Well, Sarah was back to school today - welcome for all of us, I think. She enjoys school (as my mother says, at some point they lose that - or at least have to pretend they don't like it, so it's nice while it lasts), so that's good. We had our first trampoline class on Tuesday, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Strangely (or perhaps it's not strange) most of the kids in the class are boys - the one other girl is also called Sarah. Still, the important thing is that she had fun, so that's good. She's still not a big joiner, so it's clear that she really likes trampoline, as she's willing to put up with the fact that there are other people she doesn't know there. Olivia's first "Tots Tap & Ballet" class was today - I didn't stay to watch past the first 5 minutes or so, so I'm not sure what they did, but the bit I did see was very cute - they all held hands and went around in a circle for a while, then did some jumping & clapping. I'm sure it's all very basic, but they are really sweet to watch. Most of the girls had some type of ballet costume on, so I suppose I'll have to let Olivia wear her dressing up costume next week. If she stays interested, perhaps we'll buy her a leotard and tutu or something for Christmas.

Busy week last week, though I'm not entirely sure what all we ended up doing that kept us so busy - doesn't matter, of course, as long as the tempers don't get too bad, and we've escaped that reasonably well. I hope it keeps up as I had a call from the school this morning to say that there are problems with the boiler in the wing of the school where Sarah's classroom is, so the little ones (nursery and reception) won't be going back to school until Thursday (instead of tomorrow). So, two more days to fill, yippee... At least the other activities all start up again this week, like Olivia's playgroup and my yoga class. Sarah's new after school activity - trampolining - will start tomorrow, and Olivia's new activity - Tots Tap & Ballet - starts Thursday, so there are some treats for them, which should help keep them sweet. I can't wait to see the ballet class - it's 2.5 to 4 yr olds, so should be unbelievably cute, even though they don't (I don't think) wear "proper" ballet clothes, as it's just a casual, fun-type class, rather than a professional type one.

Olivia had her birthday on Thursday, so is now 3 - hard to believe - and her little party (a "purple party" was requested) on Saturday, both of which went well. The party only had a few children, so it wasn't really that big a deal - not like Sarah's, which required a lot more organisation and effort, as there were about 15 kids. I think next year, we'll do at least one of the parties somewhere other than our own house. Probably it will be Sarah's party as the kids will be older & need more thorough entertainment. There may also be more of them, as she'll want to invite everyone in her class (well, maybe not everyone, but it might be close). If we decide to hire a hall or something like that, she probably can do that. We'll see. Luckily, we won't have to plan it for a while yet. :)

We seem to have survived the first day of half term with no incidents and not too much boredom, despite appalling weather. I guess the real test will be later in the week, Thursday & Friday. Of course, Thursday is Olivia's birthday and a friend of Sarah's from her old school is coming for lunch & to play in the afternoon, so they have that to look forward to, which should help. And it is only a week, though I'm sure that by the end of it, we'll feel as though it's been a lot longer than that. That's one of the really nice things about school - they do keep them so occupied that not only are they not bored, but they are tired when they get home and quite happy to be entertained in a simple way, rather than an elaborate one.

We're off shortly to go around to Thalia's house and watch her new video (Sleeping Beauty - should be a big hit as it has both faeries and a princess in it). We've got a new video for half term as well, but we're saving that until we really need it...

Well, for the first time this week it's not actually raining, so we walked across to school this morning - makes a nice change from the traffic, though it's getting a bit nippy. Sarah was very excited to be able to see her breath, though. Whatever works - I'm glad that something so simple can interest them!

Today should be a lovely day in general though - I haven't got anything I need to do until this evening, so I get an entire day of hanging around and entertaining Olivia (who is, at the moment, watching Monsters Inc for the 50th time - she adores it). I might even get some sewing done, which would be nice. I also hope to make a pumpkin pie, which is more of a task than it might otherwise be, as you can't find tinned pumpkin easily in this country, so I'm making it from scratch, starting with the 3 kilo pumpkin ("small pumpkin" it says on the label) on my counter. We'll see how that goes.

