Shops I wish we had in Denmark

So the conference didn't start until late afternoon yesterday which gave me a chance to get some shopping done. While I was exploring I found the following shops I wish we had in Denmark (will add pictures later):

The Container Store - OMG boxes and jars and millions of storage things you didn't know you need, I'm sure if we had one of these in Denmark my house would be organised and tidy (well maybe anyway).

American Eagle Outfitters - Lets just say if I was rich I would probably buy everything in this shop, it's totally my style and I love it, oh and bonus it's not too expensive.

Actually on second thoughts maybe it's a good thing we don't have these shops in Denmark as I'd have no money left.

So what did I buy?

Well some new underpants for S as his are getting kind of old and sexy underpants are always good - right?

Some magic anti-ageing stuff that I got persuaded to buy by the mall lady who tested it on me. Yes I know, normally I resist these things but apparently my powers of resistance are low at that moment.

Some of this champagne, yes I know I can't drink it now but we had it at my cousins wedding in the summer and liked it so we'll be opening a bottle when (did you catch that - when not if? - eeek) the baby comes. It's getting delivered to my hotel so I hope it arrives in time oh and then I'll have an excuse to go back to the container store to buy bubble wrap and stuff to make sure it survives the trip home in my hold luggage.

Oh and drumroll.....

Some maternity trousers, yup I gave in and bought these cords in Old Navy since my trousers are all getting tight and I'm beginning to believe that this baby will hang around long enough to make maternity clothes necessary.

Oh and FYI - it is not wise to go and look at teeny tiny baby clothes at this stage in the pregnancy unless you want to embarrass yourself by crying in public.

San Francisco!

So I made it to San Francisco for the conference last night. I'm going to go explore a bit today and then the conference starts this afternoon.

The in-laws left yesterday morning, the rest of the visit went ok with not too many stress points.

Scan (pictures included)

So everything was completely fine (breathes out) and our risk for trisomy 21 is 1 in 2052 so we are not recommended to have any more tests (based on my age alone it's 1 in 333 so this sounds good).

Just space for a small in-laws rant (look away now)

1. I know this will change our lives - that is kind of the point - and at the same time we cannot possibly understand how and how much until we experience it. Telling us every 5 minutes (possible slight exaggeration) does not change this at all.
2. What part of "don't bring any gifts for the baby, it's too early" did you not understand? Did you think I didn't mean it or something?

and now some scan pictures:

about the scan

Since the in-laws will be here tomorrow and I'm taking the day off after the scan, it's unlikely I'll have a spare 5 minutes to blog about the results. So try not to worry if I don't, it probably doesn't mean bad news.

Waiting clothes

This is the direct translation of the Danish for maternity clothes (ventetøj) and it seems somehow appropriate. There has been a lot of waiting to get to this point and the waiting continues. Waiting for scans, waiting for the bump to appear, waiting to believe. Something that Serenity discuses in her latest post, one I found myself nodding along with.

Anyway the point is that I'm soon going to have to take the plunge and buy some of those waiting clothes. I've been avoiding it so as not to "jinx" things - magical thinking anyone? (thanks to Aurelia). However, I had to try on 3 pairs of trousers before I found one that I could fasten on Saturday and it's down to the fact that jeans that fit my hips are (normally) always too big around the waist. That said, there is not much space in them and by the end of the day they are feeling very tight.

Otherwise the tickling continues and I've managed to convince myself it is baby related while at the same time not believing everything will be ok (yeah I know that's a contradiction). I managed to finish the cleaning yesterday and am (just about) ready for the arrival of the in-laws tomorrow and the scan on Wednesday.

Can it ever be clean enough and other stuff

Last night we went out to meet some friends for the Copenhagen night of culture where many museums and public buildings are open until midnight for exploring. The Botanical Gardens were candlelit and magical which is where we met. This is a great night with a lovely atmosphere with hundreds of people out and about in the city and lots of kids enjoying the beginning of their autumn holiday week. We also saw the Danish parliament and visited a friend who works at the European Environment Agency.

This friend got married last year and, guess what? Yup she's pregnant, due in march. Thankfully I was able to say congrats I mean I'm pregnant too now so it's ok, right? Except it's not, I woke up this morning after a particularly unpleasant and vivid dream and remembered this, and I realised that this makes 7 of our close friends who have got pregnant easily and most have given birth since we started trying. Although it should be ok now that I'm pregnant, it actually isn't, I'm still pissed off. Pissed off that all these other people had it easy and we had it so hard. Don't get me wrong I know other people have it worse and I wouldn't wish it on anyone else but it's still so unfair. Oh and also, I hate myself for being pissed off.

