After pissing it down for a week (real English weather - cold windy rainy rubbish), this morning we were woken by the sun streaming in through the blinds. One thing about NYC apartments - high-rise ones anyway - you can't block out the light. Apparently the rain is back this afternoon but for now I am revelling in the gorgeous morning sunlight. Maybe summer is on its way after all.

Rather a busy week last week. My first little independent freelance project took off nicely so I had some work to do to pull some designs out of the hat and present them over breakfast on Wednesday. All went astonishingly well, and it seems that my client is one of those blessed rarities who will make executive decisions and sign off and all that sort of thing. Amazing! Spent a bit of time over the long weekend getting started on the build, so all things being well I should be finished and launched by Friday - not only a record for a website launch but also a great relief methinks, considering what's coming up.

My parents are off to Scotland for a week on their tandem today. Because they're camping and have limited access to electric plugs, we have a complicated schedule of hours during which their phone will be on so we can ring them if something important happens. My mum is planning to come out here on 9 June for a week, but hasn't booked a ticket yet in case the baby is reluctant to show its face until much later than 3 June. My guess so far is the 8th, but as pointed out, this may be so that I'm not building up hopes for a timely birth and consequently bitterly disappointed when I go 2 weeks overdue. Who knows.

We've just had a 3-day weekend in the US because of Memorial Day, but thanks to hideous weather, a streaming cold (Roj), and a propensity to get exhausted after too long walking around (me), we really didn't do much. Had a great Shepherd's Pie at what is swiftly becoming our favourite Scottish pub; did a little bit more shopping; played a couple of games of chess (Roj finally beat me thanks to a splendiferously oblivious move by me which resulted in the untimely death of my queen); did a bit of laundry, work, and baking of cookies (by which I mean placing pre-made cookie dough on a baking sheet for 12 minutes); and watched some hideous pay-per-view (Empire has to be one of the worst films ever made, and Jackass the Movie, though occupying a certain niche, was possibly worse). Although it occasionally erred on the side of boring, lazy weekends definitely have their place - particularly when we're faced with several billion quite busy ones in the near future; and Roj's cold seems to have made a hasty getaway, so there has been some benefit.

This week is going to be a quiet one in comparison to last. I still have plenty of work to do, but nothing I can't manage as long as baby doesn't get impatient. Nothing much planned for the evenings other than bits of final cooking and cleaning (so domesticated, me). You never know ... I might even get started on that knitting (before baby gets to be 16 years old)!

Must just say an enormous THANKYOU to members of the NYARA Board of Directors for the fantastic Kelty 3-wheeled baby buggy I was presented with last Monday. It's a fantastic contraption - built much more admirably in the manner of an experienced outdoor equipment manufacturer than the Maclaren; and it folds down at least as small once the wheels are removed (although it completely fills up our lift when unfolded, so you can definitely see why you can't really survive without a compact city buggy as well). Baby can't go in it for 12 weeks until it has the neck strength to cope with Roj hurtling round the park, but am sincerely looking forward to joining the masses who run with their buggies in the morning. May as well start 'em early, I say!

Taking a very quick breather from work to upload my baby poll (only a mailform - sorry).

Work is going well actually. This is the first week for some time that I've been consistently busy and other than making me a bit tired (what else is new!?), it means time is going very quickly and I actually stand to earn some money this month - hooray! I do hate being bored so this is the perfect antidote, even if it is a little over the top at the moment.

Back to it I guess ...

Just a quick note to say Happy Anniversary to me and Roj! It was a fab day three years ago when we got hitched (despite torrential rain) and it's been a fab three years since. New chapter coming up, but it's gonna be a good one. Here's to many more years like these ...

More insomnia strikes. Last night Little T was partying all night so once I'd woken up at 1:45 I didn't go back to sleep until 4ish, and then only fitfully. I amused myself by reading some of the pregnancy boards on Babycenter, but they've got awfully boring lately - everyone just asking questions like "if my back hurts does that mean I'm in labour?" I'd like to say that I'll catch up on sleep later, but I've got so much to do this week that I think the naps are going out of the window. About 2 weeks' worth of work to finish plus several meetings and odds and sods to achieve. Looks like I'll be doing birth with my usual style - flat out until the last feasible second and probably trying to tie up loose ends while ignoring early contractions! After a month or so of relative boredom I should be grateful but I'm now just paranoid that I'll go into labour before I get a chance to finish anything.