On another note, my friend Neela tells me that the free-ness of museums in London is actually due to the hard work of the former culture secretary, Chris Smith (I think my association with Ken is simply that it was something he strongly supported). Being a firm believer in giving credit where it's' due - well, good on ya, Chris. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,495517,00.html)

Took the girls up to the Natural History Museum today, which I think they enjoyed, overall. One of the nice things that Ken Livingstone (Mayor of London) has done recently is make a number of the major London museums free, including the NHM and the Science Museum. Which is great, as with little kids, their attention span is about an hour and a half, so you don't really want to have to pay £8 per adult to get in in the first place.
We went through at the dinosaur gallery, which was packed, of course. Sarah was a bit scared of the animated T Rex at the end (she didn't want to look at it) but Olivia tried to scare it by roaring back. I think that's probably a my kids in a nutshell, right there. Be interesting to see what the next one's like! Then we had lunch (they have a really good picnic area in the basement, which is great, as you can bring better food than you get in their restaurants/cafes and much cheaper) and then had a look at the Creepy Crawlies (which they both enjoyed - much more up Sarah's alley, I think) and a brief tour of the Earth Galleries, though they were beginning to get cranky, so we didn't stay long. But the nice thing is that now that it's free, we can do it again without worrying about only seeing one or two things each time. Same with the Science Museum, and when they are a bit older, some of the other ones. And of course, it means I'll get a chance to see the museums, which I haven't really done here.

OK, well. Now we've been to see the experts and their boss. (And I've encountered the most amazingly convulted route to a car park I've ever seen, but that's another story entirely). And the consensus is that what originally appeared to be a dilated kidney is actually a collection of fluid (a urine bubble) at the outside of some kidney tissue, which is not fully developed. At some point during the development of that kidney & the vessels associated with it, a blockage (most likely) occurred, and it resulted in the malformation of the kidney. It was, at some point, at least, producing some urine (hence the bubble), but probably isn't functioning much anymore, if at all.

What does this mean? Well, there's no danger to the baby in utero (provided nothing happens with the other kidney, which is highly unlikely), and it's not even an emergency once he's born. The urine bubble should disperse itself gradually without intervention. At some point after he is born, they'll do some scans, possibly some x-rays, maybe some other diagnostic tests, with the purpose of seeing if the right kidney has any function at all, if it does, how much, and if there's any chance of it presenting a danger to the baby, in terms of infection or interference with other functions. It's possible that if they decide it poses a risk, they'll want to remove it eventually. The head of the department (the uber-specialist) says that he thinks that it's unlikely that the baby will have much functionality in the right kidney, but it's not something they can tell for certain until after he's born.

So, that's that. Apparently, it's officially known as a "dysplastic kidney" with some "perinephric fluid collection, likely to be a urinoma". In people speak, that's a kidney that's malformed, with a urine (or possibly other fluid, but most likely urine) bubble next to it. Anyway. They'll do a follow up scan in about 6 weeks time, just to check on stuff, and towards the end of the pregnancy we'll get to meet some of the paediatric urology specialists, who will be the ones dealing with him once he's born.

It's still not really a cause for worry (and anyway, there's nothing we can do about it now). I think that's about all they said, except that there's no way of telling for certain precisely when or why the problem occurred. But there's no reason to think that anything will happen with the left - this does not make it more likely that the left will have problems.

And the other good news is that there's nothing wrong with anything else - the rest of the baby - heart, brain, limbs, genitalia, and so on and so on are all perfectly normal - this is just one of those little glitches that sometimes happen. While it's somewhat frustrating to know about it now and therefore have it hanging over you, it's actually a good thing that they know about it before he's born, as they can then make sure that there is no potential for further damage, problems, infection, and so on. Without this kind of scanning, this kind of problem might not show up until much later, perhaps as a series of chronic urinary infections or something, which could potentially damage the other kidney, so knowing in advance that they'll need to check the right kidney & keep an eye on it and/or remove it if it looks like it might be a problem is a positive thing. Best to be prepared, as any boy scout will tell you :)

Well, I went to see the obstetrician today, who rescanned and gave her opinion. The right kidney is definitely dilated, quite a lot, and she thinks the right ureter is dilated (swollen) as well. Left is fine, bladder is fine. This means that the obstruction is somewhere below the bladder, in the ureter vessel somewhere (apparently). Because of the amount of dilation, it is almost certain that the problem will not resolve itself before birth, and will need to be treated post-natally. So, when he's born, they'll check him out to see what's next. Scan him them and see how enlarged the kidney is, and so on. He'll go on antibiotics as a prophylactic, as the danger lies not so much from the actual obstruction (or urine reflux, if that's what it is - the urine flowing backwards) but from potential infection to the kidney. Repeated or consistent infection can mean permanent kidney damage. The likelihood is that they will be able to resolve the obstruction or reflux (which I think tends to simply fix itself) within the first few years of his life - the problems tend to go away as the child grows. As the absolute worst case scenario, he could lose the function of that kidney. However, should that happen, and it's only the worst case scenario, it wouldn't affect his quality of life, as humans are perfectly able to function with only one kidney. (People donate them to relatives with problems, for instance.)


