Journal Entries
Funny, the baby sleeps more, so I get more tired.
Posted Apr 2, 2012
Just a bit of a warning for those who don't want to hear a bit about breastfeeding stuff, no need to read on. 
has always been good at night, and his new trick is now not just sleeping five-then-four hours (with a feed in the middle), but dropping it entirely and sleeping for eight. This is, in theory, good, but it means that my breasts wake me up in the middle of the night, usually having soaked their way through the breast pads and through my nightclothes. 
While he is still only sleeping through on the odd occasion I don't need to train my boobs to sleep through as well, so it's downstairs to the expressing machine (I want to have a bit of a stock so that I can leave him with Mr Vip for the odd evening). Half an hour later, with one boob now comfortable it's a bit easier to sleep. Back to bed. Then, an hour later, wakes up for a feed. Then he's awake for an hour. Then falls asleep. By this stage it's 7am and Mr Vip is up and getting ready for work, and even if I got back to sleep is on his daytime schedule of a feed every two hours.
So despite the fact that is sleeping more, I'm sleeping less. 
I'm not complaining too much - between 11pm and 5am today I got unbroken sleep, which I know some mothers dream about! Still. I'm sat here typing through a haze of sleep and actually wishing for the days when he woke at 3 and then slept again for four hours... 
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Latest reply: Apr 2, 2012
Fitocracy
Posted Mar 21, 2012
Gamification - Happy Nerd was waxing interested about it not so long ago. It's the concept of turning something that isn't a game and turning into one. In Fitocracy's case it's using fitness. Completing exercises or sport earns you points, and you get enough you level up. I'm currently Level 3 (woo!). You need more and more points to get to each level, wich encourages you to do more and more each time and hopefully get fitter in the long run! There are also quests (such as doing a run in a particular time, or playing 30 minutes of a sport) and earn achievements depending on what you put into the system.
There is also a social element - you can join groups of people based on, well, anything (I've set up a h2g2 group which currently only consists of me and Mr. Dreadful) - and you see each others' achievements and give encouragement.
It's only been a couple of days but I'm finding it an interesting experiment.
If anyone wants to join it is currently by invitation only, so you'll need this link to join up: http://ftcy.co/yEaIab. I only have ten invites so it will be first com first served, but then that ten will get their own ten so hopefully they can spare a couple. 
Right, best get back to , who has just decided that the table leg is no longer interesting enough to continue staring at. We need a new distraction...
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Latest reply: Mar 21, 2012
The final few days
Posted Jan 25, 2012
Well, the 24th - that was my due date come and gone. I'm not complaining though, I'm still enjoying the freedom of being off work and getting things ready. Yes, I'm a bit heavy and uncomfortable but I think I've had it pretty easy when I compare myself to others.
h2g2 has rather taken a back seat recently. In fact, anything I usually did on my PC has - including Skyrim, which was bought partly to make sure I didn't get bored during my maternity leave. I just don't want to switch it on! Now I've set up my swanky phone to check my emails for me I've just lost all interest.
I guess it's a good sign, as I'm not sat on Skype worrying about things, or burning myself out writing moderation manuals and so on. I'm actually quite relaxed, happy, and not stressed about h2g2, which is a novelty. I'll have plenty to be stressed about in the future, I'm rather enjoying this little break!
Anyway, long story short - I'm not around as much. I see it as an extended lunch break, not as a permanent departure, but I'm not making any promises or deadlines. You'll see me when you see me. *waves*
All the best to all of you,
Vip
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Latest reply: Jan 25, 2012
Stupid house owndership
Posted Nov 23, 2011
I'm not totally convinced that house ownership is a good thing. Never have, really, although I do accept it has its good points. This week hasn't been one of them.
Last week our downstairs plug sockets tripped. It wasn't a device tripping, it was faulty wiring. Electrician came round, isolated the stretch where the wiring had gone, popped round the following morning and put in a new stretch of wiring to replace it. No need to look too hard - it was an easy fix, no problem.
Then it went again on Monday. Electrician came round on Tuesday morning to have another look and found the cause of why the wiring had gone - our underfloors are a foot deep in water.
This in itself isn't as bad as it first seems. The houses were built with four foot gaps under the floors for this reason, so the water table can rise and then drain away without flooding the house.
The problem is that earlier this year we put in a new damp course because we were thinking of selling and not having a modern damp course was putting people off. Now the damp (well, puddle) can't rise up through the bricks and evaporate away, the water is just sitting, festering under our house. It's smelling too.
The solution? Fill in the underfloor with concrete so that the water can't pool in the first place. For our whole ground floor. Then of course replace the flooring, because it will have been ripped up in order to fill the place with concrete. For the the whole ground floor (well, apart from our tiny kitchen, for some reason that's already concreted - thank heavens for small mercies).
I'm going to see if the house insurance covers this sort of thing, although I don't hold out much hope given that it's not been caused by anything in particular, or if it has it's been because we've had work done to the house. Still worth calling and asking though.
*sigh*
We have someone coming around to give us a quote of the cost and a rough idea of whether or not the house will be liveable for the period of time.
Hopefully this can be done sooner rather than later though - if we wait too long it's going to get more awkward for me and if I go in to labour early I can't see them letting me go home if I don't have any floors!
Happy days...
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Latest reply: Nov 23, 2011
Getting used to the rhythm
Posted Nov 6, 2011
There are a few rhythms in my life at the moment. There's the weekly work pattern, obviously, and the day to day one too.
I'm starting to get the hang of a couple more as well.
The most obvious over the last week has been my tiredness and motivation levels throughout the day. I wake up, and once I'm actually awake I'm pretty alert, on the ball and efficient... until about 11am. Then The Slump falls over me and I'm a write off for pretty much the rest of the day. I have a little bit of a perk up in the early evening but it doesn't last for long.
There's also the rhythm of the little Viplet - he only ever used to kick me late morning, mid-afternoon and then have another wiggle at around bedtime. But as he's growing I'm starting to get new ones as well - the latest are wiggles at getting up time and some quite hefty action in the mid-evening. Compared to other mums-to-be he's still pretty quiet but it's interesting to see how things are developing.
On the plus side, it's interesting to watch. On the down side, I think I can safely say I'm starting to move out of the nice bit in the middle of the pregnancy where you could almost forget you're gestating, and in to the slow decline to the end. Morning sickness has popped its head up again, a clear sign that we've moved into a new batch of hormones - lovely!
But, as the saying goes, enjoy it now - you'll think back fondly to it later!
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Latest reply: Nov 6, 2011
Vip
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