NobbyNobody

The resurrection of this blog is coming…

NobbyNobody — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:30:35 +0000

Having just redesigned the layout on Odd-Fish.net and included a link to this blog I guess I’m obliged to make the occasional entry.
So over the next few days I’ll make a few posts about Odd-Fish, the ongoing progress of Mrs Nobody’s pregnancy and life in general. Stay tuned.

A Multidimentional Baby

NobbyNobody — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:05:07 +0000

Today Mrs Nobody and I went to get another scan of our work in progress.
Unlike previous scans which were free and routine NHS proceedures to check for problems and to gauge the growth of the baby, the one we had today was by our choice and cost over £100. (Mother-in-law paid for it, her ‘baby shower’ gift to us.)
What made this scan even more different to the NHS ones we had before was the technology used. Rather than the flat monochrome ’slice’ through the baby’s body showing internal organs and an x-ray-like vaugeness of image, today’s scan showed a fully formed real-time three dimentional image of our wriggling baby in his bag of juice with his lifeline attached to his placenta.
The images aren’t perfect because there isn’t a lot of room in there and there’re plenty of things to get in the way of the imaging ‘lens’- the placenta, the cord, baby’s own hands and feet, Mum’s organs and so on. But with a little perseverance and an ice cream for Mrs Nobody to get him wriggling we got some lovely shots of his face, hands, feet and yes, confirmation that we have a son on the way!
We also got a DVD of the whole session. About 20 minutes of our son punching and wriggling, smiling, hiccuping and pulling at his umbilical cord. Bloody marvellous.

It’s a Boy!..Probably.

NobbyNobody — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:59:03 +0000

Today we had an appointment at the maternity unit for a routine ultrasound scan. The scan is so the development of all the the baby’s organs can be checked, any annomalies can be spotted and to just check that everything is generally OK.
The sonographer went through all the routine stuff; two hands, ten fingers, two kidneys, one brain in two lobes, one stomach, one liver, two legs with ten toes, one spine and so on. While she was doing all this with speedy efficiency she asked us if we wanted to know the gender of the baby.
We’d already discussed this and decided we did. Knowing ahead of the birth meant we could shop for clothes, decorate the nursery and chose a name at our leasure.
Mrs Nobody particulaly wanted to give the baby a name while its still cooking because she feels it helps with bonding, makes the baby more ‘real’ and less abstract.
So we told the sonographer our wishes and she quickly positioned the ultrasound probe to reveal the baby’s bits. It was such a fleeting glimpse the Mrs Nobody completely missed it but I saw clearly, for a split second what the sonographer referered to as a shape like a snail indicating that in all probability our child is a boy.
At this age and with ordinary ultrasound and with such a fleeting glimpse, there’s no way to be one hundred percent sure, but it’s still very good odds. We’re going to have a son.
Later on we’re hoping to have one of those new-fangled 3D scans which should show us without doubt if he has an innie or an outie (so to speak) but for now we feel confident enough to buy a few blue outfits to go with all the yellow stuff we have already.

Man, The Provider

NobbyNobody — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:09:01 +0000

I have the terrible urge to buy stuff. Stuff for the baby, stuff for Mrs Nobody, stuff for me and just stuff. It must be the instinct for the male of the species to provide for his offspring kicking in.
I am Man, hear me enter my PIN.
I mustn’t give in to the urge too often because we really have to watch the pennies at the moment, what with hoping to move house before the spawn makes its appearance. Of course the house move also means it’s not a good idea to clutter the place up with stuff that just becomes more things to pack.
Also, being realistic, it’s still very early days and it’s still a very real possibility that this little bean won’t stick.
Maybe when we hit the magic twelve weeks I’ll be a bit more relaxed about splashing the cash on baby paraphernalia.

