Ignoring Cat’s post 4 days ago which was about having no signs, today our daughter Kaia was born. She weighs a healthy 7lb 6oz, and both mum and daughter are doing well. We’ll write more in time, but here is a picture 
Now the real fun begins
This is my bump at almost 38 weeks. I’m surprised I don’t fall forwards or how it hasn’t burst yet! The only people I’ve seen so far with bumps as big as me are having twins!
And the thing is, if she decides to be born 2 weeks late, I still have a whole month of growth ahead of me! 
On another note, pregnesia (or baby brain or whatever people call it) has been affecting me dearly lately. I forget what I am doing often, do things I really didn’t want to do, forget what I was talking about, but worst, I’m losing the ability to speak English. I find myself talking to people and not being able to find the words or saying something completely wrong or with an appalling grammar! If this goes on I might need a translator at the hospital!
The funny side is that Russ, although in a much smaller scale, has been slightly off as well. I wonder if he will feel sympathy pains when I’m in labour? 
Sunday, Russ and I went to the hospital to see what is available there. There were quite a few pregnant women and their partners there and consecutive groups so a lot of people giving birth soon. I wonder if, statistically, this is the time of the year when more babies are born… 
Anyway we were quite impressed. It all looks brand new – the hospital has been through major works – and it all looks spacious and clean.
There are 18 rooms midwife and consultant led. They all have en-suite and the midwife led ones also have CD player, oil burning facilities for aromatherapy, odd shaped sofa and a bed and loads of stuff to help during labour. One of them has a birth pool 
There are other rooms like an induction room with 4 beds in them and not a lot of space – especially not for dads to stay there during the process – so I hope I don’t need to use one of them, theatres where the C-sections are done, rooms for rest and reflection, etc.
We also got a chance to see the midwives in action with an emergency. One of the pregnant women in my group lost consciousness. It was very hot and she kept her coat on so maybe that was the cause. The midwife that was doing the tour rang the alarm (available in every room) and about 10 of them came running to help! Very efficient!
We then went upstairs to see the post-natal ward and again it was impressive. Hot drinks available in the corridors, rooms with only 4 beds each, each bed has it’s own tv/telephone/internet connection… All very good.
The best bit was when we managed to see a midwife teaching the new parents to bathe the new born. He/she was put in a see through bucket so that they (and us from the corridor) could see how it’s done. They look so small and helpless! 
If everything goes well the discharge happens between 6 hours and 2 days. ou can’t leave until both the baby and the mother are checked by the doctors. You also get the chance, as it happened, to be shown how to bathe, change a nappy and breastfeed. They expect the dad’s to change the nappies while the mother is resting. I liked that 
All in all I was really happy with what I saw and the people that work there seems really nice. Can’t wait 
(and there were no women in labour at the time so no screams to freak me out )
Today I had an appointment at the Derby hospital. It didn’t start well as we were stuck in traffic and got there late. I just hope that Tubbs doesn’t decide to be born during rush hour. It won’t be fun being stuck in a car in pain for ages!
We had to wait quite a bit to be seen but finally the nurse called my name. She told me there would be 2 doctors present, a consultant and a trainee. The trainee welcomed me as usual and said what we were going to be doing (the usual measuring, blood pressure check, etc). Then the consultant asked me: ‘ you are a student aren’t you?’ I said ‘yes, a PhD student’. He looked impressed and saluted me (for some reason) and asked ‘PhD? Very good, what on?’ I answered the usual ‘Planetary science, meteorites, comets and that space related stuff’. And then it all went funny. The consultant asked me to explain the phases of the Moon and complained that he could not understand a Moon crescent. Oh dear, the Moon phases are a bit difficult to explain especially in a few minutes and without the aid of some images so after much insistence I gave up on explaining and he gave up on understanding. We finally got to the appointment per se and all was well. As soon as I sat back down he comes back with the questions! ‘Is the UK very involved in the space program?’ I said yes and that quite a few instruments were designed and went on space missions blah, blah. By then they were both quite excited and asking questions. ‘I saw a scientist on TV talking about it from the Open University, what was his name? He had a beard’ I said that it was probably CP and that I worked on his department so I knew him a bit. ‘That was it! CP!’ they said excitedly, ‘You know him?? Oh he seems to be a bit eccentric! Is he?’ And as I was saying that he could sometimes be a character the nurse intervened and actually said: ‘Come on lets get you out of here before they ask any more questions!’
I’d never seen doctors this keen to keep me in instead of wanting to get rid of me asap! I just had to laugh. They looked like two excited children That made my day!
I had to book another appointment for four weeks from now in case I am overdue and I also booked a tour of the hospital so I can actually see what facilities they have. That will be on Sunday.
On an unrelated note, most people know of the saga to find cot sheets. We went to Dunelm after the appointment and they had nothing but fitted cot sheets! Loads of them! 
Sigh…
