Leila at two months

Loves
Leila is enjoying lying on her playmat although she doesn't really do very much on it at the moment.  She is also fascinated by lights!  She loves to gaze at the main light in the living room and to the light outside the window.  When we put up the Christmas Tree and its lights she loved that too! 
She enjoys her mobile which is on her cot and she gazes at it when we change her - this makes changing her a whole lot easier!
We have found that Leila likes white noise.  We found this tip online and have found it really works.  We have an app on the ipod and use this to play her white noise to help calm her down when she is really crying, and to help her nap during the day.
Leila really loves the sling.  We are using the kari-me wrap at the moment, as the ergo baby sling is a bit difficult to get used to as we need to use the infant insert that is a bit cumbersome.  She enjoys sleeping in the sling, but she also enjoys looking ot at the world from it when she is awake.  Having said that, she really doesn't like the sling if she hungry or windy as then she fidgets and cries.
Leila tolerates bath time, her car seat and bouncer.

Hates
Leila is a windy baby and she hates having wind.  Every evening is taken up by trying to wind her and calm her crying down as she is in so much pain from it.  We have started giving her Infacol and this seems to help.  We have also been seeking advice from other people through the Mums and Baby Group at the CSA that Alice goes to each week.
Leila also hates being left alone more than a few mins.  She always wants someone around and this makes being a parent a full-time job as you can't get anything else done!  Not that there is much time in between feeding, changing and burping to do anything in anyway!
Leila doesn't seem to get hungry gradually, but suddenly realises she is hungry and then starts really crying. 
Leila tolerates the hiccups that she seems to have nearly every day.  She had hiccups when she was in the womb which was quite exciting at the time as it meant we could feel her moving every day.  Now that they have continued though it means that she gets them a number of times a day and while they don't cause her pain they can't be all that fun for her!
Leila seems to have inherited her mum's nose....and her sneezing!  Leila has cute little sneezes, but like her mum she doesn't just sneeze once, but twice or three or four times in a row!  The cutest though is her final sneeze which doesn't quite materialise and ends up as an "aaa-ch-oh" as she almost sighs at the end.
Eating
Leila gives us two clues that she wants to feed when she is hungry. The first is her cry which is a "la, la" sound developing into a longer "laaaaa" if we ignore her.  We say this makes her a proper Egyptian baby because she is speaking the language already!  Her other clue is 'bobby' which is that when we pick her up she starts bobbing her head onto our chest/shoulder
Feeding has been going well but Alice has had blisters and blocked ducts which has meant needing to focus more on the latch and making sure that Leila has had a full feed.  Overall we've been able to work through the problems and luckily nothing has been too major.
Feeds are still taking a long time and we've found that in the evening Leila wants a lot of feeding - almost constantly - but that this does mean she sleeps for a decent stretch at night.
We've started now to pump so that Leila can have a bottle.  Leila is happy with the bottle and dad enjoys giving it to her in the evenings.  Leila is also taking the bottle happily enough from Gina when Alice needs to go in to work.  Pumping itself is going OK but Alice is so tired at night that she doesn't always want to get up to pump.

Sleeping
Leila struggles to nap during day unless she is being walked in a sling, or is in a sling with white noise playing.  This makes the days very tiring as the old saying "sleep when the baby sleeps" doesn't really work when you have to walk around with them!  We do really enjoy taking her out in the sling though, so this isn't too bad.

At night Leila sleeps on her front in the moses basket with the movement monitor on.  We have found that more babies than we expected sleep on their front, as other parents come out of the woodwork to say that their babies prefer this.  The movement monitor is really important to us though as it gives us reassurance that she is OK. She will sleep on us in bed sometimes, but she (and us!) is less comfortable like this now.  Maybe this is because we have got used to having her in the moses basket, or maybe she's grown!
Leila tends to fall asleep nursing.  She has only managed to get herself to sleep once or twice, as tends to be wide awake until the evening nursing even if she is doing her tired cry.  Once she is asleep we have perfected the art of transferring her from our arms into the moses basket without waking her!

Playing
Leila has started smiling now which is really lovely :-)
Leila is still enjoying her play mat amd spends her time 'batting' her toys around. She also really likes her new toy, Princess Crinkle, who makes a great crinkle sound and made with brilliant contrasting material.
As we are doing lots of walking in the sling we are finding that we are making up songs as we walk along (or making up new lyrics to songs).  This is fun but we have found that some words are more difficult than others to rhyme!
Leila tolerates bath time still, and even tolerates mum and dad painting her feet!

Sheepy

Leila meets Santa!

Today Leila came into work for the seasonal concert and managed to meet Santa!  Leila was very well behaved in the sling during the concert; she was very alert but quiet!

Cot mobile

Leila and the mobile

Leila was bought a new cot mobile, and here she is very much enjoying it after being changed.

 



Leila - one month old

So Leila is now one month old - it's all gone so fast and those first few days seem a world away from life with Leila now.

Since being discharged from the ICU we are really thankful that Leila has continued to be healthy.  The first week at home wasn't easy as she was still on anti-biotics which gave her diarrhoea (TMI probably, but it was watery green - almost like a runny mint sauce!!) and can't have been nice for her. For us it meant that nappy changes were somewhat a baptism of fire (!) and it meant that we didn't really know what was 'normal' or what to expect - in terms of nappies, and in terms of how she was feeling too. 

The antibiotics were given by injection which again wasn't going to be great for little Leila, but the doctors from Tabibi 24/7 were amazing. They came to the house to give the injections and were great with her.  We're so glad that we found and decided to use Tabibi as our doctors as they have a doctor on call on the phone 24 hours a day and will do house calls which means we don't have to take Leila to a clinic and sit around in a waiting room.  They must have about a dozen doctors on their 'books' and we have had a different doctor every time we have had them out, but all of them have been great. We have had a few house visits so far for general health check-ups and to give her injections but we have also taken advantage of their "24/7" feature as we did call them at 5am in the morning in the first week she was home!  We were worried because she was 'snuffly' at night and we were worried about her breathing.  We managed to speak to a doctor on the phone within half an hour and he reassured us that this was probably not a problem and that we could give her some saline drops to help dissolve the mucous in her nose.

Feeding
We knew that we wanted to breastfeed, but had been worried about it working because of flat nipples.  When we were in the hospital Alice first expressed milk for Leila to be fed by bottle in the ICU, but after a few days they allowed Alice to try breast feeding her.  The first time doing this was really hard as not only was Leila hungry (and therefore cry-y) but it was difficult for her to latch on.  The hospital advised us to try nipple shields as a way of providing a nipple for her to latch on to.  With practise this worked and Leila was able to feed off Alice directly - we just had to sterilise and prepare the shields for each feed. The shields not only provided a teat for Leila, but also started to draw Alice's nipples out.  You're not really meant to use the shields for this (!) or for extended periods of time, and so after the first week we were trying to stop using the shields.  This was really hard at first as Leila just couldn't latch on, and so we were trying to start with the shields and then swap part-way during  feed. Gradually we have got there and now Leila can latch on herself.
We've been experimenting with different pillows and cushions and seats for feeding to find the best position for Alice and for Leila for the latch.  The body sleep pillow that we bought in the UK was meant to be a feeding pillow too, but doesn't seem to be of much help.  After trying various combinations this month Alice is now trying to feed without a pillow and just supporting Leila on her arm as this is the least complicated option!
The feeds themselves are taking a long time and as she feeds every few hours it seems like Leila is constantly feeding! We're glad we had the tip-off about Lanisol as Alice has needed it!