Spent much of Saturday completely spring-cleaning the bedroom, buying the remaining furniture we needed (mostly plastic boxes!) and rearranging everything. The bedroom looks suitably nursery-ish now except for a distinct lack of colourful playthings, and is at least reassuringly functional and dust-free. Yesterday I finally washed all the baby clothes too, and have just de-labelled them and put them away, so baby will now officially be able to be clothed on its return to our apartment. Although I feel like we've been buying 'stuff' forever now, the clothes amount to very little when they're all out of their packages. I think the purchase of loads of new stuff will be required quite soon after D-Day so I won't have to be tied to the laundrette permanently.

Also went to see Matrix Reloaded yesterday, which wasn't nearly as good as the first one, but excellent entertainment all the same. In a way I think they pushed the first one too far to achieve much in this one. I mean, when Neo can see the matrix, get resurrected and dodge bullets, there's not much more he can do is there? Apart from fly of course. They're faced with little option but to turn the thing into an all-out war epic of good versus evil, but I wanted to see more of the character development and meticulous scene set-ups that they tried for in part one. Also felt the whole thing was a bit gung-ho and overplayed, including the religious undertones, and that there were some strangely pointless scenes like the orgiastic party at Zion and the strange little lad following Neo around there. Too much time seemed to have skipped since the end of the last film, and the audience were just expected to catch up, but I wanted more evidence of what had happened and why.

Anyway, it was good entertainment and I'm not enough of an avid Matrix fan to be very disappointed. I am truly savouring my last easy days in the cinema for a while - have a suspicion I will be leaning heavily on pay per view in the future, but am adamant about watching Finding Nemo on the big screen if humanly possible. With a release date of 30 May I might be cutting it fine, but I guess I just have to hope that watching all that water on screen doesn't have a strange breaking effect on mine!

Great night last night. We went to the Cirque du Soleil performance of Varekai out on Randall Island to celebrate our anniversary. Never been before and it was absolutely excellent. We had 2nd row seats round the side of the stage which gave an excellent view of all the acrobatics and costumes, both of which were absolutely breathtaking. Totally loved it.

I even got occasional seats offered on the subway and the bus. Although I don't do a lot of commuting these days I am astonished at how mean people can be. I always used to offer my seat for pregnant women or people who had walking sticks and stuff. Now I find that every ten trips I make, I might get offered a seat six times, five of which will be by women. I don't know whether people just don't care, or are afraid of offending me, but at nearly 9 months it's nice to sit down for a while I tell ya!

Got a few busy days lined up. I'm working on my first proper independent freelance project which should keep me busy for the next couple of weeks, but the long-awaited work from Don & Bern has come in at the same time (typically) so I'm going to be extra extra busy - at least for next week. I won't talk about the probability of me going into labour next week to top it all off ... don't want to tempt fate!

Today I unwrapped all the baby clothes, blankets, towels and things in preparation for washing them so they're ready for D-Day. It really made me nervous actually, and for a while I contemplated not doing it until after the baby was safely home (until I realised that wasn't entirely feasible a) because the baby has to wear something home from the birth centre and b) because I know for a fact that I don't want to be faced with a heap of laundry the moment I get back home). I don't know why it felt so weird - we've been accumulating this stuff for ages and I've known I'd have to wash it in advance for ages ... it just felt odd to be doing it.

Anyway, that's all done now, and I'm just running through the list of stuff for my 'hospital bag' which also ought to be ready in the event that I need it in the next few days. In the words of Lewis Carroll it's getting curiouser and curiouser to be doing all this stuff and realising that things are going to happen pretty soon. The baby could come any time now, but is absolutely guaranteed to put in an appearance prior to 42 weeks, since they will induce you if you go overdue that much (the placenta starts to deteriorate). That makes 17 June my very last possible date - exactly a month away. Yikes!

Happy Birthday Mum!

