Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Just what you need when you have to do a lot of typing... say, finishing your PhD thesis in the next 8 weeks...

Nirvana lullabies?!

I cannot tell you how much I want all of these (apart from Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones, obviously). What an awesome idea!

20 week scan

Today! Fingers crossed. Will post a pic later if I can. Half way point! Hurrah!

Artists you've seen more than 10 times

Mine (off the top of my head - may need to edit later):

Martyn Joseph

Tori Amos

Thea Gilmore

Rachael Sage

Amy Wadge

Juliet Turner

Close run thing (hovering somewhere around the 10 times mark):

Ani DiFranco

Josh Ritter

Kathryn Williams

Heather Nova

Nerina Pallot

Placebo

Michael Franti and Spearhead

Dar Williams

Beautiful South / Paul Heaton

R.E.M.

Indigo Girls

Yours?

I never get sick of this

Still one of the funniest things ever, I think.

2009

Why did no one point out that it might be too stressful to get married, move house, finish my PhD and have a baby all in the same year?

oh and I forgot to say...

that a couple of weeks ago, we found out we are having a GIRL (I knew it!!). Obviously we immediately rushed out to buy pink paint and 'little princess' tops. aaarrghhh! I did actually buy a top - but it is blue and white, says 'Pirate' and has a picture of a bunny crossed out with crossbones. Hopefully you all see where I'm going with this....

James asked what I would do if/when she wants a Barbie. "Obviously", I replied, "explain the patriarchal system that elevates Barbie as a physically unattainable standard of womanhood".

Wish me luck :)

And in other, related news, in order not to be a total hypocrite, I have given up 'Heat' magazine.

No-one laughs at God in a hospital...

Regina Spektor pulled off an awesome show in Hyde Park. Being pregnant managed to get us into the disabled area where we could sit down and watch the whole show from a comfortable raised position at the back. Score one for the baby!

Perhaps the best part of the show was seeing how blown away Regina was by the fact that she was headlining, and that there were 3000 fans there singing along and knowing all her songs. I was pretty shocked - last time I saw her, it was a much smaller venue, and I felt a little late to the party. But suddenly it was like we'd entered a parallel universe where a lot of people like good music, which was wonderful. I love Regina's new album, so it was great to hear a lot from that as well as some of the older stuff.

Here's my favourite song from the new album, though you'll see below that this is not the only reason I'm including it here:

Came back after the show and watched the end of the Andy Murray match - an exhausting epic, but so good to see him come through in 5 sets. Finally made it to bed about 1am, thinking of getting up early-ish to get picnic things before Alice and I headed out to Wimbledon for the day.

But when I woke up at 7.30, bleeding and in pain, priorities shifted and we had to rush to A&E, fearing the worst. After 18 weeks of pregnancy, almost half way through, I couldn't believe that it could all be over, especially when we only saw the baby moving on the scan a couple of weeks ago. I was categorised as urgent and seen very quickly at the hospital by three nurses and a doctor. They carried out a lot of tests and and exam, which were all ok, then sent me to the antenatal unit for a scan, which would be able to tell categorically if I was having a miscarriage. Crunch time, and I was relieved that that screen was turned away from me because I just couldn't look. But then the sonographer pulled the screen round and said 'look - there's the heartbeat'. I was so relieved that I burst into tears, for about the twentieth time that morning, as they did all the other checks. Everything was fine, there's nothing wrong with the baby, and they couldn't see any reason for the bleeding (which had completely stopped by then), other than that 'it sometimes happens and we don't know why exactly'. We walked out into the sunshine, acutely aware that we could have walked into a very different world than the one we had when we walked in, and feeling profoundly grateful to have escaped it.

Amazingly, I was still in time to go to Wimbledon with Alice, and though I was feeling completely dazed and shocked, it seemed like a chilled way to try and spend the day. We had a good day, all things considered, though the heat was almost unbearable at times, and I had to keep throwing water on myself (though my mother texted me to say 'ooh on HD, you can see all the sweat on your forehead when they do a closeup of you' - for anyone else who was watching - IT WAS WATER!!). We had unbelievable seats, in the second row, to watch Venus march her way towards another title, perhaps. Here's where we were sitting - and here I am, still pregnant, and having just remembered to take the hospital band off my arm...