Sleeping
We've been really struggling with sleeping.  The first night home Leila slept in her moses basket beside our bed, but on the second night she just wouldn't sleep there and kept crying (this did coincide with a mozzie in the room that we tried to rid using the fancy organic citronella patches, which rather than putting the mozzie off probably put Leila off with the scent).  The only way we could get her to sleep that night was lying on our chests and so we took it in turns to sit up in bed with her on us.
Since then we have been trying her in the moses basket, but she wakes herself up every time she "Moro's" It seems that she is really sensitive to the Moro reflex and shocks herself awake.  The only way around this that allows her to get some decent sleep is for her to lie on us, so for the first two weeks at home we were taking it in shifts to be 'up' We then found that she would sleep if she was lying on her front (in the same way that she lies on us) but all the advice is that babies shouldn't sleep on their front so we have been in a real pickle. We have ended up having her on us (mainly having her on Alice since Scotty went back to work) to sleep for the majority of the night and only getting her into her moses basket for the final sleep.
At the end of the month Nanny came out to visit and brought with her an Angelcare monitor that we have started to use.  We had rather snorted at these monitors that have a sensitive pad you place under the mattress to monitor every movement (i.e. breath) that the baby makes, but in this case they seem to be the answer.  The other thing that we have found from all this is that despite all the advice being for 'back sleeping' there are a number of people out there whose babies will only sleep on their fronts - it's just that people don't like to talk about it.
Leila tends to go to bed around 9pm and we tend to do with her as she is sleeping on us. For her naps in the day she sleeps on the play mat in the living room.

Crying
Like all new parents we are trying to figure out what her cries mean.  We tend to just go through the list of options until we find the right one; feed, change, wind. Her main cry though seems to be "La! La! La!" so she is truly an Egyptian baby!  We have been taught a little trick by the main doc at Tabibi which we use if we need to distract her or temporarily stop a cry - the finger suck!  We just give her our little finger and she can suck away at it while we do what it is we need to (i.e. one of us gives her our little finger while the other one changes her).  It is also proving a good way to figure out if she is hungry or not depending on how hard she sucks!!

Leila - home

Thank you each and every one of you for your messages. I know we haven't responded, but they're all massively appreciated and fill us with good spirit from the knowledge we have such awesome friends. Apologies for 'disappearing' since we got home with Leila. She's been on some pretty horrible antibiotics that have made her really rough, and so we're all exhausted. The good news is the doc is happy with her lungs, and the damage to her scalp from the delivery is clearing up although it looks like she's gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson now that it's bruising. Every day is a new challenge, but we're sure we'll get there. Anyway, here's a photo of her looking super sweet, which makes it all worthwhile :)

 

Leila - coming home

Amazing progress from Leila. Today she was discharged from the ICU and we were allowed to come home. She's still got to have doctor appointments over the next week, but at least she's stable enough to be with us! We're both completely exhausted from an emotional few days, and are looking forward to spending the next week together. This photo was taken last night when we got our first cuddle as a family - the ICU have a 'mums only' rule in the ward, so I had to watch through the window until last night when she was allowed out to feed for the first time. Thank you, everyone, for your amazing words of support and encouragement. We may not have replied, but rest assured that reading them has really helped us through a tough time.

 

Leila - Day 2

Leila has made steady progress over the past 24 hours. Most importantly she's now off the ventilator and, although she's still in the ICU for close monitoring, Alice was allowed to go in and take this photo of her :)

 

Leila's birth

Last night at 11.10pm our little girl, Leila Jane Pennington Allsop, was born. The birth was difficult for her and so she is currently being looked after in the ICU. The doctors assure us that all her systems are in a stable condition and she is making steady progress. We'll post updates as and when we can. 

(Trying to) Meet other mums

So I blogged a while ago about trying to meet other mums and babies / mums-to-be in Maadi.  I had been asking around, convinced that there must be a group somewhere and I just needed to find them.  I knew that there was a group in Rehab, but surely there must be one in Maadi too.  I was quite surprised that there wasn't a group at the CSA, or at the Maadi community Church - as I had heard that both places did have groups. 

This didn't put me off though and so over the last few weeks I have been trying to visit the CSA regularly with the hope that I would meet people or at least have my face known around the place.  I would have coffee on my own in the coffee shop and then visit any sale that they had on (like the book sale last week and the Cook's Day Off events), or would attend their free 'Connect @ CSA' sessions.  These sessions were a little hit and miss I thought.  They were themed and generally aimed at people new to Egypt.  The themes I made sure I attended were;  baby, child and family health (run by Tabibi), Things to do in Cairo, and finally Networking.  One way that they were a little disappointing was that I'd hoped that these would be a way to meet other people, but although over half a dozen people came to the 'things to do' session, only one or two other people came to the other sessions I went to. The other thing I felt was that there wasn't always a 'dialogue' at the sessions - they were more 'one way'.  I kept going to them though as I thought it was something to do and at least I was meeting some people, even though they weren't really the 'type' of people I'd hoped to meet.

Meanwhile I spoke to the lady at the CSA who runs the monthly programme to ask her if there were any baby groups she knew of.  She didn't know of any, but did suggest the Baby Massage course that they planned to run in November.  I said that I planned to sign up for this and mused the idea of putting up a notice to start a baby group.  She suggested that instead I leave my name/number for her to pass on to other interested people, as she felt that there were interested people out there.

At the session yesterday about Networking I mentioned that I was looking for other mums and babies to meet up with and had a bit of a breakthrough.  It turns out that one of the CSA volunteers stopped working for the CSA before the summer to have a baby, and so later that afternoon I was put in touch with her by email.

Within a few hours she had emailed me to introduce herself and she was able to give some useful health professional contacts she had.  I was in and out doing things in the afternoon, but managed a quick reply and then later had a reply from her with an invite to coffee with some other mums / mums to be.  :-)

I was really excited that things were starting to come together and this morning even treated myself to a taxi to the CSA rather than turn up sweaty from the walk there!

I met one mum and her 5mo son, a mum-to-be (due three weeks after me) and another mum / mum to be (already got a daughter at nursery, but has another on the way in the next few weeks).  We were all around the same age, all Brits and I thought I got on pretty well with them.  Chat focused on baby stuff and baby stuff in Egypt.  We didn't get on to Cairo/Egypt general things, or much stuff about work or other lives (!), but that was fine.  It felt good, not forced, and was nice to be there just chatting with new people.