I am sooooo tired! I don't know why - because I've already cut down my exercise program, and I was only awake for an hour or so from 4:30, but I feel like a complete zombie. Useless!

It looks like I may have some work to do - which is nice. Just a small project that will only last a couple of weeks or so, but will keep my thumbs from being twiddled to death and will really be my first proper (paid) freelance job. Hooray!

The weekend was one of those dull practical weekends. Roj and I traipsed around Manhattan for almost the whole day on Saturday - on a mission (not an entirely successful one) to acquire our last baby things. We still can't decide what to do for storage so we have a gradually expanding pile of boxes and plastic bags filled with baby items. Our cradle has now shipped though (phew) so we can hopefully decide on the extra furniture we need once we see how much space it takes up in the bedroom. And then hope that we can find a place that has our chosen items in stock!

After wearing ourselves out on Saturday we sat through three hours of 'newborn care' classes in the evening at the birth centre. Amazingly the centre has the least comfortable seats and the most ineffective air conditioning in the world, but it was quite good fun practising putting nappies on grubby little dolls and learning about acceptable shortcuts. Nothing we haven't come across in our extensive on-and-offline library, but good to have the information confirmed all the same.

Sunday was another traipsing day - possibly even less effective than Saturday but certainly improved by my first Crispy Creme donut experience. YUMMY! The afternoon was a bit of a washout for me, but Roj very helpfully sorted out my freelance accounting spreadsheet (which I would never have got round to). Star.

Quite a busy week this week - our last childbirth education class tonight; Rowan visiting on Tues/Weds; out to a show (for our wedding anniversary) on Thurs and another class Friday. How will I survive!?

Gah. My blood pressure's gone high all of a sudden. It's been nice and low throughout my whole pregnancy so far, but this afternoon it was something like 130 over 80. Apparently there is a natural blood pressure peak at the end of pregnancy, and on its own it's little cause for concern, but they will be monitoring me closely now in case I show any other signs of pre-eclampsia (which might bring on all sorts of horrors like bed-rest and induction). I have to watch out for bad swelling (none so far - not even feet and ankles), bad headaches (get headaches once in a blue moon), protein in my urine and continued rising blood pressure (both of which will be monitored at my next appointment next Wednesday). My personal opinion (because I always have to have one!) is that I overdid it at the gym this morning - I even cut my cardio workout short by ten minutes (unheard of for me) because I was feeling a bit more knackered than usual. I can't believe that doesn't have some kind of effect on blood pressure. Unfortunately when I brought up the subject my midwife recommended that I take it easy these next few weeks ... by cutting out the gym work from my exercise regime. She said I'll be fine doing lots of swimming but that I should just stick with that. GAH! How does this woman expect me to cope with a handful of minor paddling sessions per week ... and watching my muscle tone (what muscle tone!?) disintegrate every day? Sigh.

My Group B Strep test has been done though, and I'll get the results for that next week. It was quick and not too unpleasant, and I feel very virtuous for getting it done. Seems to me that the risk to your baby seems to far outweigh the minor discomfort of getting it done, and I'm much happier thinking that I can still go through the course of IV antibiotics at the birth centre, rather than having to be transferred to the hospital if I prove to test positive (not so for pre-eclampsia - I think that's an automatic transfer to the hospital). Anyway - that's all my tests done for this pregnancy unless I make it into the 41st week. So now it's just a matter of waiting.

Oh, and it's raining in NYC today, and will be tomorrow, and the next day, and the next ...

It's quite unbelievably hot today. I went for a wander in the park for a couple of hours after my swim and ended up seriously lamenting the lack of maternity skirts in this world again. Baked Lara. Without ice cream.

I have a muscle or a ligament which runs down the righthand side of my big fat belly and starts to whinge at me if I walk too fast. When I say too fast I mean above about 2 mph! I could barely hobble back by the end of my little saunter, and felt like a right geriatric. Hot, bothered and hobbling. Funny how every little twinge I have now just makes me say to myself "shutup Lara - just think what you'll feel like when you're in labour." No escape from my own conscience it seems.