Having said all that, we’ve started a ‘bottom drawer’ box which is becoming populated with a few little things for the baby.
Mrs Nobody has already blogged about the iCandy buggy and the MaxiCosi car seat we bought from eBay in a moment of weakness (they were bargains though.)
Anyway. Today for the box we bought a little blankie. It’s got a giraffe on it and it’s soft and snuggly. Hardly a priority purchase we know, but it’s one less thing to buy later on and one more thing that makes this whole experience just that little bit more real to us.
The box now also contains some babygrows we got on sale from Asda last week, (£4 for seven! Bargain!) a very nice maternity top from Mamas & Papas and a little top for the baby. The top turned out to be a learning experience about sizes and will be far too big for a newborn but no matter, one thing that babies can be trusted to do is g-r-o-w!
Any stuff we buy pre-knowing the gender is going to be either yellow, or as neutral as possible and personally, I’d like to avoid the whole blue-for-boys / pink-for-girls thing even when we do know the gender. In fact I’d like to avoid the whole gender stereotype reinforcement thing altogether. If my little boy wants a ‘my first kitchen’ playset or my little girl wants a Thomas the Tank Engine train set, that’s fine by me. Let them play with what engages their interest, I say.

We’ve also bought some non-underwired bras for Mrs Nobody because she’s rather tender in the boobicle regions to say the least and has already pretty much outgrown all her usual bras.
Honestly, the trouble we had finding non-underwired bras in large cups sized but with small backs you would not believe. But finally we found a two-pack (one black, one flesh) in 32E in Debenhams Department Store in the town centre. Mrs Nobody didn’t try them on in the shop (she hates doing that, and I can’t say I blame her) but once home they fitted snugly, possibly toosnugly. It won’t be long before she has to up-size again!

One last thing I which I bought today.
Earlier we were in B&Q (a hardware superstore) and we just happened to notice some ‘Baby on Board’ signs on a rack. Now personally, I hate seeing the things in the back of cars. I can’t see the point. “Oh I was going to ram your car from behind, but now that I see you’ve got a baby on board I’ll pick on someone else instead. Maybe they only have a worthless adult in their car and won’t mind me ramming them”
Anyway, I digress. Baby on Board signs are pretty ubiquitous, you see them everywhere, everyone knows what they look like. So we thought it might be quite fun to have a maternity tee with the sign on the ‘bump’ so as soon as I got home I made it so and ordered one.
Groovy, no?

Twins?

NobbyNobody — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:11:24 +0000

No not the cheesy feel-good movie about nature v nurture staring Arnold Wotzisknockers and Danny DeVito, I’m talking about the very real possibility that the new life, the little bundle of rapidly differentiating cells growing inside my lovely Missus is not a bean but beans. Plural.

It’s a possibility that only occurred to me a couple of days ago but has really got me thinking. Twins would mean we’d have to come up with two names. One is hard enough (see my previous post) but two? Oh dear. What if they’re both boys? Two boy’s names? Nightmare.

Of course, with twins, the names are the least of the worries. Poor Mrs Nobody is only five foot one and very petite, carrying one baby is going to be a real trial for her let alone two and then there’s the birth, having to force two little squirming bodies out of her Super Special Sphincter would be no walk in the park.

Later of course there’s having to have two of everything. Luckily Mrs Nobody has two boobs so feeding then should be too much of problem but we’ll also need to double up up cots, car seats, clothes, toys… well you get the picture, the list is endless.

Would we dress them alike? If they’re identical twins would we be able to tell them apart? How do you avoid favouritism?

Twins. Oh my. It would be fantastic if it were, but I just hope we could cope! I guess we’ll know in about seven or eight weeks when we have our first scan!

Names.