I am going to meet some of them again tomorrow along with another new mum and have been invited to meet a group of other mums at one of their houses in a few weeks time.

So finally my trips to the CSA for coffee are paying off, as I have found some mums and babies in Maadi and maybe some mum and baby friends.

10 Things to do when baby is overdue

1. Long walk.  The challenge here is balancing the desire to stay in bed with the desire to not be drenched with sweat during the walk!  Another challenge is to try not to walk down the same road twice - as otherwise people look at you funny.  I've been able to discover some of the quiet roads at the other end of Degla and some new supermarkets.

2. Make more flapjacks.  Fabs and I discovered a good flapjack recipe when she was over.  I've always tried to cook flapjacks here with recipes that allow you to substitute honey for golden syrup as it's hard to get/expensive out here.  But this new recipe doesn't use brown sugar either - controversial I know, as brown sugar (along with golden syrup) pretty much defines what a flapjack is, but either I have none in the cupboard or it's one solid mass.  We've also improvised a bit and used half butter and half peanut butter to add flavour.

3. CSA for coffee.  This is good as it involves a bit of a walk and seeing people.  Up until now I've not had many conversations when at the CSA, but things have started to change and I'll do a whole post on this later.

4.  Have a CTG scan.  I need a scan every other day now to check how the baby is doing.  It's actually quiet uncomfortable to lie on my back for 20 minutes and you can't get much rest when lying there as the heart beat blares oout from the unit.  Next scan is in two days and I'll have to go to El Nada hospital for it as Dr Cherif's clinic in Maadi is closed.

5.  Blog.  Something I should be doing a little more of as I've still two posts from the summer to finish (!) and two Read the Casbah posts to write.

6. Read.  I finished two books last week (hence the need to write up some Read the Casbah posts) and CSA had a book sale on where I bought two paperbacks to get me through the next little while. They are both fiction - one a crime/thriller looking novel by an author I read over the summer and the other a trashier looking tale about Alexander/Alexandria.

7.  Pampers Survery.  So over the last two days I have tried to visit the main supermarkets in Maadi to do a mini survey of their Pampers prices.  I figure that we're going to need to buy some soon (!) and we may as well know now who stocks what and what sort of prices they have.  The results are in;
Miriam market - only had one pack of Pampers in therefore it's not worth shopping there for them.
MGM pharmacy - had a fair range of Pampers in but they are the most expensive.
Alfamarket - had a good range and come out the cheapest to buy from.  They also had Huggies in size 2.
Metro - a good range again and only a bit more than Alfamarket.  They also had newborn size 1 nappies which I didn't see anywhere else
Seoudi - a good range, including newborn nappies, and a just a bit more than Metro.

Metro is our nearest supermarket so it's good to know that their prices are good for the nappies that we want.  If we do a 'big shop' at Alfamarket though we can stock up.  I haven't visited Carrefour to check their prices but I reckon they will be on a par with Alfamarket.

8.  Watch TV.  A new colleague at school has a very large collection of TV series so we went out to buy a new hard drive at the weekend so that we can take advantage of this!  We decided that this was a better investment than buying a satellite subscription.  I've started to watch Homeland series 1 and will soon have all the Buffy and Angel series to keep me busy!

9. Get the baby's room ready.  We've been trying to take our time with getting the room ready as we enjoy doing it bit by bit and we enjoy doing it together, so didn't want to rush things.  Some things I haven't been able to do myself (like hang the bunting) or haven't wanted to do myself (like make decisions about which pictures to hang where).  But I have now cleaned and assembled the toys and decorated the walls with Tintin pictures and a little underwater scene.


10.  Rest.  Oh yes - got to try and do that.  Some mornings I am fast asleep when Scotty's alarm goes off and sleep right through and then even have a lazy bath.  Other mornings though I'll wake up and not be able to get back to sleep.

Baba Ganough with the Baba Ganough

Baba Ganough - Due Date Minus One

Due date becomes Brew Date

So when it looked like there wouldn't be an arrival today, we decided to make other plans.  Those other plans involved marking the day in a different way, by putting a beer on!

We've not put a beer on in quite a while (!) and so had to remind ourselves of a few steps, but we got there in the end.  Hopefully the weather is cooling a bit and so we will be able to keep the temperature constant for the brew.  We also want to keep the temperature low so that the brew will take a bit longer - giving us a bit longer to get the Baba Ganough out and settled!  We do plan to prepare the bottles in the next few days though, so that when we do come to bottling we don't have someone else after their own special drink!

Baba Ganough: The Third Trimester

It’s hard to tell when this trimester should really start, but we’ve decided to split the blog at our 28 week antenatal appointment, rather than at the 24 week scan. This is our first appointment in the UK and it’s at The Portland Hospital in central London.  We’ll have a second appointment here at the end of August to get our ‘Fit to Fly’ certificate ready to return to Egypt, but we wanted to have a mid-holiday check-up (and Dr Cherif thougth that was a good idea as well) as we would be away for so long otherwise.

We were quite looking forward to seeing what an appointment would be like at a private hospital in the UK and to be able to compare it to the private care we get in Cairo, but I must admit we were a little underwhelmed by it all.  Scott here - underwhelmed is itself a bit of an understatement.  We felt massively ripped off!

We’d spent ages setting up the appointments and navigating our way through BUPA’s procedures. I ended up speaking to nearly a dozen different people over three of four days at first explaining what we wanted (two antenatal appointments) and then explaining when we wanted them.  The next series of phone calls was to explain all of this and follow up the emails that they had sent with the wrong dates on them!

After all that the hospital didn’t have us on the list of appointments for that day, but we were seen anyway.  The consultant was nice, but seemed a little bemused as to why we had sought out the appointment when we replied to all his questions that we had ‘no problems’ and that ‘all was fine’.  We showed him our various notes and told him our case history and he was impressed by the care and I have been having.  I then had an examination on the couch and he prodded my stomach a bit.  He then measured the height of my womb whilst doing some prodding.  This is what I had read happens at most antenatal appointments as it is obviously an easier (and cheaper) alternative to scans that we get in Egypt.

He seemed happy with everything but said that a blood test normally takes place at 28 weeks and so I had a blood sample taken after the appointment.  The only problems I mentioned to him were the numbness that I get most nights in my hands and that despite all my best efforts my default is still back sleeping.  I knew that the back sleeping was a problem for me as it means that there is more pressure on my spine, but I was trying not to worry too much about it because it wasn’t causing me back ache.  The doc pointed out though that the pressure can also be applied to some of the blood vessels there and then affect the blood flow to the baby.  It was this that meant we finally decided to go out and buy one of these ‘body pillows’ that I had previously thought were a bit of a marketing ploy.

So the appointment was over pretty quickly and without event – it seemed almost that he didn't see any point in us having an appointment.  At times we wondered too whether the appointment was really necessary once we were there and saw how little there was to do at the check up.  We’re glad that we’ve had the appointment – as there is no way that we would have gone the whole summer without one – but may change our mind when the bill for those 15 minutes comes through!

