Saturday 28 April 2012

House hunting by Theo

So it has begun. After months of talking about it and working out whether we could afford it we have finally begun our house hunt - we went on our first family viewing this morning (a lovely property in Sea Mills, though it's a steel frame build so might be issues with getting a mortgage).

Kate of course has done this (twice) before, but for me this is all new. So far I have gathered there are many things that you should let affect your decision:
- how much?
- how big?
- local schools - any good?
- how long will it take me to get to work?
- what are the local shops like?
- what's the local crime rate?
- how long will it take the current owners to move out?

Anything else I should be worrying about?

Sunday 22 April 2012

DJ Rosie


It all started when she heard Michael Kiwanuka's "I'm getting ready" on 6Music. Suddenly this little piping voice was singing out the refrain "oh Lord!" at random moments. Next came Feist's "How come you never go there" (translated into "hup de lola") and DJ Rosie began to compile her playlist (with her parents' help) of her favourite tunes.

Some she'd heard on the radio - Graham Coxon, The Fall - or playing somewhere in a cafe - The Clash's "London Calling" was an instant hit. Others were favourite songs from CDs - Laura Veirs' "Oh Why" and Harry Bellafonte's "Jump Down Spin Around". Dad snuck a few on, hoping to either improve her Spanish (Manu Chao's  "Me gustas tu" proved popular) or educate her about Bristol ("It's the doggy one" Rosie shouts every time Bucky's "Hi Fido" comes on).

However, without a doubt, the most popular song - added by Dad after her reaction to Graham Coxon's latest single - is Blur's "Song 2". Thank goodness it's only 2 minutes long!

Thursday 19 April 2012

What's this? A weekend? by Theo

Yep, despite our tiny budget and tiny toddler, we managed to make a weekend of it! Our dear friend Ayesha came up from London to spend Saturday with us and was an instant hit with Rosie (though of course they have met before).In the evening we splashed out on our lovely local babysitter allowing us to introduce Ayesha to one of our old haunts (The Folk House) and three of our favourite local singers - Roger Tarry, Annette Berlin and Caroline Martin.

Roger was as good as ever - we've been watching him play for getting on for 10 years now (Kate pointed out she doesn't think his hairstyle has changed in that whole period!) but it was the first time we've seen him sing with Caroline and a cellist in tow - haunting stuff.

Amazingly this was the first time we'd seen Annette playing as herself - we're more used to seeing her front noiseniks Big Joan - and indeed this was her first outing as a duo, with Suzie on piano, not that you could tell. There were some moments where you imagined other instruments would have filled out the songs more, but the harmonising was beautiful.

Finally the leading lady Caroline came on stage, launching a new album. I've been watching Caroline play for nearly 10 years too (and have even toured with her) and was wondering whether marriage and impending motherhood would have mellowed her. Nope! Still singing sparse, beautiful and delicious dark songs of gender danger. Love it!

Saturday 14 April 2012

Once More Into The Breach.... By Kate

...but hopefully not a breech this time.

Just under a year since my previous short-lived pregnancy, we discovered that our various efforts to combine sperm and egg had once again been successful. Various tell-tale symptoms meant I already had my suspicions and was fully expecting the positive line that appeared when I performed a home pregnancy test on the day my period should have arrived. I kept my own counsel for another week, then wrapped up the positive test and put it in Theo's Christmas stocking.

He looked quizzically at the digital device in his hand, then recoiled in shock at the message it contained: pregnant 2-3.
"Two to three...?!"
I was slightly taken aback by his shocked reaction. Then I realised.
"Not babies, Darling - weeks."
He visibly relaxed and gave me a hug, which was equal parts relief and congratulation.

My feelings were mixed. I was delighted that we had managed to conceive and I had been starting to worry about the length of time it was taking. After all, 41 is getting on a bit in child bearing terms. With that in mind, after several months of unrelenting menstruation (and one possible chemical pregnancy - a miscarriage in less than 5 weeks of gestation) I had decided to step up our baby-making efforts. Accordingly, I had invested in some sperm-encouraging lubricant, some ovulation predictor tests and a course of fertility-assisting acupuncture (a cheap deal courtesy of Groupon).

Turns out the phone call to book the acupuncture was enough on its own - I was pregnant within the next fortnight with nary a needle inserted. Powerful stuff, this acupuncture.

So the very fact of conception was a definite biological victory. But pregnancy after the emotional upset and numbing disappointment of a miscarriage is a very different experience from the pregnancies that take place with no troubled history behind them. A post-miscarriage pregnancy is an altogether more tentative and anxious affair - the blithe assumption that a healthy baby will come at the end of it just doesn't exist any more. We are made more cautious by sad experience.

The NHS midwives, although sympathetic about my concerns for the viability of my pregnancy, wouldn't refer me for an early scan unless I had a concrete reason to believe it may have gone wrong. Perfectly reasonable, but given that my previous pregnancy had hit the buffers with no external clues until the 10-week ecografia revealed its untimely demise, that was no comfort to me.

So I decided to shell out seventy pounds and pay for a private scan. It was carried out at just over 8 weeks and was seventy pounds well spent, as far as I was concerned. Despite having maintained a reasonably calm "que sera, sera" attitude up to that point, I burst into tears of pent-up anxiety and relief when the sonographer cheerily indicated the thankfully flashing beacon of the fetal heart beat. And statistically, I was now in with a 95% chance of carrying through a successful pregnancy. Heartening stuff.