Anyway, as he'll need to be seen postnatally, they are referring me on yet again, to a specialist, at a different hospital. (But at least we have a national health service). In cases where you'll need to see someone after the birth, they like for you to go in and meet them beforehand, and so on. So that's tomorrow. I don't imagine they'll tell me much that we don't know already, though they may be able to give some more precise idea of what the risk levels are. I shall post more later, but it's not something to be too worried about, so if you are reading this, don't worry. :)

It's hard to decide whether to tell everyone or not tell everyone - I've obviously told some people, and it's not a secret or anything, but then again, one does get tired of having the same conversations over and over. And if people are friends but not close friends, well, you don't really want them to worry. But on the other hand, if one is thinking about it all the time oneself...

So, yesterday we had the 20 week development scan (at 22 weeks, but still), which was interesting. The good news is that he's a boy (which should make an interesting change) and that most of him seems to be just fine. The less good news is that he has a small problem with his right kidney, in that it's retaining more fluid than it should be. Apparently, this ("renal pelvic dilation" or "foetal hydronephrosis") is not uncommon, especially in boys. They don't treat it antenatally (at least, not if it's unilateral - not sure what they do if it's bilateral), and in fact, it goes away before birth in around half of the cases. The most common cause is a blockage in the ureter, which can be caused by a number of different things, including a simple kink in the vessel or a mild infection. So, anyway, I've got another scan tomorrow, this time with an actual obstetrician (which in Britain is unusual - mostly you deal with your midwife or GP) who will advise how frequently we need to check it out during the rest of the pregnancy and so on. I do hope she doesn't say that I have to have a scan every couple of weeks - talk about tedious. And we won't even get into the issue of trying to park at the blasted hospital...

Anyway, the really hard thing now will be trying to find a name that we like which hasn't been used by an immediate family member already and goes with our surname (i.e. nothing that starts (or ends) with "n" or has lots of "f" or "th" sounds) - suggestions more than welcome, though I can't imagine you'll come up with anything reasonable that's not in one of our many borrowed name books. Still, we've got a while to go, so I imagine we'll manage something, eventually. I'm beginning to understand what drives people to invent names for their kids - not that I'd do that, but I can see the temptation.

Went swimming yesterday - I'm trying to make that a regular Friday morning thing. It works quite well, as Olivia is in playgroup from 9.30 to 12, but as the general swimming is only open from 10.30, I don't get to have quite as leisurely a time as I might like. Still, if you get there right at 10.30, it's less crowded, too, which makes it easier to swim lengths, before the pool fills up with people pissing about. There are quite a few local schools where the kids come to have swimming lessons once a week, so they often use half the pool for that, which means they don't have lanes set up for lane swimmers, so it can get really crowded. I'd love to be able to swim during the serious swimming time, but unfortunately, that's 7-9 or something, so it's not really possible to do, with dealing with the kids in the morning. But at least I didn't have to worry about swimming around people, which does happen sometimes.

When we used to belong to the David Lloyd Centre (expensive gym) the one good thing was that in the winter, they put a tent/marquee/whatever over the outdoor pool and let the adults swim in it - open until about 11pm (no lifeguard though). I used to go sometimes at night, for instance after my pottery class, and was usually the only person in the pool, with maybe one other. When it was really cold, the steam would rise off the water and give everything a misty effect - really otherworldly, and very relaxing to just be able to swim without worrying about navigating around other people. The indoor pool there was useless, though, so it's no great loss to go somewhere else, in general.

Not a lot to say today, just musing on how "stuff" seems to eat up your time. It's not like I even have a lot to show for it, much of the time. I don't mind, per se, it's just funny how you get to the end of a day and think "ok, what have I accomplished today" and you can't come up with anything. Still, it's better than working (this is my new motto for life). :)

Damn. Just hit some key, no idea what, and everything I'd typed just vanished. I thought it was just the caps lock (to turn it off after accidentally turning it on) but apparently not.

Anyway, just complaining about being tired out from Sarah's party, so no great loss... Actually, it went well. No one got hurt or threw up (at least not while they were still in my house). Nothing was broken, and no one (except Olivia who was a bit tired & grumpy to start with) ended up in tears, so that's all right. A lot of the mums here don't serve the cake at the party itself - for one thing, less mess. I did that this year, and it worked well - brought it out last thing before the parents were due to collect the kids, they sang, then we cut it up, wrapped it in napkins & added it to the party bags. And if you are serving lunch anyway, they don't really need to eat it there. We got lucky this year with the weather. It wasn't as good as today, which was one of those beautiful Indian summer days, but it was fairly sunny, quite warm, and no rain. So they could eat outside as well as play a bit and get rid of some of that energy.

