world! I'll ask him later if they've got website to link to. Monday 5th June 2006 Its only been a week since Flossy was mated, (see pedigree of potential pups) so its hardly surprising that I can't see her showing any signs of "expecting" yet!! She can (and will) be scanned with an ultrasound from 28 days and that will tell us whether or not she is pregnant. At 28 days the pups look like small golf balls and they whiz past on the screen, so its very hard to count how many a bitch is carrying with any degree of accuracy, AND of course, if she's upset or frightened during her pregnancy she could reabsorb one or all of the puppies, so the number counted at 28 days is not necessarily the number she'll give birth to. It does, however, give you an indication of what to expect. My own pregnancy continues, exhaustingly, into the 32nd week. I've been looking on those "all about your pregnancy" websites, which for once, have all come up with the same comment - that this is probably one of the most uncomfortable weeks! Baby "Daisy" can now BOOT for England and its PAINFUL!!! I've been living on Arnica and Bellis Perenis 200c this weekend... (I just love the description of Bellis Perenis in the Helios Mini-Materia-Medica, it says "Bellis Perenis - Refreshes the parts that Arnica cannot reach" and its so true!) So, anyway, if you speak to me this week and I suddenly gasp, don't worry, its not labour, just Daisy doing her workout. Apparently from next week onwards she gets too big and can't get as much swing to her punches and kicks. I can't remember Jenson being this painful, but I expect he was! Walton Motors brought my Truck back on Friday afternoon. I was really disappointed that its STILL pulling to the left. This is despite their three attempts to fix it, totaling one month off the road and five months of my time. They are now going to speak to AA Clark in Bracknell (where I went for a second opinion), but I can't for the life of me see why - Clarks only confirmed what we already knew, it pulls to the left but they can't find out why. Walton Motors have one Unhappy customer right now, I wonder what they'll do to fix it? Watch this space! |
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