What is it with household appliances these days?

Let's see what we bought since 2003 and what happened to it:

I feel like quite a homebody compared to some other people, but then again it's not too bad:

• Dublin, Ireland
• Cape Town, South Africa
• Ballyvourney, Ireland
• Kenmare, Ireland
• Macroom, Ireland
• Trámore, Ireland
• Eastleigh, UK
• Berlin, Germany
• Hannover, Germany

(One or more nights spent in each place.)

Over the last weeks I noticed that there were more and more occasions that felt like I was getting kicked in a very regular rhythm. I was wondering what exactly the little one was doing in there, was it trying to kick a hole into me? Sometimes the feeling was quite annoying because of its regularity, and depending on where I could feel it it would not hurt but just grate at me. And it got stronger week by week. Only recently it clicked and I understood that the baby is having hiccups. They seem to occur especially about 10 to 20 minutes after I have eaten something and can go on for quite a while, e.g. five to ten minutes. They seem to be quite mean too as I can feel them very well not only inside but also with my hand on my tummy. Recently I can even see them if the baby is positioned in such a way that the baby's body movements are directed towards my belly! Now my feelings have changed quite a bit and I pity the baby instead. I mean, does anybody like having hiccups?

Being in week 31 the baby is naturally getting bigger and stronger. Sometimes it moves so violently that I have to draw my breath in, simply because it's so surprising every time that happens. Kicking and boxing seems to be a favourite activity several times a day, and the ten movements a day that I as a pregnant woman should be looking out for can happen within five to ten minutes easily. Quite often I also just feel a flutter or ripple, as if the child is stroking me from the inside. Very curious. If I calculate that these movement bouts could happen about five times a day, I'd say I get movements about 50 times per day. Not bad.

Some more material on hiccups and fetal abilities:

Why we hiccup - BBC News

Tadpoles take blame for human hiccups - NewScientist

Fetal Psychology - Psychology Today

And finally, apparently there are some people who love hiccups more than I thought is possible:

The Hiccup Lovers' Website

You will never have another innocent hiccup - hehe!

Ha - we found the missing box with the plants. The poor things were in there for three long weeks, but they survived! I am very impressed and happy.

I can't believe it, but it's been over one week now since our things was delivered - and we still have some boxes to go through in the kitchen. They simply got the better of us.

First of all I can't unpack them on my own, as my belly and back hurt after bending down just a few times. Since the boxes are also stacked on top of each other I wouldn't even be able to get to the lower ones. The boxes are far too heavy for me to lift. Therefore I have to depend on Frank for all of these things, and of course Frank is working and doesn't necessarily want to spend hours going through boxes when he is doing twelve hour shifts anyways. Good thing is he will be around for the coming four days!

The second problem is that the kitchen boxes need looking through rather than general unpacking. The boxes were packed by some friends so I don't always know what is in which box, but it's not too bad as there is some description on each of them. It's a bit like in a hide and seek game and feels great when you find something you were looking for. We don't want to unpack everything as this is a temporary home, we just need to get the essentials. We still only have two sturdy glasses to use, but we found all of our cutlery and cooking pots at last. In terms of crockery we are all right as Frank already had a set here. We also found all of our food supplies - I can't believe what a hoarder I am! I've got loads and loads of pasta in the cupboard now.

So far I am only missing one thing, a box full with plants. It simply disappeared… But there are worse things to lose. One of the other plants that was transported as is, didn't take too well to being in a container for two weeks and it lost most of its leaves by now. Sad to look at, but you always lose something when moving.

Quite a while ago I got sent this from Alex, whose blog I read regularly:

"I have a friend who says that if getting married is like crossing the street, having a child is like going to the moon. Correct in that it captures a sense of How Much Stuff you have to carry around– a whole life-support system, it feels like– but at the same time, it's one of those things that's very different, but at the same time not so alien. An interesting combination."

I liked the comparison with a life-support system in a rocket to the moon – I think pregnancy is exactly like that for the baby! For the mother it's definitely a journey into the unknown, much more so than when you are getting married (been there, done that). And for me even more so right now, with everything having changed. So, yes, I am going to the moon!

The term alien is also interesting in this statement. Alex is saying that pregnancy is not as alien as a trip to the moon, that it's a natural thing. However, in my experience a lot of people nowadays compare the baby movements you sometimes see on a pregnant woman's belly with what they know from the movie Alien, therefore implying that pregnancy is from out of this world. Isn't that strange how the movie industry can capture people's imagination so totally? Or do we simply not have enough pregnancies in the Western world anymore for people to get their concepts right? Don't get me wrong, I also sometimes find this little being inside me to be like an alien - after all it's not me that is moving in there, I can't influence that little person, and I certainly haven't met the character yet! So in the sense that the person in there is totally unknown to me it's is an alien - but I do know that it's a human baby and that there's nothing unnatural about the movements!!!