We've also stopped opening presents actually at the party, which I think is a good idea. Let's face it, most kids, especially the boys, just don't have the patience to sit around and watch someone else open gifts. They're bad enough playing pass the parcel, where they know they are all going to get a chance to unwrap a layer! The treasure hunt was a big success, though, and despite hoards of kids running up and down my steps & in and out of rooms, nothing was damaged and everyone got a chance to find a clue. You never saw such an excited bunch of kids, except maybe Christmas. :) But that's good. Better than my friend Teresa who had a party last year which was the same day as another party (after it, not at conflicting times) and the first party was a disco so half the kids kept telling Teresa how much better the other party was. Of course, those were 6 year old boys, and we know what kind of mouths they have on them!

Sarah's got two birthday parties next weekend, one a girl from her old school, one a boy from her new school. Luckily, they aren't on the same day, which should be better for tempers and tiredness. Friends of mine with school aged kids have said that it's a never ending stream of birthday parties, and I'm beginning to think they are right. But that's ok - it's important for Sarah to make friends and have fun, so I don't mind (too much) being a chauffeur. Or however you spell that.

Spent most of the day today doing preparation stuff for Sarah's birthday party next Saturday. We made bookmarks for the party favour bags, assembled the bags, made a treasure box for the treasure hunt & possibly some other stuff I've forgotten by this point in the evening. Fun, but tiring. My task for the coming week is to create the clues for the treasure hunt. Luckily, these kids are only 3-6, so we don't have to be too clever. A good thing,as I think being clever is way beyond my powers this week. I guess I can be thankful that I don't waddle yet, which would be worse, but I keep forgetting how much being pregnant affects your ability to remember stuff - which is probably ironic or something, if only I could remember :)

Looking forward to yoga tomorrow - the first class was good, actually. Not only was it quite relaxing & destressing, but I was by no means the most unfit person in the class - more supple than several of the other women, which I didn't expect. I'm probably the person there who is earliest along in pregnancy (about 20 weeks now) but even allowing for that. I don't mind not being at the top of these things, but sometimes it's a real relief just not to be at the bottom. Actually, Wednesday night I went to dinner with some of the other mums from Sarah's class (and the other Reception class) and we were talking about pregnancy (as happens when you have a room full of women with small children, especially when said women are drinking wine...). Several of them couldn't believe I was 20 weeks pregnant and kept asking where the bump was. Which was very flattering. I always wanted to be one of those women who had a distinct bump when pregnant, rather than looking like a fat whale, and perhaps this time I shall actually achieve that! Not that I'm starving myself, by any means, but I am trying not to pig out too much. And it does help, having lost 3 stone before getting pregnant...

So, today is Sarah's first day of full time school. Which means she's out of the house around 8.30 and I don't have to collect her until 3.20. I still have Olivia, of course, which is more than enough, but at least they won't be beating up on each other all day long. :) First day of my yoga classes today, as well, which should be fun. Olivia gets to spend the time in the creche while I'm in class, so she'll enjoy that - like another playgroup session, really. We've not got a lot planned for this week, but I'm sure that will change and we'll promptly get incredibly busy - it always seems to happen that way. But that's ok. Compared to work, it's still fun. Even when they are both home and beating up on each other all day long...

Watched that documentary about 9/11 made by 2 French brothers last night - very good & tasteful and of course achingly sad & poignant, too. Although we were actually on holiday in Washington DC on the day itself last year, I think I'm quite glad to be here this year, where things aren't quite so focused on the tragedy. And of course, we don't have to put up with Georgie quite so much as over there, though still way too much for my liking.

On a more prosaic note, one more day of collecting Sarah from school at noon, and then we get to go until 3.20, hurrah! It will be much easier to get stuff done if I don't have to worry about that. I still have to collect Olivia from playgroup at 12 on Tuesdays and Fridays, but somehow that's not quite the same. At least I will have a few days where I can do longer, uninterrupted errands, if necessary. As I figured beforehand, I'm a lot busier now than before, but at least it's more enjoyable, mostly. Granted, there's a lot of that whole taking the car in to be serviced kind of errand running, but there's also a lot of playing at the playground and short shopping trips and other enjoyable things.

Well, today is our last day of sleeping in without setting the alarm - Sarah starts "big school" tomorrow, though they will only being going for half a day for the first week. We had a visit from her teachers today, and she just hid behind me, of course. Olivia played with everyone and talked, but she's a brazen hussy, whereas Sarah is shy. I'm sure she'll get over it. It will be interesting to see how long she takes to make a few friends, though. In nursery it took several months before she really started playing with other kids rather than simply near them. But she's a lot less shy than she was then, so perhaps it won't take quite as long. We'll see.