At first using the body pillow was a bit weird and hard to get used to.  The one we decided to buy was shaped with two ‘sides’ to it to encourage you to lie a certain way.  After a few nights I had sort of figured it out, but turning over in the night was even more of a chore (I guess that is the idea though).  Getting it did make me think I should have got one sooner and not been so stubborn, but it hasn’t totally solved the problem.  The two sides of the pillow are separated by a flat section for you to lie in, but somehow my body has figured out that if I lie ‘just right’ I can in fact fit into the side section on my back – naughty!  With the pillow I am definitely sleeping on my side more and finding this more comfortable than before, but I still wake up a few times a night and find myself on my back!

When planning the summer we knew that by the time we got to the Olympics I’d be quite heavily pregnant and so we tried to spread our tickets out and to pace ourselves.  We ended up with tickets to five different Olympic events during weeks 29 and 30 and they were all at different venues, different times and for different sports!  Concerns that we had beforehand included the need to walk between stations and the venues, having to stand in long queues to get in or to go to the toilet, and feeling cramped and uncomfortable in the seats.  To be honest though, none of these were major problems and I generally felt well throughout the two weeks.  One problem we managed to solve at the first venue was drinking water, which we had heard you needed to buy for extortionate prices or bring in a bottle to refill.  We wanted to spend our money on other things and so planned to refill bottles but when we saw the queue for this we were really put off.  Luckily though one of the Games Makers told us that the water that was plumbed into the sinks in the toilets was the same water that was also plumbed in to the taps advertised for refilling and so Scotty managed to jump all of the queues for us!  At the other venues we kept an eye out for the plumbing and employed the same tactic, saving us enormous amounts of time.

Another aspect of the summer / pregnancy that we were slightly concerned about was that we were planning to redecorate our house ready for new tenants.  In our initial plan we were just going to redecorate it ourselves, but in the end we decided to get a painter/decorator in to do it for us.  We did have some slight concerns at first about doing the painting ourselves because of the fumes, but then reasoned that lots of pregnant women will do painting as part of their nesting / preparing the nursery, so it can’t be that bad as long as you ventilate the room.  It turns out, through research, that emulsion paint is absolutely find - but that you should stay away from gloss if you're pregnant.  The other slight concern was that of general tiredness and not wanting to get worn out by it all.  It was this in the end that made us go for getting someone else in and, although I haven’t been overly tired, it was definitely the right choice as it meant we could enjoy the summer a little more.

Despite looking (what I think is) quite pregnant, I have not been offered that many seats on trains.  I can really see why people get the ‘Bump on Board’ badge!  Having said that I don’t think the reason for not being offered a seat is always that people aren’t sure if you are pregnant (I used to hate trying to work out ‘fat or pregnant’ and therefore whether offering a seat would be welcomed or considered rude!). I think it is probably a Londoner/commuter thing of people just not looking up and not making eye contact when they are travelling, so people don’t notice that you are standing there with your belly sticking out.  I have had more people who are standing say to me ‘Don’t you want a seat?’ than I have had those sitting down get up and offer me theirs.  I have been alright on trains mainly and not felt that I’ve needed a seat – in fact standing up feels good exercise.

There was one time though when I did really want a seat, as we had been standing on the platform at Vauxhall for over 45 minutes as the trains were all delayed and so I was pretty tired.  I felt a bit bad about asking for a seat, as I knew that the people in the seats had also been standing for ages waiting for a train and so were probably really pleased with themselves that they were one of the few people to get a seat on the packed train.  What I did though, rather than ask the person in the ‘Please offer your seat to others’ seat, was call out to the whole carriage to ask if anyone could give their seat up for me.  Of course it wasn’t the person in the designated seat who did the right thing, but a nice man sitting half-way down the carriage who realised that no one else was going to do it and so offered me his seat.  I did quite like pushing my way past all the people who had just ignored me and letting them me see my belly as I passed.  At the NCT course I found out that this was typical for all of the women there and that London commuters are just generally quite good at ignoring pregnant people!

I have started to get some back ache when sitting down and have been finding that I have difficulty getting up from sitting down and from lying down too.  When I sit on the futon I need all the cushions we have to prop myself up and stop me slouching into the back of the couch.  I find that I sit like this for a while, but then am happy to sit on a dining chair or to even stand for a while to stretch it off.  When I am getting up from the couch though I need to make sure I’m sat forward before trying to get upright – my stomach muscles somehow seem really weak when surely they should be even stronger than before?!  This is most noticeable when I am trying to get up from lying down and I can no longer just get straight up, but have to make sure I am on my side, then lean my arm over and push myself up to a sitting position before then standing.  It’s so weird to have (nearly) lost this control that I once had!

There have been some really hot nights this summer which have made sleeping quite uncomfortable.  The actual temperatures are nearly 10C below what we would expect in Egypt, but they are affecting me a lot more than Cairo nights ever did.  I think this is because in Egypt not only do we have AC, but all the buildings (are designed to) release the heat well.  In England though it’s so humid and close all night and we’ve both struggled to sleep through it sometimes.

At 31 weeks we had our ante-natal course which we’d booked on to with NCT.  It was great timing to have eight heavily pregnant ladies in a room for 6 hours a day without adequate ventilation on what turned out to be the hottest weekend of the year!  I experienced some swelling of my ankles by the end of each day, but this was nothing compared to the others on the course (who are all about a month ahead of me).  When we got home in the evenings it was nice to be able to put my feet up for a while and really relax.  I generally found though that there were enough breaks during the day of the course to feel comfortable there.  Seeing the other women there with their bumps I felt quite small in comparison and so had to keep reminding myself that they were ahead of me and that I will be their size in about a month’s time.

Overall we both found the course very useful and were glad that we had booked on to it.  If we had been able to attend a weekly course I think it would have been even better for developing friendships with the others on the course and given us the chance to revisit ideas or cover other issues, but with our short and hectic summer in the UK this wasn’t an option. The course covered enough of each topic to be useful, but didn’t overload us with information to make us feel out of our depth.  In fact we felt that we knew a fair bit about each topic we covered from the books we’d read, but rather than feel we were spending time on things we already knew it was actually reassuring and increased our confidence in many ways.

The other couples on the course were nice and it was reassuring that we were of similar age and mind-set.  There wasn’t anyone going for hypno-birthing and accupunctures which is what we thought there might be a lot of, although the course teacher did wear tie-dye tops with large pictures of animals on them (!) and insisted on sistting in the lotus position while teaching the class.  To keep in touch we’ve set up a Facebook group which is great for us as we know we can’t make the planned post-birth meet-up.  It would, however, be nice to try and get together a year-on from the course to all compare how we are doing, so I think we’ll try to initiate that nearer the time!

