This and that

[ailbhe]

First, happy birthday to Lean - I only just realised it's the fourth today. I hope Oisin behaves himself and your next year has as much joy and more sleep than your last one.

Second, Linnea is teething hard - I have had some measure of success with letting her cry herself to sleep, but this morning she cried for longer than 30 seconds so I went in and looked, and she was standing in her cot, holding the bar, square-mouthed and slit-eyed, bawling. So I gave her baby paracetemol and a feed and a cuddle, and she went off after that. How can I do sleep training with a 6 month old who stands up in her cot inside her sleeping bag? I will have to wait until she has worked out how to get back down again.

At baby swimming today, I dropped a load of wet togs and towels on top of my dry knickers, so I had to walk home in wet underwear. Yeuch. However, the fact that I loudly complained about this to the whole changing room shows how much less shy I am than ten years ago, when I used to avoid acknowledging that anyone in the changing room could have noticed I existed even if I'd gone to the pool with them in the first place. I have very situation-specific shyness, characterised by a conversation Kathy and I had about tampons in St Stephens Green, ten and a half years ago now.

I have no idea what's for dinner tonight. This isn't good, as we need to eat and I thought we'd have chicken curry. Oops! No chicken! Now what? Never mind, I'll go out to tea with a friend instead and maybe I'll buy us all takeaway.

My friend and I are both having phantom baby kicks in our lower tummies now. It's probably because we both want to get pregnant again. She might even be able to. I'm not allowed for ages. Poot. Speaking of which, my surgery is on 14 December and I have to go in on 2 December to talk about it, apparently. And tell them who will collect me by car after my op and care for me for 24 hours afterwards. I assume from this that I go in, get a general, have surgery, and get sent home again. That's a bit daunting, though I'm pleased not to miss Linnea.

Comments

Surgery

[uitlander]

They tend to shunt you out asap these days. The worst bit is coming round afterwards and trying to move, finding out what makes you go 'ow', working out how to use the bed remote control, and trying to move so you can go to the loo. You'll probably be really quite wobbly on your feet, and get very, very tired very fast. Thats basically why I needed someone around for the first few days - kept almost blacking out if I got up and tried to do stuff, whilst fuming in bed thinking 'well, I feel fine'.

[oscarhocklee.livejournal.com]

Linnea was born on *Mischief Night*? Oh deary me :-)

[ailbhe]

*profound confusion* Linnea was born on 30 April. Is that Mischief Night?

[oscarhocklee.livejournal.com]

That's because I'm an idiot.

I shall claim I was feverish (true) and thus non compos mentis (usually true anyway, but now I have an excuse).

Just ignore me, everything will be much easier.

[rosefox]

What's the surgery for? (I'm rather behind on the news.)

[ailbhe]

When I had Linnea, I tore from here to Christmas, so the surgery is so that I can stop taking codeine all the time and maybe wear trousers again and even have penetrative sex eventually. We already know that I can't be repaired enough to regain full continence or have another vaginal birth.

[rosefox]

Yikes! Poor dear. I hope it all gets fixed up beautifully... and I'm so glad, for your sake and Rob's and Linnea's, that you're the kind of mom who wouldn't dream of being mad at the baby for it (an awful thought, I know, but some people are like that).

[ailbhe]

The fixable parts are very fixable, and during labour I asked the midwives "Will I hate my baby?"

I didn't know which kind of person I really was until well after she was born. Now I know, and I know that I had very little to do with it - it was in there and no effort of will could have changed it.