O.U. - Trying again....

Some of you may remember my struggles and stresses with my Design and Designing course last year, that I passed, surprising myself! 

Afterwards, I started a new course with the O.U. and had to drop out, or defer as they call it, as I didn't have the concentration needed. I have decided to re-register and try again, so come October I'm going to be trying again to complete Advanced Creative Writing.

Hopefully, I can get back to writing before then, even if just bits here and there. To be honest, I still have all my previous ideas kicking around...

Busy

I'm sorry that I haven't had time to blog recently.

I have a lot on at the moment, but I'm remembering to enjoy the rainbows whilst working towards my pot of gold.

Unfortunately, I had to visit the LGI last Friday evening due to having reduced movements, all was fine but as it was my second episode of reduced fetal movement I was booked in for a scan. On Monday, I had the scan, the baby and amniotic fluid were measured. Again all was as should be, but the sonographers need to see the baby move twice during the scan. 

And she just refused, lazy bugger (mummy's girl). 

I ended up stood up, jiggling my stomach and telling her to move. I'm sure it would have looked rather strange to anyone watching. She did as was told. Eventually!

So although I have an OU assignment and an OU EMA (which is worth 50% of my course) that are both due before my daughter. Plus a couple of WIPs that I want to finish for various reasons; financial and exposure mainly, I'm not stressing.

I was also lucky enough to get a place on the So You Want To Be A... Writer at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. An amazing opportunity, I hope to make the best of. The showcase of this is the day before my baby's due date.

I am in the final six weeks of my pregnancy now and am lucky that I'm not at the 'I just want it all to be over' stage. Obviously, I'm looking forward to her arrival, but I'm really hoping that she follows my time keeping and makes a late appearance.

She is due on Saturday 2nd June, which is Jubilee Weekend, also England face Belgium at Wembley that day for the last Friendly before the Euro 2012 starts days later.

Hospital appointments, antenatal groups, final baby checklists, and life are taking up the rest of my time. I promise I haven't neglected you, well I have, but hopefully not for much longer.

Stress, stress, and progress

On Friday I started with painful stomach cramps, not knowing what is and isn't normal in pregnancy as this is my first baby, I used the NHS Direct website symptom checker. Having completed the options, I was presented with a recommendations page. Nothing to worry about, but someone will call you within the hour.

Within minutes, I received a call from a nurse. She went through my details, symptoms, etc. again. After the phone assessment, she advised me to call my midwife or the delivery suite at the hospital where I am planning to give birth. 

At 16:50 on a Friday I didn't hold out much hope of getting in touch with my midwife team, but they answered and talked me through what I was feeling.

The midwife said it was possible it was Braxton Hicks although a little early, or it was ligament pain from where the baby had moved to. Basically either way, take some paracetamol, rest, maybe add a bit of heat with a hot water bottle if needed. 

I had been rushing around and the cramps were only lasting a minute or two at the most, but they were around every five minutes. Once I actually sat down, it started to calm down. I think knowing from the midwife that it was normal, made me relax. 

It's times like this I wish I had family / friends close by.

Today I had an appointment with the JobCentre for Work Related activity re ESA. The personal adviser I spoke to was a lovely lady, she gave me lots of details, etc. but did inform me that company may not take me on to the program as I am pregnant. They usually don't take people who are within 11 weeks of of their due date or with a child under 5, so I now have to wait.

As I mentioned in my What am I doing to get my groove back? Or just get one? blog post, I have started:

• to gather various quote on to a page aptly titled Quotes. 
• used the sewing machine and cretaed a couple of baby related items.
• started to collect my library of note books with various scribblings in, to make a current portfolio of work in a degree of drafts.
• I have started my next TMA (Tutor Marked Assignment) for OU (Open University) course.
• I have registered my interest (or rather intent to start) the next module of my degree. Of course, that largely depends on my ability to finish this one adequately!

What am I doing to get my groove back? Or just get one?

Another Groovy Mum blog post

Following on from my blog post about becoming a Groovy Mum, I am going to list what I am doing to help achieve that.

• Crafts - I used to do a lot of craft style things, card making, scrap booking, etc. but I haven't do anything creative in a long time. I aim to restart this in some way. My first thing is sewing. My mother was a seamstress and I'm ashamed to say that I never learnt beyond the very basics, and that was a long time ago. I have recovered the sewing machine from the cellar, it's had a service and I am trying to get back into it. 

• Pampering - We all love a bit of pampering. I had a great pregnancy massage from Karen @ The Green Room recently. It was lovely. I WILL book another this week. I will also make an appointment for a hair cut, or at least look at new styles.

• Creative Writing - I have always had a passion for writing, be it technical, creative, poetry; but again, it has become a casualty of my depression. I will post some other my writings and ask for feedback. As I am currently studying Creative Writing with the O.U. I really should be more on top of this. 

• Quotes - I like quotes. Sometimes I agree with them, sometimes I disagree, some make me laugh (intentionally or not), some are triggers for writing. I have various dotted about on my blog, my Twitter timeline, various notebooks, etc. I will combine them all into one place.

• Acceptance - I must learn to accept sometimes I just cannot do things for whatever reason, it doesn't make me a bad person. I like to think I am gracious in accepting help, but I want to be able to train myself in to believe that asking for help is not a sign of weakness, regardless of what it is for.

One of the greatest pieces of advice I was given was:

 

Treat yourself how you would treat a friend.

Are you harder on yourself than you would be to a friend? 

Be kind to yourself.

So how about you? What are you going to do for you?

Writing

Childhood is the writer's bank balance.

Graham Greene