Hi. There is still a baby in my girlfriend's belly and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger every day. Which rocks. KT is now 18 weeks pregnant and starting to feel gentle prods and pokes from the inside. Last night I went to sleep with my hand on the round bump and dreamt I could feel the movement from the outside. Or did it happen? I will never know. Then I dreamt on... From the various prods I could clearly see if it was a hand or a foot pressing outwards through the skin. Like in Alien. Then the baby pressed its little face against the inside and I could see the shape of it. Then the face got clearer and clearer and I freaked out a little bit.
The next scan is in about 5 days. If the universe wills it, we will learn about the male-female status. So the baby had better enjoy it last few days of having a pure, gender-free, identity-free existence. We need to get naming, so this will help. KT has a boy's name that comes from her family which just needs to be signed off by M and J, the daddies. She wore me down on it over the course of the last two years, so I'm in.
We have not discussed names with other people because once upon a time I was pregnant with our red herring Donor Dad and we (just him and me) thought Grover was a groovy name, like Grover Cleveland, the jazz muso. And then because of some little known kids show from the 70s, everyone was totally mean to us about it and really pleasant evenings with friends were unexpectedly ruined. People are cool with naming their child after Oscar the Grouch and Felix the Cat and Milo and Otis and Winnie the Pooh and Jack and the Beanstalk and Oliver Twist. You never hear "Oh don't call your son Oliver! He'll be teased at school because everyone will think of the little Dickensian orphan boy and start singing "who will buy?" whenever he walks past." No, because some parents pushed through on the grounds that the kid would have his own personality eventually and the connotations would fade and die. And now all you think is "Oh for christ's sake, not another fucking Oliver." I am, at times, a teacher of children, so I know how many Olivers there are. And, Hollies and Mollies and Tom Tom Toms. Not many Pollies, though. But then people would keep telling her to put the kettle on, so that's probably why. You have to be a bit of a pioneer with names, surely. Anyway, I don't want to use Grover --even though it is a fabulous, gorgeous name and I LOOOVE the friendly, furry little blue monster at the end of this book --so don't start in, I'm just making a point about not discussing names.
The next scan is in about 5 days. If the universe wills it, we will learn about the male-female status. So the baby had better enjoy it last few days of having a pure, gender-free, identity-free existence. We need to get naming, so this will help. KT has a boy's name that comes from her family which just needs to be signed off by M and J, the daddies. She wore me down on it over the course of the last two years, so I'm in.
We have not discussed names with other people because once upon a time I was pregnant with our red herring Donor Dad and we (just him and me) thought Grover was a groovy name, like Grover Cleveland, the jazz muso. And then because of some little known kids show from the 70s, everyone was totally mean to us about it and really pleasant evenings with friends were unexpectedly ruined. People are cool with naming their child after Oscar the Grouch and Felix the Cat and Milo and Otis and Winnie the Pooh and Jack and the Beanstalk and Oliver Twist. You never hear "Oh don't call your son Oliver! He'll be teased at school because everyone will think of the little Dickensian orphan boy and start singing "who will buy?" whenever he walks past." No, because some parents pushed through on the grounds that the kid would have his own personality eventually and the connotations would fade and die. And now all you think is "Oh for christ's sake, not another fucking Oliver." I am, at times, a teacher of children, so I know how many Olivers there are. And, Hollies and Mollies and Tom Tom Toms. Not many Pollies, though. But then people would keep telling her to put the kettle on, so that's probably why. You have to be a bit of a pioneer with names, surely. Anyway, I don't want to use Grover --even though it is a fabulous, gorgeous name and I LOOOVE the friendly, furry little blue monster at the end of this book --so don't start in, I'm just making a point about not discussing names.
So we probably have a boy name; we have a couple of girl names on the list, and we are almost ready to buy a big sexy washing machine for nappies. The washing machine will be called a Speed Queen. Yep. You can do lines off the top of it. Which you need when you have a first baby and you're using cloth nappies. We don't have the nappies yet. We are researching nappies.
We are also saving money because we are going to lose our main income when KT leaves her job in July. No paid maternity leave. I am doing some work and things are good right now, but the sporadic nature of my freelance stuff means we are instigating a fabulous saving plan so we can buy the nappies and also pay rent till KT satrts taking in some editing jobs at home. Bit like taking in washing. She does the ironing & mending for a bit extra.
We are also saving money because we are going to lose our main income when KT leaves her job in July. No paid maternity leave. I am doing some work and things are good right now, but the sporadic nature of my freelance stuff means we are instigating a fabulous saving plan so we can buy the nappies and also pay rent till KT satrts taking in some editing jobs at home. Bit like taking in washing. She does the ironing & mending for a bit extra.
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