NobbyNobody — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:15:25 +0000

Although it’s very much early days, we’ve been talking about names.
We both want a name that’s a little unusual. but not in a Spudulicca or Frogmella ‘it’s exotic’ kind of way, we just want a name that’s just a little less than common. We don’t want our child to be in a class at school with half a dozen kids with the same name but at the same time we don’t want his or her name to be so freaky that it gets them picked upon.
Girls names are easy. There are possibly six or eight names I like and the same for Mrs Nobody with maybe four or five overlapping. We both want Elizabeth as a middle name because it’s my Mum’s name and Mrs Nobody’s Mum’s middle name. We both like grace too, but it’s becoming increasingly common at the moment so we’re not so sure anymore and the same goes for Rose or Rosie which was always the name I’ve had earmarked for years for my first little girl. Having a pet Parrot a few years ago called Rosie put paid to that though.
The name we’re both gravitating toward is ‘Temperance’. It’s unusual but not freaky, it works as both a child’s name and also sounds classy on an adult. It has a cute short version in ‘Tempy.’
Much as I want our little bean to be a girl though, I have a feeling it’s going to be a boy and we’re having real trouble trying to think of a boys name we both like.
Boy’s names are a lot harder to get right because there’s a lot more to consider. It has to sound right for a child but also work for an adult. It has to be masculine but not macho and has to be as ‘bully’s nickname’-proof as possible. I quite like the name Gabriel, but I wouldn’t want my son to have to go through school being called gay for short!
Of course both have to avoid names that remind us of people in our past that we’d rather forget and we can’t give him the same name as another family member or friend without looking like we’re naming our child after them!
Personally I also dislike obvious Celtic names for anyone who isn’t actually from Ireland. I don’t know why. So that’s Connor, Reece, Callum etc out of the running.
I dislike what I think of as ’standard’ names too. John for example. I always think that it sounds like the parents couldn’t think of a name so they went with the default. It’s like calling a dog Rex or a parrot Polly.
Honestly we’re at a bit of a loss for a boys name, let’s hope it’s a girl!

And the Results are In…

NobbyNobody — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:46:09 +0000

At 5:30am this morning, Mrs Nobody awoke to find the strangest of sensations in her abdomen. She says that It’s kind of hard to describe, like lots of little tuggy twinges.
We decided to do a test. A few moments later, in the not-so-soft glow of the bathroom lighting, a very faint pink line began to emerge.
Later that morning, as soon as the shops opened I nipped across to Sainsburys and grabbed a First Response Early Result test.
MOMENT OF TRUTH!
When I got back from the shop with the requested hardware Mrs Nobody dashed off to the bathroom with fingers and toes crossed. 3 minutes have never passed so slowly, but suddenly there it was. One pregnancy test strip with two solid pink lines proudly displayed in the result window.
Cue us running around the house with the biggest grins ever!

We’re going to have a baby.

We’re going to have a BABY!

Gosh.

Saying and writing it feels so weird. Gosh.

Yes?

NobbyNobody — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 19:01:45 +0000

Some kind of exhaustion has hit Mrs Nobody. She says she feels like she’s about to go into hibernation, or perhaps a coma.
Is this the well-known 1st trimester tiredness? Have we beaten the odd and got pregnant first try?
There are other, more ‘personal’ indications that look promising too. A certain tenderness in certain bodyparts that only ladies have.
We gave in and did a test yesterday which came out negative. Not really surprising as Mrs Nobody is only nine days post-ovulation today, but we couldn’t resist all the same. We promise not to test again until Monday. Oh, but it’s so bloody tempting!

Trying Times

NobbyNobody — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:22:29 +0000

We’ve started trying for a baby.
Mrs Nobody ovulated 2 days ago and the deed was dutifully done for a couple of days each side of egg-laying day.
Now comes the infamous ‘Two Week Wait’ while we wait too see if one of my little soldiers has managed to breech the defences, join forces with the locals and begin a nine-month occupation of Uteronia.
We bought a metric duck-load of NHS early pregnancy tests online last month in preparation. They’re very very sensitive to the pregnancy hormone and if the hormone is there is should be detectable after only 2 weeks.
Obviously we’re REALLY not expecting a positive after such a short time trying but you never know!

Car-Seat

NobbyNobody — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:19:21 +0000

…We went to pick up the car seat and base we won on eBay this afternoon. It was a bloody good price at £65, though we were a little disappointed as the listing stated the base was isofix compatible and turns out it’s not. No biggie, it will attach using the seatbelt instead. We decided to install it in the car even though we don’t have a baby yet, then we can cheekily park in the mother and child spaces when we go shopping!