Although it hasn't reached extremes yet, I am beginning to truly understand the elation felt by so many mums when the summer holidays roll to a close and school starts again. I can't begin to image what it would be like in the US, where they are out for even longer. At least it's only 6 weeks here. Which is plenty long enough for them to get bored. And boredom of course brings on whining, which is really tedious. Sarah starts on Tuesday, and though it's only half days for the first week, I'm sure it will still be a big improvement in her attitude, having something scheduled to do every day. Not to mention, my attitude. And Olivia begins playgroup Tuesday as well (Tuesday and Friday mornings). I shall have several hours to myself - I shan't know what to do!

Did something last night I haven't done for ages - slept for almost 12 hours. Amazing. I was up really early yesterday & couldn't get back to sleep, plus I spend a number of hours being dragged around a children's farm by the little one (Sarah was at a birthday party there) - most of Olivia's enjoyment seemed to come from frequent trips to the toilets - there were special small ones for little kids, and some of them had red seats. This made a big impression. But when they've only been using actual toilets for a month, you have to take them every time, because it really might be an emergency. And although there are toilets at several points on the farm, we of course had to use the small ones, which were right by the entrance... The other thing she loved was the hand washing facilities. That's one of her favourite activities anyway, and a place that exhorts you to wash your hands every time you touch some animals, well, probably that's Olivia heaven. But she enjoyed it, which is the important thing. Wore me out, though - I ended up going to bed at 8.30. Pregnancy doesn't help, of course, but I had hoped to be able to finish quilting a baby quilt I'm making which I need done for Friday. It's almost done, so I'm not too worried, but it would have been nice to have enough energy to finish it off, then sit & watch Notting Hill, which was on telly - the perfect mindless evening. However, I have taped Notting Hill so will have my mindless evening another time.

We've had guests for the weekend - Cathi & Dave from Ireland - and the girls spent most of their time making Cathi lie down on the sofa and show them her bump (she's pregnant - due in November) so they could watch and see if the baby moved. I'm hoping this means they'll be receptive to having a new baby themselves - not that they have much choice in the matter, but one can hope they'll be enthusiastic rather than merely tolerant. We'll see, I guess. I'm sure they'll get used to it in time. They both really enjoy other people's babies, although Sarah claims she doesn't want another sister (or a brother). I'm sure Olivia does want one - we were watching a friend's baby the other day (about 10 months old) and Olivia wouldn't leave her alone - kept bringing toys to play with and so on, until she had to be distracted with the paddling pool. (Always works - it's that water thing again.)

Here's a real example of Murphy's Law (aka Sod's Law) in action. This morning, the kids slept late, letting me sleep late. "Late" being 8.30 instead of 7.30. Not that I really mind 7.30, frankly, which is a nice change from 6.30, which is when I used to get up, when I had to work. So, I had a nice leisurely lie in, got up, had a shower, came down, started breakfast & had a look at the calendar to see if there was anything happening today. Which is when i noticed that Olivia had an activity booked for 9.15. Guess what time it is? If you're thinking, oh, about 9.15, you'd be right. Sigh. So, we dashed off & got her there about 15 minutes late (as it was a whole morning - 9.15 to 12.15, this wasn't a big problem, luckily.). Annoying, though, as any other morning this week, we would have been up well before then...

So, we're off to visit Geoff's parents tomorrow, and coming back Sunday. It will be interesting to see how well I cope with that many days without internet access :) Seriously, though, we'll hope that the weather is nice, as it's hard for the girls to be away from all their stuff (and hard for their mum to keep them entertained away from their stuff), particularly if we get stuck indoors for long periods of time. If the weather is nice, or at least tolerable, there are ducks to feed, a canal to walk along, a playground or two, and other things of that ilk. Last time we visited, everyone got sick, so at least we will (I hope) avoid that one. Poor Sarah spent most of that visit curled up in a chair half sleeping, half watching videos and pausing every so often to throw up - nasty virus, which everyone got, except me. (gloat gloat) This time is bound to be better than that. (Or perhaps I'm jinxing us by even saying that...)

There is, of course, something more perverse than small children. Those of you who live in the same country as me, or who have lived here, or heck, even visited here, will of course know that I'm talking about the English weather. It's August. It's raining. Every day, practically. This is not a surprise, of course, but it's still something of a disappointment, particularly with small children at home who would really enjoy a trip to the playground pretty much every day. We did manage it briefly yesterday, in the hour long interval between rain and more rain, but it's a bit hit and miss. It also means that despite now being home during the day, I still have to hang the laundry up inside. The trials and tribulations we endure...