25 weeks - this week I have been mostly...

…feeling the wrigglers hiccup (I think)…
My mum says I hiccupped lots before I was born, so no surprises! Also I think Lee might have turned. I feel them very often now, and someone has a foot on my bladder.


…getting backache…
Oh my god, sooo bad this week. I have been doing lots of gentle stretching, which really helps, but only for an hour or so, then it starts again. I have a really good chair at work, and have even bought a new chair for home, but not much helps. I’ve also had cramps in my calves during the night, which wake me up and I have to use my hands to grab hold of my feet and move them to stop the cramp!

…watching the height of my bump rise and fall…
Some days, it feels well supported, some days it seems to be pulling me down and sapping all my energy. What I wear makes a bit of a difference, but it’s still a bit weird that sometimes the most sticky-out part is my belly button, but sometimes it’s below that.

…waiting for the results of my glucose tolerance test…
I had my oral glucose tolerance test a couple of weeks ago, it's pretty horrible. Essentially you don't eat for 12 hours, and you have your blood taken twice in 2 hours, from the SAME ARM! Outrageous.

…feeling a bit down in general…
But I am going to my first coffee morning! In the absence of the NCT, I think a lot of these things are done through the Geobaby forums. I’m pretty nervous, but at least I can be sure we won’t run out of things to talk about! I’m a bit worried that lots of the people on the forum meet regularly in the middle of the day, so I imagine they have a v different life from me. On the other hand, after my talk with HR this week, seems like I might be free in the middle of the day, any day soon enough.

UPDATE: OK, so I went (very bravely) to the coffee morning, which was at a bar in Central. It was great actually, lots of really friendly people, around 12 of us, mostly Asian (but not HK-born for the most part) Lots of them worked full-time too, so that was a relief. In true HK style, by chance there was someone there who I know quite well, and someone else who's good friends with two friends of mine from work. It's a small island.

I also went to yoga after the coffee thingy, which was really good, I enjoyed it lots. I think my problem before was that when someone treats you like you are very easily breakable, and have to do everything verrrrry slowly and gently (like my Pilates teacher) you begin to believe them. This was pre-natal yoga, most people in 2nd trimester, but it was a great feeling to push myself a bit (as much as I wanted anyway) and feel really good about it afterwards, not sore or exhausted, but feeling like I had done myself some good.

..interviewing a helper...
Liz knows that this topic has occupied my thoughts for a long time... So, the current thinking is that we will get 1 helper (not 2 as many people have insisted) and that she will help with the housework, laundry, shopping (which they call marketing :-) etc, leaving me to do the childcare. Obviously she would help out too by watching Bruce while I bathe Lee, for example, but she would not have sole care all day. Hiring a helper is very tricky – not least because it never occurred to us that we would get one. I am aware that it's a huge luxury in the grand scheme of things, and help is super-affordable here. However, the major downside, in my eyes, is that it's a legal requirement for your helper to live with you. There are (illegal) ways around this, like paying for your helper to live in a hostel / flat, but I haven't yet got a sense of how feasible this is.

I've got some tips and references from people at work. I think the most unsettling thing is the tone of communications with potential helpers, they are polite to the point of subservience. I just don't know if I can get used to someone calling me “Madam” all day. The helper we interviewed on Sunday (this is their statutory day off) complained non-stop about her current employer for 20 minutes, which kind of put us off...While I know that we are very lucky to be able to afford help like this, it's important to remember that the majority of helpers have no qualifications, so it's not like hiring a nanny. Hmm. To be continued...