It haunts me

This Pachelbel thing is becoming a joke. I had to ring up about my National Insurance (tax) number the other day and was astonished by new levels of inefficiency in Government departments, and also by their fondness for Pachelbel's Canon. I had to ring three different numbers before getting through to the department I needed (although was assured each time that the next one REALLY would be it) and each time I was put on hold. You guessed it - my hold music was Pachelbel's Canon in D. Every time! Weirdly it seemed to start at the same point each time too. Note that these were three different phone numbers, they couldn't transfer me within departments - oh no! All user pays numbers too, no free call 0800 Inland Revenue here.

Anyway, as much as I love the Canon in D, the best bit of all came right at the end when I did get through to the department I needed. They informed me that yes I did have an allocated a National Isurance number and that my NI number card had been sent out to me in February (my interview to get it was last August so you can see why I was wondering where it had got to). Where did they send it I wondered, as it certainly hadn't arrived at our current address. In their great wisdom and efficiency they had sent it to my previous address - from 1994!!!Yes that's 1994, not 2004. TWELVE years ago! Interesting really. The guy I spoke to couldn't give me a reason for this decision, especially given that I had provided my current address at the interview. He also was unable to give me my NI number over the phone (well you know, I could be anyone and live anywhere), so I now have to make an appointment at the NI office (think of your local unemployment office only times 10 in unpleasantness as our local branch is in Soho) and request a replacement NI card. Because they sent mine to somewhere I hadn't lived in 12 years.

I just wonder how many repeats of Pachelbel's Canon I'll hear while on hold trying to make my new appointment.

Somehow redeemed

I wanted to be tricksy and put an audio link for Pachelbel's Canon in D into my blog so people who thought they didn't know the piece would be able to listen to it - realising that they probably did know it - and therefore appreciate why I at least found the yoga chanting thing so funny. Unfortunately my searching for a good audio version to link to confirmed that in some ways it definitely is ruined forever, I found so many ghastly versions I can't tell you - they put the yoga chanting to shame - and they really do deserve links of their own but there were just too many.

BUT then I found this and somehow in a perverse way it seemed to make it all ok! The dude just looks like he is having so much fun. I was mesmerised and had to watch the whole 5 minutes in all its fantastic awfulness.

The innie is still holding out

Thought I'd share this photo of my poor innie that is almost becoming an outie tummy button! Isn't it odd? I have come this far without getting stretch marks though and I hope my poor skin can hold out over the next few weeks. My old belly piercing scar looks pretty weird, but I can live with that! I reckon my tummy looks like a big moon from this angle. It certainly feels like a BIG something.

In the last few days I have gone from feeling relatively normal to suddenly very pregnant, heavy and clumsy. The baby's head is engaged already - although hopefully it's not ready for departure just yet - and it makes quite a difference. I now need to go to the loo even more often than before, and it is harder to get up off the sofa, put on or take off my shoes, turn over in bed, or just sleep for that matter. I also found out last night walking home from a spontaneous dinner out at a yummy noodle cafe (making the most of these small freedoms while we still can), that when I'm walking, and have a full tummy, and a full bladder, I can't laugh very hard or I'll be in trouble. I held it in, no pants wetting moments yet, but close! To add to that joy I also suspect that the pressure I now feel in my whole pelvic floor region ALL THE TIME is going to cause all sorts of problems, perhaps those pregnancy hemorrhoids I've heard so much about are just around the corner? I hope I'm wrong, but something's got to give! I can't imagine what the pressure must be like when the baby's head comes down into the birth canal - it really doesn't bear thinking about.

I missed pregnancy yoga today as I was too busy eating cake and drinking tea and chatting with my ante natal group (and if I'm honest I was still recovering from last week and wasn't sure I could hold in the giggles). We ended up talking about all the delights of pregnancy, and somehow got to the many creative ways we now have of picking things up off the floor. My favoured method is to use my toes like a monkey. Otherwise it sort of relies on determination, grunting noises and a big effort from the thigh muscles since the tummy muscles that once helped with that sort of movement can't do anything anymore! It also, if we're honest, usually requires a bench or something with which to help pull yourself back up once you get down. Or of course, getting someone else to pick things up for you, or pick you up when you really get stuck. Though we all noted that we would still go to quite some lengths to avoid getting other people to pick things up for us, sort of a last bit of 'no I can do it by myself thank you, I'm pregnant, not stupid/disabled/incapable/helpless'. However I suspect that in another few weeks (or even days) I will take any help offered no matter how patronising it might once have seemed.

Hmmm, just thinking that it is lucky I issued a warning when I started this blog, as it really is all about pregnancy. I do think about other things, honest....

Ruined forever if it wasn't before...

No, not my body, at least not yet - I haven't lived that hard a life (wasted opportunity really) and pregnancy so far is being relatively kind.

No, I just have to write about an awful music related experience I had at pregnancy yoga yesterday:

We had a new teacher and she was very earnest. There was a lot of talk of looking into our third eye (makes me go cross eyed and then I get dizzy, quite counter productive really), feeling the prana and/or kundalini energy, and breathing the energy into our babies. Hmmm. And we started and ended the class by chanting a mantra: Ohmmm...na...something...ya...prana...something something...satya...nam.... but even that I could handle, just.

But when it came to the relaxation section at the end of the class she put on some soothing music - and it was - yogic chanting to the tune of Pachelbel's Canon in D. I KID YOU NOT!! I was so close to exploding into a serious fit of gigges and only just managed to hold them in because the teacher was so sweet and earnest I thought she might cry if I laughed, and it was her first class so I felt I just couldn't. But honestly, what were they thinking? If this once really quite lovely (at least I think so) piece of music hadn't already been ruined by being played and played and played, at weddings and by string quartets at cocktail parties everywhere, it is now forever spoiled for me by the tree hugging, granola crunching, bloody hippie yoga kundalini energy yogic chanting freaks!

Was pretty funny though.

Fun with Tum

Have been taking photos of my pregnant belly week by week to track its progess (posted here if you're interested) as I figure I will probably forget that it ever looked like this (as I have now forgotten what it is like to have a flat tummy and it mostly seems quite normal to have a cuddly bump, - like it's always been there!). It's also amazing to note how slowly it seems to change as I experience it but looking over the photos the differences seem so much more obvious. I like to experiment with the bump photos (as I like to poke the bump to make the baby move, gotta do something to make it more fun) like this:

Holding it in, Letting it out, Holding it in again:






























Next will have to add the photos of my poor belly button, previously a nice tidy 'innie' it is now threatening every day to become an 'outie'. In fact I think this morning part of it already has made a break outward, so now it's an innie with a mini outie in the middle!


Cute baby note before I get on with my day:
Mr Squeak brough me a cup of Earl Grey tea and piece of rye bread and butter in bed this morning (one of my favourite ways to start the say - he is so sweet!). I rested the plate on my bump for convenience, but baby seemed to say 'get it off' and kicked under it making the plate rock from side to side. It was so cute that of course I left it there and made the baby kick for as long as possible! I will have to be a little more considerate of baby's wants once it's out, but I figure while it is still inside me I get to be the boss, and besides it is just so cute I can't help it!