After all the faff of the first appointment we had at the Portland I wanted to be sure that this second appointment of the summer at 32 weeks would go smoothly – especially as we needed the letter from the doc to be able to fly home for the birth!  I called them up a few weeks before to confirm that they still had the appointment on the books and I mentioned that we would be needing the ‘fit to fly’ certificate.  All seemed good.  On the day of the appointment we were waiting about an hour to be seen in the clinic which didn’t impress us much.  We come ot expect delays in Cairo when an appointment only costs £15 quid a time, but not at the Portland at £200 a shot!  We also weren’t that impressed that despite this being quite a major thing (i.e. can I or can't fly back to Egypt) I just got a bit of prodding and the doppler for the heat beat.  It turns out that the baby has turned around and although the head is still facing down, it’s back is now on my right, rather than my left.  As we’ve again got no major concerns (and the blood test from last time has come back fine) the consultant is happy to give us our letter for the flight.  Easy money for him!

The flight back to Egypt at 33 weeks wasn’t too bad.  Mummy and DaddyP were with us and MummyP suggested asking for an upgrade, which Scott did.  Although they didn't bump us up they did give us a row of three seats in the middle of the plane to ourselves, and they kept the middle seat free so we have a bit of room for our stuff.  I spent most of the flight playing games or blogging, as the films were the same on the flight as they had been on the way out in June (!)  This was probably a good things actually as it meant that every 30 mins or so I could get up and have a walk around.

Landing back in Cairo though I knew that I’d be feeling the heat.  The whole summer I have been ‘hotter’ than Scott (as I’m always kicking the covers off the bed when usually it’s the other way around!) and back here I am definitely feeling the need for strong AC and vest tops (and that my Jojo Maman Bebe skirt was a very good buy!).  I knew that with the heat my fingers would get chubbier and indeed they have done.  After a day in Cairo I’m struggleing to move my rings around so I resolve to take them off the following morning (reasoning that in the morning my hands will be at their coolest).  I hadn’t wanted to take my rings off, partially because I like to wear my rings because I am married and that hasn’t changed (!) and partially too because I know that mum lost her ring when she had to take it off before her operation.  I think that it will be for the best to take them off now though, as I really hate the thought of something going wrong and then needing to cut them off.  So in the morning I get up and run my hand under cold water for about 30 seconds to cool my hand down (although of course this will have made the rings contract a bit) and then have a go at taking them off.  It’s not easy, but they come off.  I try putting them on a chain to wear, but two platinum rings prove to be a little heavy and they don’t sit quite right, so I just put them in one of my jewellery boxes beside the bed for safe keeping.

It’s weird to think that after having scans every month we now haven’t had a scan for over two months.  We know that the baby is fine, as the consultant at the Portland examined us, but it will be nice to see it on a scan again.  Our first appointment back in Egypt is a week after our flight, so we are at 34 weeks now.  Dr Cherif was very reassuring as always and he was able to confirm what we thought which is that the baby’s head is down and the baby’s back is on my left.  What was amazing about the scan now though, was that where we had been searching and searching the screen before trying to identify body parts, there are so many  body parts on the screen that it’s hard to tell what is going on!  The cool thing is that on this scan we can see the ribs all across the screen.

The symptoms that I mentioned to Dr Cherif were just that I had been trying to sleep on my side more, but sometimes would still find myself on my back.  He wasn’t concerned about this which is good.  The other thing that I mentioned to him was the swelling of ankles that I have had.  I didn’t think this was really bad, but it was worse that it had been in the UK (not really surprising as it’s so much hotter out here).  Dr Cherif examined my ankles but was not worried – all good then!

This week I went swimming for the first time in ages.  We had planned to go in the UK over the summer as we thought we’d have lots of opportunities too, for example the pool has reopened in Buxton and we figured there were so many days when we were in London without any plans, but it just didn’t seem to work out like that.  We did manage one trip when we were in London, but this wasn’t quite the experience we were going for as because it was the holidays every day had been designated ‘splash time’ and so the pool was full of kids playing, which wasn't ideal with a bump!  This week though has been good as the pool at school is just the right temperature and feels good for an hour after work.  I don’t swim much as I’m not a great swimmer and the bump is kind of weighing me down even more (!), so I tend to just lounge.  I have been doing aqua aerobics with some of the older ladies at work which is nice as it is not too strenuous, but I have found that my bump gets in the way of half of the exercise that require you to lift your knees up!

We’ve been getting in to our routine now that we are back in Cairo and I’m 35 weeks, but I haven’t been feeling overly tired yet.  Yes I’ve been feeling tired, but you always do after a summer break and then getting back in to work.  I have been trying to pace myself though and so in the first week back at work I took a day off, then in the second week took two days off.  On the days off I haven’t been in bed all day or in front of the TV – I have still been doing things, but it is just a bit different to be doing things myself at home and at my own pace, rather than with work going on around me.

I have noticed though that in the evenings my back starts to ache and I have trouble sitting for periods of time.  The ache is in my lower back and I try different positions; sitting on on the couch on a cushion with a normal cushion and the triangle cushion behind me, sitting on the ball, standing and leaning over the armchair, sitting on a turned-round dining chair and finally lying on my side with the triangle cushion under my belly and two cushions under my head.  When I am leaning against the armchair or am on the ball then Scotty will often come over and give me a bit of a massage.  It’s this final position of actually lying down that tends to give me the best response, but I always try the other ones first to try and keep moving.

At night I don’t find myself waking up on my back so much anymore – maybe just once a week.  I think this is a sign that actually back-sleeping is uncomfortable for me now (rather than I’ve conditioned my body to side-sleeping!).  I still find I toss and turn to get comfortable though and need to sleep on my right for part of the night.  I have tried sitting up to sleep too (with an extra pillow on top of my normal pillow and with the long leg support under the small of my back) and found that I can do this for about an hour.  I am finding that I don’t wake up with ‘numb’ hands anymore as I did over the summer, but I do find my hands feel puffy and a bit achy during the night until they warm-up from use in the morning. My feet too get puffy overnight and feel really ‘big’ when I step down on to them to get out of bed.  I have tried sleeping with an extra pillow under my feet, but this doesn’t seem to change much.  Although I’m pleased that I am sleeping on my side more what I have found is that my hips start to ache in the second half of the night.  It feels like ligament pain, rather than anything else, and I’ve rationalised it as being either because my legs are having to stretch over themselves when I lie down, or because I am pressing down on my hip from sleeping on it for so long.  I talked to Zo online and she said that she had the same thing and couldn’t solve it (!) so I’m just keeping with the changing of sides during the night and then sleeping upright if I really can’t get comfortable.

Over the summer people tended to describe my bump as being ‘neat’.  I didn’t always know how to respond to this, but I guess it was ‘neat’ as it was small and round.  Within a week of being back in Cairo though it has moved beyond being small and round to bulging a little at the sides.  I don’t think this is me putting on weight, but just the baby bulging differently!  So I don’t think people will describe it as ‘neat’ for much longer!