Am bored as hell at the moment - still waiting for work to come in so I can earn more than pocket money this month. It'd be fine if I'd have predicted the lull, but there is plenty of work in the offing, it's just taking longer to get here than I anticipated. Sigh. Need to work on my PHP poll in the meantime, with or without help (Daves!! ;))

Nothing much planned in the next few days ... last bits of baby shopping (eagerly awaiting the delivery of our cradle - or at least shipping confirmation so that we know we'll get it in time!); a newborn care class on Saturday; a visit from Rowan early next week and otherwise just general expansion of my belly. At some point I'm hoping for the legendary nesting instinct to kick in too, so that I lose my zombie-like state and give this apartment the good spring clean that it's crying out for.

X2 is quite good then. Of course it's all a lot of silliness really (for someone who is not a fan of fantasy) - dysfunctional people with special powers up against the world that misunderstands them - but excellent entertainment and effects. Liked it.

Had a bit of a quiet weekend really. Roj was in the office all day Saturday and Sunday morning, so I spent a lot of time moping on the sofa watching strange Discovery Health programs about people turning themselves into cats and things. Odd. All efforts to do anything useful went out of the window with a couple of bad nights sleep. Did drag my arse to the gym on Saturday to maintain my ritualistic humiliation, but only got myself showered and sorted by about 4pm - in time for a last ditch effort to find a maternity skirt & various other assorted items in Macys. No luck whatsoever - I will clearly have to bake in my jeans between now and then.

Took Roj a Starbucks in the office & ate pizza with him, then came back to watch some apalling old Julia Roberts film called Mystic Pizza. What a waste of time.

Sunday was almost more useless. Found out that the cradle/crib that we had our eye on has an 8-12 week delivery time (ha!), so spent a lot of the morning finding an alternative, of which there are not many for couples who clearly have no space in their apartment, no money, and no inclination to buy floral frilly things. Eventually settled on a solid wood co-sleeper/bassinet type thing which will allegedly last the kiddo well into its first year - for a mere $290.

Met Roj for lunch at the Heartland Brewery and then settled in with popcorn and diet coke for our viewing of X2. Watching films in Times Square always adds to the general atmosphere, partly because the AMC seats are so comfortable, and partly because the audience is prone to burst into spontaneous applause at key moments - e.g. the Matrix Reloaded trailer, the first time Wolverine flashes his blades etc. Also was proud to say that Little T kept away from my bladder for the whole movie and therefore prevented me from making any rushed exits!

This week looks like it may actually bring me some work for a nice change, which will be useful for the bank account if nothing else. Otherwise the usual range of pathetic exercising, bad TV and various baby-preparation things await. Less than a month to go now. Yikes!

Had a real blimp day yesterday. Went into town to see if I could find what I hope to be my last item of maternity clothing - a skirt - made increasingly essential by NY's rocketting temperatures and the fact that my maternity jeans now slide off my bump completely. Should have been easy right? Not so. I went into 4 different maternity places and tried on several different items and just felt horrendous. I either looked like I was wearing a sack (what's all this about letting the front of the skirt hang from the front of your bump? I may as well go into size 20s) or was trying to squeeze myself into something made for a pregnant Kate Moss, which made my bulging knees and squishy love-handles look really attractive I tell you. Sigh. Needless to say I came away with nothing but damaged self-image and a cheap replacement swimsuit. I did manage to make myself feel better by the purchase of a couple of very very cute items from Baby Gap though, and even had the presence of mind to buy 3-6 months instead of newborn. Very much hoping that our newborn does not come out 3-6 month size, but if not, it will be soon.

All was made worse by the fact that I now have the option of about 3 tops that fit me from my wardrobe. Up to now I have been living in work shirts from my pre-Bluewave days but yesterday I realised that that option has finally disappeared for good. Of course my best bet is now to steal from Roj's wardrobe (hardly seems worth spending money on the awful maternity stuff that's out there), but there's something about wearing clothes 5x too big for you that makes you feel even less attractive.

I wonder how much a bump actually grows in the last month. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Roj has been in Minneapolis these last few days so I've had a bit of a quiet week. Even this weekend he's meant to be working, so I'll have to find something useful to occupy my tiny mind. Of course after a lovely week in the mid twenties, the temperature is sinking to low teens at the weekend so whatever it is is probably not going to be outside. Gah.