Football

12th October

My husband and I went to the football last night. It was a game my
dearest really fancied and it was only 10 minutes from home, so I
hoped that my back wouldn’t kill me too badly.

I’m not sure if the little one liked it or not. She is really meant to
react to sound now so I was surprised how quiet she was when we
arrived. There were crowds, drums, singing. But either she completely
slept through it (in which case she’ll be a deep sleeper like her
Mummy) or she is a shy little girl who was quite intimidated by the
noise and didn’t dare to move. I held my stomach quite protectively
(so my husband says) and kept “stroking” her, just in case that she
was scared.

She certainly perked up later though. There was a lot of drum playing
and for about 10 minutes she tried to keep up with the rhythm…. Kick.
Box. Kick. Box. Kick. Box. I tell you, my stomach started hurting. I
am surprised I don’t have stiff stomach muscles today… At half-time
(and longer) I had to queue forever for our hot drinks and I think the
standing and slow moving lulled her to sleep again for a while.

Unfortunately unborn babies give you very little clues if they kick
because they like something, because they don’t like something or if
they couldn’t care less and just feel like moving around….

Right now she is moving big time. Either she is doing somersaults just
for fun or she is trying to get into the head-down position. I surely
hope it is the latter. It would be about time.

One thing she definitively doesn’t like? If I lean forward. It
obviously takes some space away from her and she kicks really hard
until I lean back again. The problem is that my desk at work is not
really comfortable and in order to be more comfortable and release my
back pain I need to lean forward. So we have a little battle going on
if baby needs to be more comfortable or Mummy. Little one usually
wins. Maybe I could get more comfortable if I had had the risk
assessment which is company obligation and my boss never arranged for
(even though I reminded him many times). They would adjust my chair
and make sure that my seating position is suitable for a problem
woman. I guess using some old cardboard boxes as footrest wouldn’t
count as acceptable neither but we have a purchasing stop in the
moment (&#!?% recession) and I won’t be authorised a proper one and
without putting my feet up the pain in my back gets worse. With a risk
assessment they might have to authorise it.

Anyway, I can’t wait for being off now. Still just over 8 weeks
though. I have 6 more days holiday left I haven’t booked, but I doubt
that it’ll get authorised. The conversation with my boss last week was
a bit like

He: “I’ll pay them out.”
Me: “Or i can take them as odd days.”
He: “I’ll pay them out.”
Me: “Or i can take them as odd days.”
He: “I’ll pay them out.”
Me: “Or i can take them as odd days.”

We left it at that.

When he saw the copy of my maternity plan I had put on his desk (I had
handed it in on Monday) he said we’ll need to talk about this. Not
sure what that means. Leaving 3 weeks before the due date is not
unreasonable… And he already approved the 3 weeks before as holiday.
Well, I’ll see what he has to say.

I am so emotional today. And my back really hurts.