The baby’s movement is different now compared to the start of the summer; I could feel it loads then, but it was all very light.  If I sat down I could feel ten kicks within a few minutes most of the time, but now there are definite times when it isn’t moving and I have had to wait a good 10 minutes at times before starting my kick counting.  When it does start to move though some of the kicks are really huge.  Some have been so big that I did mention it to the Doc at one appointment (even though I didn’t think it was a problem).  Ironically, after that appointment the kicks got harder, which makes me think that the Baba Ganough can hear better than it’s been letting on!  I’ve been trying to film the kicks, but they hard to capture from a single angle.  I do think that you can see my belly rippling though.  The baby still gets hiccups regularly and I can feel these at least once a day.

Our appointment today was with Dr Mohamed, as Dr Cherif was out delivering a baby, and at 36 weeks it’s hard to believe that we are a month away from having our baby!  Dr Mohamed was happy with everything and his manner, like Dr Cherif’s is so calming.  We still had a few queries about the process at the hospital and our birth options and although we weren’t sure if he would be able to answer them all (as he is an assistant to Dr Cherif) we asked anyway.  I'm keen to go 'natural' for as long as possible (ie. without painkillers) but wanted to know the options.  We knew already that gas & air isn't available in Egypt, and so the only alternatives are pethadine or an epidural.  We wanted to know if we could request an epidural at any time, or whether there was a point after which is would be ‘too late’. He reassured us that we could ask at any time which is what we thought would be the answer.  We also thought it would be good to check what things we needed to bring in the Hospital Bag as we’d started to pack ours already based on the millions of different lists and ideas in each baby book/website.  His answer was great; “You just need some clothes for you, clothes for the baby, the hospital will provide everything.  It is like a hotel”  As we were leaving he tried to reassure us after all our questions (even though we were feeling very reassured already!) and said “Don’t worry, you will have a wonderful time there” I looked at him quizzically and said “Wonderful time?” to which he added “With an epidural!  Ha ha!"

My ‘neat’ bump has turned into an ‘over-hang’ look.  I sometimes feel like an overweight man who has such a beer belly that they have to sit with their legs slightly sprayed to allow the belly to hang in between.  My belly is also definitely making picking things up more difficult too as it is just in the way and so I can’t bend down unless I bend at the knees (which is what I should do) or I bend at an angle (which is what I do when I forget what I should be doing).  I still get back ache in evenings.  At first I thought the back ache had been related to what I was doing during the day i.e. lots of sitting down, or lots of walking around or bassoon playing.  But now I think it is just something that happens regardless of what I have been up to in the day.  I also still find myself sometimes getting tired or with swollen ankles, but these aren’t a huge problem really.

I’ve just passed 37 weeks and we had our appointment today.  From now on we will be going every week to see Dr Cherif every week.  We had our appointment this evening and it all went well.  Dr Cherif did the scan but with the baby’s head facing down and back he was actually struggling a bit to get the scan to show the dimensions to allow him to calculate the weight.  At the end of the scan he announced that the baby was healthy and he could see all of the organs etc. and so the baby was ‘perfect’ and that the baby was ‘ready’.  We were really surprised and excited to hear these words. We’ve said before that we’ve never been happier to have the word ‘normal’ be used to describe us (i.e. the baby) but to then hear the word ’perfect’ instead was a nice surprise.  I think what he means is that the baby is now full-term (37 weeks) and he is happy that the baby is ready to survive outside of the womb if it is born now.

Dr Cherif was able too answer a few of our questions from last week again and he reassured us that we can have the epidural at any time if needed and that we will get skin-to-skin straight after the birth and the that cord won’t be cut immediately.  He also told us that within the first hour they will help us try to breastfeed and that then the baby can be taken to be washed, or if we prefer it can just be wiped, to keep some of the cheesy womb-ness on the baby’s skin.  We were very reassured by his words and don’t feel the need for a ‘birth plan’ as it feels that his way of working is in line with what we want and that his team will have been built around his way of working.

I mentioned to Dr Cherif that  I have sometimes been feeling some tightness in my stomach.  I don’t find it painful and it doesn’t feel like what a Braxton Hicks (practice contraction) is described as because sometimes I notice the pain and sometimes not, so it doesn’t feel like it lasts for a particular amount of time, just that I notice it sometimes and sometimes don’t.  It sort of feels like period pains but not lasting all day.  It reminds me of the pain I was getting in the second trimester really which was due to the muscles expanding to accommodate my growing abdomen! Dr Cherif though does think that these are Braxton Hicks contractions.  He then said that I would know the difference when the real contractions start because I would feel them all across my womb.  He them simulated this by putting his hands either side of my bump (I was lying on the exam bed at the time) and squeezing my bump.  My response to this was “Ow! That hurts!"  I am going to be rubbish when actual contractions start!!!

So the baby is ‘ready’ but I think that we aren’t yet!  I still have another few days to do at work, Fabs is coming out next week and we need to practice the route to the hospital again.  Having said that though, I don’t know if we’ll ever feel ‘ready’.  Having the baby will happen when it happens.  The birth will happen and we can think about what we’d like to happen, but we don’t know what will actually happen.  Life will change and we know that, but we don’t know exactly how it will change.
I am finding that I am going to the loo more and more again now.  I had read that this would happen as the baby presses down on the bladder in the final few months.  I find that when I am busy during the day I go as normal, but at night I need to go at least twice just before bed and get up twice again during the night.  I find that when lying down I can sometimes feel a sharp need to go to the loo – which must be the Baba Ganough again pressing on my bladder (as I had towards the end of the second trimester).  When I go at bedtime and in the night I never need to pee much, but just having a small wee means I can feel relaxed again in bed and try to get back to sleep.

I am at 38 weeks now and it feels close to the end for two reasons; firstly that I started my maternity leave a few days ago and secondly that Fabs has come out to stay for a week to help us get ready for the birth / distract me from the birth.  Although I have been working part-time all term and picking and choosing my days it will be odd to not go in to work at all now for about two months, so it’s good to have Fabs here as a distraction.

At our appointment this week Dr Cherif did a swab and internal exam.  Not something that you look forward to (!) but it had to be done.  We’ll get the results back next week but he said everything looked fine and that my cervix was still intact (which suggests that things won’t be happening too soon).  This may be TMI (stupid mumsnet speak for ‘too much information’) but over the last month I have definitely had an increase in discharge (totally normal I’m assured).  It hasn’t been a real problem except that I need to change my knickers twice a day!

Sometimes I feel that I am getting palpitations as there are times that I suddenly feel very conscious of my heart beat, or I feel that it is racing for a while.  I’ve read that this is normal towards the end of pregnancy, but I will mention it to the doc when we next see him.

