'Been ill'

Jamie: "What's been happening this week then?"

Clare: "Been ill, not feeling very well 'n' stuff, and you been doing video".

Clare has really been feeling crap, but she has been oh so brave. She has reverted back to being a child, perhaps because little Mojo only like pizza, and not steamed vegetables, like most little boys. Anyway, Clare wants pizza for dinner every night, and stuffs it down only to feel sick and overly full slightly later. We are in week 15 now, and he is probably about 11cm long so pretty big. So while Mojo is busy growing away on clare's pizza nutrients - what's going on in the world. Well if this diary survives a decent amount of time it might be interesting to know that George Bush junior just got re-elected as president of the US. So it seems like the world has gone insane. Well America has anyway. And he has just appointed the most nationalistic foreign secretary - Condoleeza Rice. It starts to give a potential parent thoughts about what the world will be like when Mojo is a bit older.

On a brighter note, the scan movie is now compressed, so here it is: Mojo at 14 weeks!!

Scan + 1

I told everyone at work today, and got some nice emails back and a few hand shakes. I was actually pretty nervous before I told everyone, and it was only an email. Hopefully I will sleep tonight - was so hyper active last night I only slept for about 2 hours.

Some of the comments from people:

Adrian: congratulations mate, fantastic news and I wish you all the best for the future.
David-Jan: Congratulations!!! Great news, will shake hands tomorrow when I am in the office,
Marianne: Super news, very cool, I hope your brother is going to be right!
Sebastian: congrats! =-))))) very cool.
Donovan: Wooooh it is baby season ;-) Congratulations and well done ;-) Cheers!
Olly: wow! thats great :) You two will make really great parents, that's a lucky kid
Ben: Dude, I think he's after your booze. Congratulations! Looking forward to meeting the little fella.
Oh, & congrats!
Sybille: Congrats!!! Big hug to Clare and you, nice news!

Email from David Foggster: Just wanted to offer my congratulations to you and the hillbird - amazing news! I'm very excited! I'm going to bring the kid lots of sweets and money so they like me best!
Let me know if I can ring this weekend sometime to hear all about it!

I need some sleep now. Hopefully will get the video converted from VHS tomorrow...

Scan!

We had the first scan today, and it was fun!

First of all, Clare was late getting there because she was at a meeting in Laren (near Hilversum) and they left late to get there. I got there 15 minutes early and had to wait for about 40 minutes till Clare got there, but she did eventually. Clare told Sherrie that she had to get back for kidney scan, which seemed a bit fat fetched since she spoke to me several times on the phone on the way over.

We eventuallt got into the room with the slightly strange woman who hardly spoke any English and had the limpest handshake since Julian Clary did went all limp. She wasnt responsive at all (the woman, when we asked questions) but she slapped some grease on t' birds belly and there was a baby on the screen! It was amazing to see something that looked so big and fully functioning. Especially since the woman at the 'check-in' desk said that not many people paid for the scan video because it is not that clear. We could see so much detail - the heart blinking away, the brain, eyes, tongue, willy!!! We could even see him drinking - which we didn't realise babies even did in the womb. One of the funniest bits was when the technician woman referred to Clare's cervix as 'ingang' - entrance in dutch. Exit would perhaps have been more apt - I am not even sure of it means anything in Dutch normally, surely they dont use entrance and vagina inter-changeably.

Anyway, we got the video - which I was hoping would be in DV format of some kind, but it turned out to be VHS - and we don't have a bloody video. So we have to make do with 4 photos of the little blighter, who is still known only as 'mojo luis'...

Crap TV

We are watching DIY SOS. Life doesn't get a lot worse than that. I suppose Clare is busy growing a baby, but I don't have anything else to concentrate on, so I thought I should at least write about it.

Nothing to report baby-wise, but I assume the little blighter is slightly bigger than yesterday. Only 5 days till the scan now!! That is a big milestone, we both really hope it's all ok. Apparently the scan is somewhere by Leidseplein, according to Clare. I suggested in the hotdog cart by the bank, perhaps they slap you around the face with a hotdog whilst rubbing mustard into your belly and somehow it tells you if you have a healthy baby. I bet they do something similar in some countries.

Lucy and Giles arrive with Noah tomorrow, so we will find out what's in store for us - unless we have a baby that is completely different.

Midwife - 12 weeks, 1 day

Went to the midwife today and had the first meeting. She was very nice, very nice indeed. About 5ft 9, slim, erm... yes very professional. Anyway, she made me feel queasy by going on about Clare's kidney problems and stuff. It was a bit touch and go for a while, but I ducked out to get a glass fo water and felt a bit better. What a wuss - UNBELIEVABLE.

We eventually got past the nasty bit though, and then she said she would try to hear the babetje's heart beat. She warned Clare that her hands were cold, and then said not to worry if it took a while to try to find the heart beat - as sometimes its not detectable at this stage - 11 weeks 5 days apparently. Well, she slapped the sensor on the missus' belly and then 'duff, duff, duff, duff. It sounded like there was someone raving in there! "Wow, baby is definitely saying hello" said the midwife, or something like that. Clare had one of her cute beaming smiles with the slightly embarassed egdes to it. Brilliant. So now we have the scan next week!