Oh and I spent the day cleaning the house because my in-laws are coming to visit on Tuesday and it needs to be clean enough for the visit (if that's possible).

What the?

I've been extremely lucky so far in that I've had minimal nausea and only been sick once and since I am now past the 12 week barrier I assumed that I'd got away with it. So why did I find myself standing outside the train station this morning puking up my breakfast at such velocity that it splashed up onto my trousers? You'll be glad to hear that I cleaned my trousers as soon as possible in my work toilet.

Otherwise things are pretty much the same, I'm assuming I'm still pregnant since there don't seem to be any indications I'm not. I'm really looking forward to (and terrified of) the scan next week to confirm or deny this.

Also I felt something very weird on Tuesday - like being tickled from inside and nothing like wind. Is it too early to think this might have been stumpy making his/her presence felt?

Forty years!

I spent the weekend at my parents since they were holding a party to celebrate 40 years of marriage. It was wonderful to see them and all their friends and relatives together to celebrate this special day. They are still so much in love and I can only hope that my marriage is so happy for so long. Me and my sisters raided their and our photo collections to put together a slide show of them over the years so I thought I'd share a couple with you.

This is their wedding day:Here are they in the mid eighties:
and here on my wedding day (late in the evening) 2 years ago:

Doctors 'n' stuff

Well I saw my doctor today to fill in all the paperwork about my pregnancy including where I'd like to give birth, like I even believe that's going to happen.

She gave me a couple of forms for some blood draws which I'll try and get done tomorrow at the lab on the way to work as some of the result will take 10 days to come in. She offered to refer me to a psychologist to take about the miscarriages (crying in front of her probably prompted this), I said no.

She did suggest calling the hospital and trying to get the scan moved sooner, now I'm certainly not against this but...

This may be the most foolish thing I've ever done but I invited my in-laws to come over for the scan. My relationship with them is umm "difficult" and we haven't seen them for ages so it seemed like a good way to get them to come over (and suck up to them a bit). This will (hopefully) be their first grandchild and the excitment level is, frankly, scary. Obviously they have booked flights so wouldn't be able to come sooner. I guess this means I'll have to wait the two weeks.

At some point we're going to have to deal with how soon we can handle visits after the birth (assuming it happens) and living overseas means this won't be popping over for and hour or two but coming to stay (eeeek). Hopefully keeping them happy with things like coming to the scan will help with this potentially difficult discussion. Basically we're going to have to find a balance between them seeing the new baby ASAP and us wanting some space to get used to having a baby. Oh and of course there is the small factor that I'd like my mum to come and help first but there will be trouble if we appear to be favouring one set of parents.

I just hope they don't try and buy anything for the baby on this visit because I am far from ready to do that.

2 in one day!

So my sisters are still not doing so well, the older didn't get the job she's been covering (apparently very well) for the last 6 months and doesn't know what the next step is. And the younger one's relationship seems to be over.

Looking forward to seeing them at the weekend...

Cat is out of the bag

So I've told my colleagues, we were talking about conferences and one of my colleagues is planning to go to a huge one in the US in April. So I said "I won't be able to go to that" and he replied "you know already?" and me "um yes I'm planning on giving birth around then and they don't let you travel".

So now pretty much everyone knows, which is very weird. I gave my mum permission to spread the word so I guess that pretty much everyone at my parents wedding anniversary party this weekend will know. I'm feeling a bit odd about this as most of my parents friends have known me all my life and I don't know if I can handle too many congratulations when I'm still worried it might not work out. Perhaps I should have kept it secret longer....

Doctors appointment tomorrow to fill in relevant paperwork so I guess the midwife will be getting in touch soon for my first appointment. (bloody hell it's getting surreal).

Thanks

Thanks for all your comments on my last post, as for your questions about an appeal we are not sure at the moment. This decision was the result of an appeal that to be honest we thought was a formality. We are not sure what the next step is at this point. One interesting thing is that at the end of the letter was the line "your appeal has been forwarded to the disciplinary board of appeal" with no explanation of what this means. S has been trying to get hold of someone on the phone to find out. In addition he will talk to some people tomorrow to find out if they are prepared to go on record as his supervisors - this is probably too late for March but may mean he can take the exam in 2009.

Otherwise things are fine, it was nice seeing Barcelona and I'd definitely like to go back and see more of it (preferably with S) but it was also lovely to get home and spend the weekend together.

I managed to get to the hospital by just after 8 this morning for my blood test despite my alarm not going off which meant I was at work by 9:45 instead of my usual 9. But it would have been nice to have time for shower and breakfast too.

In other work news my company is still supporting my travel to conferences including a trip to San Francisco next month. With the trip to my parents this weekend and a visit to see some friends at the beginning of November stumpy is getting quite well travelled already.