There have been a few small perks to this later part of my pregnancy.  I have been able to have afternoon naps without feeling too guilty (although I have only done this twice to be honest – as otherwise I do feel a little guilty!) Another cool perk I discovered when Fabs and I were out checking out hotels for the P’s visit next month. As we approached the Pearl Hotel the doorman stopped us from entering.  This was really confusing at first, until we saw him bend down and unplug the body scanner that you have to walk through to get in!  How sweet of him!  When we first got back to Cairo at 33 weeks we had a few days lazing around the house before going out and doing some proper shopping.  It was only at the point when we had just two bottles of water left in the fridge that we tried to get more water and found out about the bottled water shortage that had been hitting Egypt on and off all summer. That first shopping trip I went to four different stores to try and find water and ended up buying an 18lt water cooler bottle that we then decanted (using our ‘little bottler’ brewing gear).  I couldn’t play the ‘pregnancy card’ until shops actually had some bottled water; as when they did they would only sell it one case at a time, but by looking sorry for myself and stroking my bump I managed to convince stores to sell me two cases at a time – result!

I’m 39 weeks now and we’re pretty much as ready as we’re going to be for the baby to arrive, so we just want it to come now!  I am still feeling these jabbing sort of pains in my lower stomach – which Dr Cherif thought before were Braxton Hicks – but they don’t really feel like practice contractions yet.

Today (39w+1) for the first time in ages I had the runs.  Now I’m not sure if this is because of something I ate (decaf coffee and a chocolate muffin at Costa) or if this is one of the signs of labour coming on as my bowels clear out.  We’ll just have to wait and see!

This week we've been having curry for dinner as the old wives tales suggest that this is a way to bring on labour.  I've started making sure that I have a long walk every day now as this is meant to help the baby's head engage.  It's not like I've been sitting around at home up until now - I have been out for a walk every day (to and from the shops, the CSA or something), but now I'm trying to make sure that I have walk that is an hour-long to try and get things moving.

So this blog post is being published on 13th October which is 40 weeks and the baby's due date.  It doesn't seem like the baby is in any rush to join us as Dr Cherif reckons the head is only just starting to engage.  The Baba Ganough is obviously unaware of how we run our lives around here!  We keep telling the baby that even if it arrives late doesn't mean we're going to be any more prepared!  Today we saw Dr Cherif for a check-up and we'll see him every two days now so that he can monitor how the baby is doing, which is the same as they do in the UK.  We decided though that we need to keep making plans and keeping busy so now that we are back from the appointment we are going to put a brew on!

This week I have been having a CTG every other day so that Dr Cherif can monitor how the baby is doing and that it is still happy in there.  At 40+2 the Baba Ganough was actually moving so much that the CTG was hard to read and so he asked me to come back the next day.  The next reading was fine and so my next appointment was at 40+5.  As the clinic wasn't open that day I had instead to go to El Nada hospital to have the CTG scan.

At 41 weeks we had another appointment with Dr Cherif with another scan, CTG and exam.

Date Night?

Today we went out for dinner at Lucille’s – who serve the bets burgers in Cairo – after our appointment with Dr Cherif.  We actually did the same last week when Fabs was visiting and as we left the clinic it turned out that we’d both been thinking about doing the same again!

It was a real treat to go again, and as we walked there we were questioning why we didn’t start this routine earlier in the pregnancy!  We’ve always loved Lucille’s and had a little routine of going along, but finding we had to wait for a table and so grabbing a drink in the bar of Villa 55 opposite.  This was for the (original) Road 9 branch, but last year they opened a new branch on Nasr Street.  The new branch is done up pretty much the same as the original, but it has a fair bit more room, is a bit lighter and is a lot quieter, so we’ve begun to prefer it.

We try to go out for dinner once a week depending on what we fancy eating and how we’re feeling, so this isn’t really a date night; just a little treat (although dinner out will turn in to a big treat in a few weeks we expect!).  But it suddenly feels like a romantic date night when all the lights go out in the restaurant!

“Shukran Morsi” is the first thing we hear from the waiter.  A reference to the fact that rolling black outs have been credited to Morsi’s lack of control over the country, rather than simply the high demand this summer on power.  Although we wonder if it has something to do with the vast number of high wattage bulbs that are used by the shop one block down that we visited last week.  Fabs was so amazed by the amount of light emitting from its windows that she needed to take a photo!

There is a small glow from the street outside which is enough to see each other across the table and that the other couple having dinner have their mobile phone torch on.  The waiter soon comes out with two emergency lights that he sets up opposite the two tables shining light towards us.  It’s not quite a candle-lit dinner, but close enough!

Getting ready....

They sell the best things in Alfa Market

Alfa Market is an awesome Egyptian supermarket on the Corniche in Maadi.  I've only been going there the last few years and have found it to be the Grand Mall of supermarkets.  It is the home of #25Jan Monopoly and Ramadan material bunting.  Fabs and I went there shopping today and there were two great buys:

Monopoly Deal (our favourite card game) in Arabic!

 

Push!

 

Last Day of School

I know everyone has to take a photo on the First Day of School, but it seemed kind of fitting to have one on my last day.  So here are I am with bump at 37 1/2 weeks.

Things that are ready: 

• Baby clothes have all been washed (and folded!)
• Baby room is generally ready 
• Hospital bag is generally packed
• Work (I have handed over to a colleague my job whilst I am away - let's see what he makes of it all!)
• Freezer meals (I've frozen portions of chili, bol and herby chicken already but plan to make a curry up next week....to freeze ready to eat on/after the due date!)
• The baby apparently!  Dr Cherif said at our appointment a few days ago that the baby 'is ready' which means he is happy that the baby is the right size and weight and is full term.  The head is still pointing down, which is good, but we realised that we didn't clarify whether he also meant that the head is engaged.

Things that aren't ready:

• We need to do a practise run to the hospital again to check out different routes and timings.  Ali and Fabs will probably do this next week.  We also need to practise putting the car seat in to a car! 
• Ali and Fabs will also do a few things next week that won't get done after the baby is born, like go to the dentist and get hair cut.
• Work (it's hard for Scotty as he doesn't know when he's going to need to take time off and therefore it's hard to plan cover lessons ahead of time)
• We still haven't unpacked the pram properly and we still need to wash and get ready our Cheeky Wipes (reusable cotton wipes that we plan to try instead of tonnes of baby wipes)
• We haven't collected the Moses Basket from Nicki yet (so the baby doesn't have anywhere to sleep apart from the cot-bed which is too large for it right now), but we plan to get this in the next few days

But it will all be fine!

Kitchen Window

So if you are not working and are at home all day then you get to looking out of the window a lot.  This is the Maadi version of the Alfred Hitchcock film and so is based around the Kitchen Window where I am washing up, rather than the Rear Window because of an injury.

It seems that rope does solve every problem in Cairo.  Here is is solving the problem of how do you install air con on the side of a tall building.  The guy here has a long rope tied (some how!) at the top of the building and then he climbs up each knot (like you used to do in PE years ago) until he is where he wants to be and hooks his sling/seat over the knot.  If he needs to move position he swings himself on the rope from side to side.

Radio Ga Ga (not quite)

Well with the surprise sudden connection to the internet we were slightly unprepared for a radio show this evening!  We chatted and played music for an hour though and it was really nice to be back on and chat with friends.  Here is a picture of our current set up - it's different from our last apartment as there we could sit opposite each other over the dining room table, but here we have a proper desk/work-area and so we are side-by-side for the time being.

