Fifteen weeks

It has been a busy week. I've sold the house! But it'll take about three months for the sale to go through and three months to buy here, which brings me up to my due date. Fabulous timing but I will not have a baby crawling on these icky rented carpets! The nasty cold has settled down to a sniffle and there's been no more bleeding. My swabs were clear, so my cervix is just sore, not infected. The bump continues to grow. I'm now having to wear maternity clothes most days and can't do up the zip on my favorite skirt. I bought another $250 of maternity gear, including a gorgeous red wool dress. This was lucky, as they sprung an interview on me on Tuesday. 17.15 in the evening, so both they and I were quite tired and we just had a nice chat really. I doubt I'll get the job, but it was good experience putting the application together.
Phil and I have won a small grant to conduct some research. This is very good news for me as I need some publications on my CV and Phil has loads of experience. I'm very fortunate he's working with me. I've also put in for another small grant and today I'm meeting with a potential phd supervisor at Melbourne Uni.
Matty the flattie is working out well. He keeps me amused with his seemingly endless stories of new dates and is out enough that I still have enough space. He's very opinionated about baby names though. He and Justin have decided that I must call my baby Leo. I'm keen on Elliot today. Elliot or Esme, which nobody objects to. The baby is now 9.5cm from head to rump, or about 15cm in total if he has his father's beautiful long legs. He has fingernails just starting this week, and he's looking more like a real baby, just in minature. I think it's possible to feel the kicking on the outside by 20 weeks. It's just the most astonishingly intimate thing; having this baby moving inside me.
I still sometimes feel quite unsure about how I'm going to cope. I work out the maths and sometimes it's seems adequate and sometimes it seems very frightening indeed. I should have a good six months of being comfortable. After that is anyone's guess. I'm going to start buying the fun things; a baby wrap or a sling, some manchester, I'll look again at cots. Cots are so amazingly variable in price. Do I want to spend $200 or $2000? Is there really much difference? It's not like I'll be using it for ten years. The ikea $200 ones seem fine, just not so pretty and surely I'll need the extra money for food? I can always pretty it up with nice sheets. I just need one that will line up with my bed, so that I just have to lean over and grab him when he's hungry.