A year ago and Georgia
Nov. 27th, 2002 10:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lathanyThis morning, a number of envelopes arrived addressed to Ryan and Beatrice. They are sitting in a small pile waiting for tomorrow - the twins first birthday. Consequently, I have been busy remembering what I was doing
It was a normal working day. I was twenty-seven weeks pregnant with just over two weeks left to go before I started my maternity leave (an early start because of it being twins). Adrian (a colleague of mine) was in Luxembourg, so I was looking after his team as well as mine. I remember emailing a consultant in Vancouver and asked him whether he was happy with using Excel for his calculations (no !). I was preparing my annual report so that my boss could complete it in preparation for my maternity leave. I was also constructing a guest list for my leaving do. The plan was to bring in some wine, fruit juice and mince pies after my big meeting on 13th December (my planned last day).
The bumps were behaving quiet well. Kicking bump (later named Ryan Blake) liked the fact that I spent quite a lot of the day moving around. Quiet bump (later named Beatrice Katrin) made a rare and slightly painful move around lunchtime. I was slightly late leaving the office that evening as I was finishing my report and I exchanged a few words with Anna before I left (shouldn't you be taking it easy now ?).
Going home proved rather difficult. The trains were messed up again - an occasional occurence during the winter months. My hour long journey was closer to two hours and I had to stand for the first half. I may have looked very pregnant in my work wear, but my big brown winter coat pretty much disguised the huge twin-sized bump meaning that seat offers were rare. And, believe me, standing when carting an additional three stone around (which appeared over the period of about 15 weeks) is not something I would recommend.
It was then I realised that my insides were hurting. This happened occasionally during pregnancy, so I just swore under my breath and carried on. I finally left the train and walked back to the house. When I finally arrived home, I realised that the pains I was getting were coming at regular intervals. We gave a name to them - contractions - and Dom rang the hospital.
And there began the longest night of my life.
The rest was written up by Dom on the twins web site, so I am not going to repeat the details here. Needless to say that I never returned to work !
Yesterday, Georgia visited bearing gifts (birthday presents for the twins and a "Congratulations on surviving" present for Dom and I). . She got to watch the twins being fed and changed, and fed and changed. The four of us went for a short walk around the nearby park and we talked about life, and friends, and when she and Rob might move south. Dom came home and immediately went to bed - he has been ill for a while now. He did not want any dinner.
So we ordered take-away curry (Georgia paid with ash cash) and had beers and liqueurs. And we talked more, whilst Ryan tried to drink Georgia's beer. She is hoping to apply for jobs in January (for an August start) whilst Rob will be looking for academicy/researchy posts in the nearby area. Their plan is to live with Georgia's dad whilst working out where best to buy/rent a house. He has a huge house - so they will have plenty of space ! And, apparently, Rob thinks that Ryan and Bea are great ;-)
Ryan has a cold, so has been coughing in an ear-piercing and pathetic fashion (one eye on the adults in the room whilst making this miserable noise). Fortunately, he does not seem to be too bad. Beatrice is her usual happy, smiling self. A letter arrived with all the twins post confirming the diagnosis that the doctor gave us last week - that she does not have cerebral palsy.
In other news, I have managed seventy-five chapters, so am into editing the last quarter of my book. This means that, odd as it sounds, I will soon move onto something new.
It was a normal working day. I was twenty-seven weeks pregnant with just over two weeks left to go before I started my maternity leave (an early start because of it being twins). Adrian (a colleague of mine) was in Luxembourg, so I was looking after his team as well as mine. I remember emailing a consultant in Vancouver and asked him whether he was happy with using Excel for his calculations (no !). I was preparing my annual report so that my boss could complete it in preparation for my maternity leave. I was also constructing a guest list for my leaving do. The plan was to bring in some wine, fruit juice and mince pies after my big meeting on 13th December (my planned last day).
The bumps were behaving quiet well. Kicking bump (later named Ryan Blake) liked the fact that I spent quite a lot of the day moving around. Quiet bump (later named Beatrice Katrin) made a rare and slightly painful move around lunchtime. I was slightly late leaving the office that evening as I was finishing my report and I exchanged a few words with Anna before I left (shouldn't you be taking it easy now ?).
Going home proved rather difficult. The trains were messed up again - an occasional occurence during the winter months. My hour long journey was closer to two hours and I had to stand for the first half. I may have looked very pregnant in my work wear, but my big brown winter coat pretty much disguised the huge twin-sized bump meaning that seat offers were rare. And, believe me, standing when carting an additional three stone around (which appeared over the period of about 15 weeks) is not something I would recommend.
It was then I realised that my insides were hurting. This happened occasionally during pregnancy, so I just swore under my breath and carried on. I finally left the train and walked back to the house. When I finally arrived home, I realised that the pains I was getting were coming at regular intervals. We gave a name to them - contractions - and Dom rang the hospital.
And there began the longest night of my life.
The rest was written up by Dom on the twins web site, so I am not going to repeat the details here. Needless to say that I never returned to work !
Yesterday, Georgia visited bearing gifts (birthday presents for the twins and a "Congratulations on surviving" present for Dom and I). . She got to watch the twins being fed and changed, and fed and changed. The four of us went for a short walk around the nearby park and we talked about life, and friends, and when she and Rob might move south. Dom came home and immediately went to bed - he has been ill for a while now. He did not want any dinner.
So we ordered take-away curry (Georgia paid with ash cash) and had beers and liqueurs. And we talked more, whilst Ryan tried to drink Georgia's beer. She is hoping to apply for jobs in January (for an August start) whilst Rob will be looking for academicy/researchy posts in the nearby area. Their plan is to live with Georgia's dad whilst working out where best to buy/rent a house. He has a huge house - so they will have plenty of space ! And, apparently, Rob thinks that Ryan and Bea are great ;-)
Ryan has a cold, so has been coughing in an ear-piercing and pathetic fashion (one eye on the adults in the room whilst making this miserable noise). Fortunately, he does not seem to be too bad. Beatrice is her usual happy, smiling self. A letter arrived with all the twins post confirming the diagnosis that the doctor gave us last week - that she does not have cerebral palsy.
In other news, I have managed seventy-five chapters, so am into editing the last quarter of my book. This means that, odd as it sounds, I will soon move onto something new.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Hurrah!
Date: 2002-11-27 04:09 am (UTC)Re: Hurrah!
Date: 2002-11-28 03:21 am (UTC)Probably not. They've two sets of doting grandparents and Dom and I had trouble thinking of stuff !
Just to wish them well (plus Ryan would be grateful for any cold remedies suitable for 1 year olds).
Many happy returns
Date: 2002-11-27 04:48 am (UTC)(and good work on the book too)
serious progress on all fronts.
Re: Many happy returns
Date: 2002-11-28 03:22 am (UTC)