The next sticking point was the outcome of the first trimester screening to check for the more "common" chromosomal abnormalities. With Rosie, a 1-in-60 risk of Down's Syndrome had come back to scare us and I'd endured an anguished and tearful few weeks deciding to have an amniocentesis test (carrying a small risk of miscarriage), then waiting to find out if that procedure would cause me to lose the pregnancy and whether the fetus' chromosomes were as they should be. It didn't and they were.

I was dreading going through all that again, but when the specialist midwife phoned to tell me we had a 1-in-47 risk this time, I surprised myself by shrugging my shoulders and calmly booking another amniocentesis. I think it helped that I had been through the whole thing once before with no bad outcomes and that I was wise enough this time to understand that the risk of having a child with Down's Syndrome was still less than 3%, so still very small.

The only time my pulse rate went up this time round was on the day of the initial result from the amnio. It came back as normal. And even though I knew that wasn't the definitive result, I immediately relaxed. Ten days later the full result was phoned through - chromosomes all fine and we were having a boy. Now we could start to allow ourselves to feel excited about the prospect of having another child - and know which set of names to consider for our impending new offspring.

Yesterday we cleared another hurdle with flying colours - the 20 week scan, known as the anomaly scan as it checks the fetus' organs, limbs and facial features for any problems. This is another nail-biting stage, as some of the problems detected can be severe and may show that the fetus, if it survives until birth, most certainly won't live for much longer. I know personally at least two people who have had to terminate their pregnancies at this stage for this reason.

But our baby boy had a clean sheet in terms of his tiny internal organs, face and limbs. Everything in the right place functioning as it should. I let out the last bit of breath I had been holding.

Yes, things can still go wrong of course, but all the main risk factors (barring my age) have now been discounted so there's every reason to believe we'll get there okay.

As for me, from the beginning I have been travelling hopefully. A friend who had lost a pregnancy in very sad circumstances (and went on to have another perfectly healthy baby afterward) gave me that advice when I asked how she had coped with the anxiety.
"All you can do is travel hopefully," she said and they are words I've taken to heart. They have served me well.

Now it's time to start accepting that another baby is on the way and start getting ready for his arrival. Where did I put that Pregnancy Yoga book?

Tuesday 10 April 2012

First Ice cream by Kate

So here we are in beautiful Cornwall and beaching is an absolute must when it comes to appreciating the Cornish experience in full.

Rosie's enjoyment of Perranuthnoe Beach was a bit mixed today - the tide was right out displaying a magnificent expanse of damp sand washed with gentle breakers and somewhat windswept - which was the bit Rosie didn't like at all. Nor did she like Mummy and Daddy trying to steer her away from the deeper sandpools, not quite understanding that we had her own best interests (and height of diminutive wellies) in mind. And she was very displeased about the saturated sand's annoying habit of sucking at her boots when she was trying to walk.

Luckily, a comparatively sheltered corner with shallow pools and decent digging sand restored her good temper, as did the promise of an ice-cream.

Rosie's maternal grandmother generously supplied this last to the assembled company and Rosie had the initially baffling, but increasingly enjoyable task of working out how to best consume her lolly.
It took Rosie a good ten minutes to confidently apply her tongue to the lolly, but once she got the hang of that, there was no stopping her. Theo meanwhile, who was holding her at the time, was becoming increasingly twitchy about the length of time and the mess the process involved and resolved never to allow Rosie another ice-lolly until she was old enough to make a more efficient job of it.
GM pointed out that mastery of this skill would necessitate plenty of practice. They didn't reach a point of agreement. I suspect Rosie will be amply supplied with holiday ice creams in the future despite Daddy's prohibition.

Saturday 7 April 2012

5,4,3,2,1 by Theo

Throughout my PGCE year I've seen all kinds of ways in which teachers control their students. By far and away the most common technique, which I've seen from Primary School to 6th Form, is the countdown. "Right I'd like everyone quiet and facing this way in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." It usually works.

Nevertheless, I was somewhat sceptical when Kate started trying this with Rosie. After all she's only two and, if I get mixed results with my Year 9 class, I was doubtful it would work. But work it does - in Spanish as well as English - most of the time. "Yo voy a contar desde 5 a 0, y cuando estoy a 0 voy a cambiar tu panal" usually results in a truculent Rosie lying on the changing mat of her own volition by the time I get to 1.

I suspect, however, that the shoe is about to be on the other foot. Just this week Rosie has started saying, parrot fashion, "I'm going to count from 5 to 0, and when I get to five I'm coming to get you. 5,4,3,2,1,0. I'm coming to get you." It's very cute, but I reckon it won't be long before she starts saying to us: "Daddy, I'm going to count from 5 to 0, and I when I get to 0 you're going to give me more cake..."

Tuesday 3 April 2012

Holiday! by Theo

Made it! After a less-than-frantic end of term as I managed to stay on top of marking, planning and prepping revision materials for Year 11, we hit the holidays dancing. In a couple of senses.

Rosie now has her own playlist on the ipod (featuring Feist, The Fall, Manu Chao, Bucky, Harry Belafonte) abd a post-dinner dance with Daddy is rapidly becoming part of her routine. Meanwhile Kate and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary with an evening of dance at Circo Media, watching rather than participating, which was enjoyable if not spectacular. I'm now trying to squeeze an EPS assignment around various visits before we head down to Cornwall at the weekend.

Best of all though, as I'm still a student, rather than a fully fledged teacher, I get 3 weeks off!