Long time ...

[cj]

... no speak, so

Happy New Year, folks!

Hope you've all had a jolly and restorative holiday period.

Our Christmas was highly eventful in that nothing happened as I was bed-ridden for a fortnight with terrible 'flu and a lung infection. Added to that, younger dd woke up on Christmas morning with a raging temperature only to take a cursory look at her stocking and then fall asleep beside me in bed. Hooray for 1) my mum who provided festive meals on wheels that day and 2) my darling husband who cooked, looked after the sick and bewildered and has done all the laundry (a marathon achievement in itself - I might try this tack again!).

Actually, one thing did happen - I found out a week before Christmas that I'm pregnant again, currently 10 weeks, so the forum can expect the pitter patter of tiny feet and a new addition to the virtual family in August. Mixing 'flu with morning sickness is not the best idea but then I've never done things by halves, but having suffered terribly for the first 5 months last time the doctors have come up trumps this time with lovely drugs to ease the vomiting (after a bad time on cyclizine, now on metoclopramide for those who are interested) which have helped no end. I can now get dressed and make it down to the kitchen without heaving my guts up. The fridge and cat food is still a no-go area though. Will post a picture of Ethelbert the Bean when we have a scan that is recognisable as a baby.

ttfn - hot chocolate and cheese puffs are calling!

PS Love the new font colour choices, jt.

[Katharine]

We've missed you Cath. I hope that you are feeling better now and that all will go will with Ethelbert (love the name!). Great that you had help at Christmas time, Mothers do have their uses!

My poor son and family had to postpone their Christmas as they all suffered from the vomiting bug - he had to run the washing machine 3 times on Christmas night alone! They were in Scotland and I wasn't there to help.

[MKM]

Congratulations Cath, that's lovely news.

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Congratulatons Cath

Guess there's not much chance of you making it to Hertford in April? However, Mary (MKM, rather than Englishangel, although you're welcome too Mary) and I may be lurking around Devon trying to find the elusive Munch a few days before the reunion and it would be great to meet you and Ethelbert.

I could bring ginger for your nausea, although, let's see (quick calculation) you'll be, er, about 20 weeks by then, so hopefully it will be just a memory.

xx

[Great Plum]

Congratulations!

I'm glad you are feeling better...

[J.R.]

Many congrats Cath.

I would say well done, but then again..........

[Mid A 15]

Good to see you back and congratulations!

[midget]

Congratulations to you, Cath. Beware, a friend called her baby Fred during her pregnancy, and the name stuck, even after SHE was born, and christened Harriet.
Maggie

[Vonny]

Congratulations! I read your news on Facebook

[cj]

Thanks for the messages, everyone. I'm getting more excited now that I can tell people. And I've felt much better day today (only had 2 tablets) and even made it round the supermarket in one go. Progress indeed. Trouble is my stomach has swelled with the famine and dehydration so I look much more pregnant than I am.

Congratulations to you, Cath. Beware, a friend called her baby Fred during her pregnancy, and the name stuck, even after SHE was born, and christened Harriet.
Maggie

Don't worry, midget, dd (no.2) was Hubert the Prawn whilst in utero and couldn't be anything else but Cora now. Besides, dsd (no.1) would kill us if we did call him/her Ethelbert - it's so not cool. A good trans-gender name though, Ethel or Bert.

[englishangel]

Many congratulations. No 1 son bump was called Frog (because of the kicking, and turned into a handsome prince) and the twins were Fred and Ginger because one kept still and the other danced around, turned out that Fred was a boy and Ginger a girl, but metamorphosed into Christopher and Helen PDQ.

[Angela Woodford]

Fantastic, Catherine!

A new baby! How wonderful! But gruesome that you have been so ill. Very sorry to hear it. Let me know if there's anything I can do, and I'll rush over to do it - not that far away now! Take it very easy, if possible.

Love, Munch

[blondie95]

congratulations cath, thats very exciting news, a shame christmas was blighted by illness but i think that was the case for a lot of people.

[icomefromalanddownunder]

Munch!

Thank goodness that you are back online - I was afraid that I would have to hunt out a writing implement and remember how to make intellible squiggles on a piece of paper, not to mention brave the queues at the PO.

Good luck with catching up on all that has transpired since you headed West. I have pm'd you to short circuit part of the process

xx

[Angela Woodford]

Long time...!

It feels like a very long time and I'm catching up with all the goings-on on the Forum. Struggling a bit with a changed format, getting the hang of it slowly.

I've had to change my service provider. I was with talktalk, and it seemed impossible to be reconnected - the "Moving House Hotline" (a guy in Cape Town) seemed not to understand that I had moved house and repeatedly played "Something In The Air Tonight" while he got to grips with the idea. Then he came back and reproachfully told me that there was no such number as my (new) phone number. I gritted my teeth and said that this was because it is new. Then he said that it would take a year to reinstall talktalk.

I began to lose it at this point. I informed him that at that rate "Something In The Air" would need to be a carrier pigeon. I was becoming increasingly . He said he would consult his Supervisor. After another 10 minutes, this time, of Eine Kleine keep-you-there-all-Nacht Musick, I slammed down the phone in a rage.

It seemed a bit perverse to have forked out £124.99 to have a BT line connected and then pay again to have it disconnected so my new broadband as from yesterday is btinternet. I have got to try and see if I can retrieve my old messages and list of contact addresses from talktalk cyberspace. I should hate to lose them all! Oh bogger it! Wonder if I can.

I must not moan.

I will think of Catherine's new baby instead!!

Munch