So yeah ... 28 weeks ...

And no, I can't believe it either. 12 weeks to go. 12 weeks! Eek! Actually, eek from the perspective of time running out, but also eek from the perspective of I'm kinda the size now that I thought I'd be full term. Uhhhmmm ... Oooerrr. 12 more weeks of kiddly growing.

Mind you, maybe, maybe not. IVF kiddlies have a bit of a habit of coming early apparently (yes, I know google isn't a medical authority, however) so Al and I are thinking that an appearance at the 38/39 week mark might be nice thankyouverymuch. Then again, I don't know that it's so much a case of them coming early (if you discount the 28ish weekers whose super-early arrivals I am inclined to think perhaps relate to the issues that required IVF in the first place), or that conception is extremely accurate, but calculated the same way in everyone. Does that make sense? Hopefully, although I really don't care if it doesn't. The whole brain-don't-go thing really does add a dimension of serenity to one's existence.

Having said that, serenity aside, I'm still a bit dark about having to do antenatal classes, which incidentally start next week (7pm-9pm! How the hell am I supposed to stay awake till 9pm? Honestly! Do they realise they're dealing with pregnant women at these things? We're supposed to stay awake and absorb information. Yeah. Right. Mind you, it could be advantageous falling asleep at about 7.10pm considering some of the stuff they want to talk about at those things. Episi ... you do what now? *shudder* Epidural? Yes. Definitely. I want five please. The husband will just take the gas. And a blindfold probably. And a chair which will allow him to keep his head between his knees for the duration of the fun stuff. And someone exceptionally large (or several normal sized someones) to catch him when he faints if he's stupid enough to take a squiz at the business end. There'd better be blimmin creme bruleee on the menu at Birthcare is all I can say.

Anyway. That whole 12 weeks to go thing was supposed to be a segue of sorts into what we've been doing lately, not an entire post on whatever I was on about.

When the penny dropped (I heard a marvellous version of that saying the other day ... something about the penny dropping, rolling down something and clunking somewhere else ... it was very clever. Can't remember it though. I should have written it down) that Cuinn had reached the milestone whereby he'd have a fighting chance if he was born (actually what did it was re-booking for our obstetrician appointment tomorrow and realising that it's the second to last 4 week appointment before we go down to 2 weekly and then weekly check ups), it also dropped somewhat more loudly a wee while later that he could potentially be a toad and give us all hysterics, even though we're hoping that he's more his father than his mother, and that he's far too comfortable splayed out on his uterus couch playing whatever version of xbox he's got in there to be getting all impatient-like about this in utero growing business. But, you have to think of these things, and as soon as I did a vague but insistent sense of anxiety set in that I needed to get organised. Just in case. The husband did venture to suggest that if for some reason Cuinn did come this early, he'd be in hospital for ages so we'd have plenty of time to buy whatever we needed. I've pretty much been hoping ever since that no one will actually notice that the husband's gone missing and that there's a rather large patch of freshly turned earth in our back yard ...

I was very good - I made a list instead of just going shopping, and over about 2 weeks I thought about it, took things off it, put things on, changed quantities, stewed on why I wanted what I wanted and whether it was a valid reason (why did I 'need' 2 plastic bottles instead of glass ones, when plastic ones are 3 times the price? Maybe I did, maybe I didn't, though I did get them anyway on the basis that I'm perfectly happy with glass at home, but plastic for going in the baby bag, or to the park, or anywhere else it could be annihilated where it's not easy to clean up, seemed sensible) blah blah etc etc, and eventually managed to shave quite a bit off the end bill. I still have no idea whether I should have gone with onesies or separates, but I opted for half and half on the basis that whichever works out to be best, I can make do for a couple of months and then just run with my preference for the next size up (crap I forgot to get singlets for under separates).

I'm pretty sure that we have everything we'll need. I don't feel any anxiety that we don't anyway, even if we do end up finding out in due course that we have nothing we'll actually need and everything we'll probably never lay a hand on.

We also made sure that we had the carseat ready to go in the car by making sure that the anchor bolt was fitted, and that we had everything we needed eg. the belt extension we didn't have, but we found we needed when the car belt proved too short. And there there was the oh-bollocks-the-carseat-has-every-safety-feature-under-the-sun-but-doesn't-fit-in-the-backseat-of-the-car-rear-facing-reclined-for-a-newborn moment, and we found it necessary to add a baby capsule to the list. Argh. On which note, I'll say a very loud bless Pal Katherine for coming to the rescue on that front. I'm assuming it'll work like a charm - Jazz seemed to think it was all good anyway.

In a moment of uttery nesty-madness, I even cleaned out the wardrobe in his room and made sure it only had kiddly supplies stacked in it. Of course, that does sound a bit more impressive than it really is - although his wardrobe is nice and organised, I highly recommend not even thinking about opening the wardrobe door in the end spare room. I'm still not sure the best way to go about getting into that to clean it out when the mood strikes, assuming that it may do at some stage. Either that, or at some point, a guest is going to want to use it. I might wait a few weeks and then send the unsuspecting husband down there to retrieve something for me and let everything fall out of the wardrobe all over him. That really does seem like the best plan.

So muchos organisyos has been taking place over the last few weeks. That, and 'enjoying it while it lasts' has been the order of the day as far as sleep, relaxation and spending time together just spending time together, musing over whether the kid will be a ginger, and cursing the little demon when he goes to ground for a few days and refuses to move even so much as a muscle to let us know that he's perfectly happy and just having an extended snooze thanks.

Oooooh! There has been vege gardeny goodness though, which I'll tell you about and provide photos of. In the meantime, those of you who know me well can amuse yourselves having hysterics at the thought of me trying to do anything that involves plants, let alone edible ones (the husband won't even let me water the house plants because as soon as they see me they die), but I can assure you that so far all is well, because there aren't actually any plants involved yet. But, for now, I'm going to have a sleep.

Zzzzzzz...

(Also - just a wee end note ... if any of this doesn't make sense, I wouldn't hassle yourself complaining about it because I don't really care. Such is the joy of pregnancy-induced serenity from my perspective. Tra la la)