Nine Weeks

Maybe it's the holiday weekend, maybe it's the cooler weather, maybe it's the morning sickness easing off slightly, but today I'm a different woman. I feel happier than I have done in weeks and more like me. I feel pretty, as the song goes. I still felt a few waves of nausea after lunch, [Japanese - apparently the baby doesn't like Age Dashi Tofu, the little philistine still just wants KFC], but mainly I'm full of energy and generally chirpy. This being Good Friday there's nothing going on, all my mates are working extra shifts for the double pay, the shops are closed and I'm too chipper for housework, so I took the bump to see Horton Hears a Who. It's my favorite Dr Seuss, it's that line about a person being a person no matter how small, and I've always kept a copy at work to read to the small people. They like being read to, especially stories with rhyme and rhythm, and it goes down well with parents. And the film wasn't a disappointment, it was great, actually quite moving at times, [hey, I'm pregnant; I can be moved to tears by ads on TV]. I think I might even like it better than Finding Nemo, but it hasn't knocked The Aristocats from top of my favorite animated films list. A-rat-a-tat-a-tat.

I'm missing the small people a bit, although the featherbrained students are quite amusing too. Generation Y is certainly a different species. They are so much less independent and creative, they are constantly seeking instructions and guidance. I suppose their lives have been much more orchestrated than my generation. Gen X was out of the house in the moring, playing out by ourselves in packs until we were hungry or it was growing dark. Gen Y seems to have been in front of a TV or computer, in organised after school clubs and under constant surveillance. They aren't very critical or inquisitive, just accepting whatever they are told. Which is quite fun, as they are easy to provoke. I gave a fab class this week on airway management; it rocked. I made them do some actual thinking in groups and they responded really well to it. Another reason to be cheerful.

Further good news. I now have a pregnancy entourage. The Queen of the Midwives, [or Course Leader of the Post Grad Dip as she is also known], has granted me a boon of not one but two student follow-through midwives. My own students. It's like having free doulas. They are Charlotte and Amanda and will be coming to my appointments with me and to my birth and for a while afterwards. I'll probably also have the midwife next door as she's a special high risk midwife and makes me feel very safe, and Susan and maybe the Queen herself, as I reckon the more the merrier. A sort of labour party. I'm planning on staying at home for as long as possible, til 8cm maybe then only going into the Family Birthing Centre for the actual delivery then having a six hour discharge. So, sort of like a home birth with a detour. Most Aussies think this is crazy, as they are used to lounging in hospital for days, but in Europe we take our babies home and retire to our own sofas and frozen meals and the community midwives come to us and drink tea and eat chocolates and everybody is much happier. Oh and champagne. I am so looking forward to that glass of champagne. I knew I was pregnant so early I've been deprived for six weeks now. I think you're not supposed to fancy wine, but I would happily kill for a chilled glass of white wine. I'm not even that much of a drinker, I think it's just the sheer deprivation of the Island of No. And the boredom of 3 litres of tap water a day, [yes, it was me, I am single handedly responsible for the drought in Victoria].