Faff update: The Internet

So for the past two and a half weeks I have been badgering a bloke called Eslam who is the man who can install satellite internet for us.  I last spoke to him over a week ago, because last weekend he'd obviously had enough of me calling him and so stopped answering my calls!  He did text me after two hours to say that he was sorry and they would install on Saturday.  So then Saturday comes and he hasn't called me for our address, so I text him to ask when he will come to install.  He doesn't reply and so two hours later I try to call him, but of course he does not answer.  Does this guy not want our money, or something?  I try calling him again but it's the same.  Scotty tries to call him from his phone and he does get through, but Eslam is quite vague, saying that the engineer from the office will come today.  No mention of the time, or that he would like our address even!

We're getting pretty frustrated - as you can imagine!  So we sit down and start to think about other options.  The USB dongle we've got for this month from Etisalat has been doing well and so we could just buy a router for this and run all of our internet this way.  Although the router isn't expensive, we'd probably need more than one dongle's worth of data each month, and so the unlimited data we'd get through the satellite could be a better deal. Hhmmm. We're close to going out to Etisalat to buy the router (as we've stayed in all day so far in case the engineer turns up) but then hit on another plan.

We know that the phone line in to the apartment is fibre, but we also know that there is a second, different, phone line.  We couldn't get it to call out, so didn't know the phone number to try and get the internet connected on the line.  We had assumed that as the main phone line was fibre, the other line would be fibre too (as the sockets are next to each other).

Then we had a brainwave - why don't we try to call Etisalat on the other line, as they have Caller ID and so could tell us what the number is.  We do that but we're not overly hopeful that the line will be good.  We get through to Etisalat and they tell us straight away that the line is good, but it is already signed up for Internet with TE Data. We are slightly in shock and disbelief at this news - within about 15 minutes we have gone from not having our calls answered by our only hope, to having a line that could potentially support ADSL.

We then speak to TE Data and they confirm that the line is good and say that all we need to do is to come to the office to sign a new contract with them.  We get in a cab to Nasr Street and are soon showing them our passports and the lease while they open the line up again for business.

Back at the apartment and we plug in the new router to the line, plug it in to the computer and it seems to be flashing all the right colours.  Scotty then calls TE Data to do some of the codes etc. and then we're online - wow!

Three weeks of internet faff: resolved in less than two hours!

Now we know that a lot of friends have had problems with TE Data in the past, and we really think that Etisalat have been good at their customer service over the years.  But we decided that we would be better off sticking with TE Data, rather than creating (more) faff by trying to get them to release the line and then trying to get Etisalat to take it up again.

What happens within minutes of us getting the internet all set up?  Scotty receives a phone call from 'Ali, the internet engineer' - oh, so they've finally decided to get in touch, have they?  Scotty plays dumb and does the 'crackly line' noise whilst I turn off my phone so they can't call me.  A bit evasive of us maybe, but we figure we can give them a bit of a taste of their own medicine.  Tomorrow if either of them call then I will simply explain that they had two and a half weeks to install and plenty of time to communicate with us about what was happening and when, but because they were not very helpful we have found someone else for internet.

We do still manage a final bit of faff when it comes to cabling the new router/computer set up.  The problem is that the phone sockets are beside the TV which is the opposite side of the room to the computer (but at least they are in the same room, unlike the satellite cable was initially!)  Our first cable set up is to get a really long phone cable from beside the TV, so that the phone and the router can be close to the computer.  This works, but the line is a bit crackly (especially when you move the cable, or walk on it as it runs under the rugs).  We then decide to change things round and have a short phone cable, so that the router is near the TV, but a really long ethernet cable to the computer.  Once we have run this around the room and plug it in, we notice that there is a phone socket behind the couch i.e. next to where the computer is.  A quick check and indeed this is the right line for the internet - so we can have both a short phone and short ethernet cable and the set up is complete!

Gradually getting out there

So I've been working part-time now for three weeks and have been trying to 'get out there' on my days off, rather than find myself just sitting at home.  Not that I am the kind of person who does just sit around at home, but going out and meeting new people on my own is something new for me!

I've been visiting the CSA most days, as it is open during the day (BCA only opens at 3pm) and they have a coffee shop and free wi-fi.  And, of course, it seems to be where none-working expats hang out.

On my first few visits I walked around the centre to see who was there as I was keen to try and see how many new mums would be around.  There were a few with toddlers and I did spy one with a large tum like mine, and another with a baby car seat (I couldn't see the baby, but I'm sure it was in there somewhere!).  Not quite having the courage to just go and walk to them though I then just grabbed a drink and sat down by myself.

The difficulty has been that most people seem to already be there with friends - and it's a bit more daunting to go up to a group already sat together, than to go up to someone on their own.  My last two visits though I have managed to catch people on their own for a little chat with which has felt good.

The first was another mum to be who had a bump the same size as mine.  It turns out that she too is 8 months pregnant.  This is her second child though and she lives in Katameya, but comes to the CSA as her first is at nursery in Maadi.  It was good to have said 'hi' to someone in a similar position and hopefully I'll see her around again.

The second person I spoke to was an American who has two kids (one in Primary and the other at nursery) and lives in Maadi (while her husband works in Katameya).  It was really interesting chatting to her about some of the recent goings on and she was happy to talk for a while about babies in Maadi.  She recommended that we get a carrier, rather than just a buggy for the Maadi streets and I said that this was our plan already.  Her recommendation was the ErgoBaby - which is actually what we have got (!) so I feel we've definitely made the right choice there. 

I tried to meet some other mums at the 'coffee morning' about child health the other day, but the turn out was not great.  I also tried to meet some mums by crashing the Baby Massage course being run there (that I couldn't sign up for without a baby!), but it turns out it has been postponed till November.  Although it means I might not meet some other mums through the course for a while - it does give me something to aim for in November. 

A number of people have said that the CSA run a 'mum and baby' group, but it doesn't seem like they do.  I did ask them and they said that others have been asking too, so they might start something.  I think I will ask again next week and suggest that i am happy to put up a notice if they think there has been other interest.

The other 'mum and baby' group tip-off that I have been following up is that something is run at the Maadi Community Church (opposite the BCA), but when I asked there they described it as a Bible Study Group for mums and that the babies are looked after in the nursery.  I might give it a go - just to see what it is like - but I was hoping to find something that would be mums and babies together.

My investigations have also concluded that mums and toddlers and young kids do go to Beanos on Road 9 during the day (but no babies). 

I have also concluded that Beanos do a very good 'Hibiscus and Blackberry cooler' and 'Twix Tart' :-)

Settling in to the new apartment

Sooo...it's been around three weeks, and our new apartment is feeling a lot more like 'home'.  Last night we filmed a bit of a tour around.

If you haven't already seen what it was like when we first arrived in August, check out this post first.

However, if you've already seen that then take a look at what it looks like now!

Welcome (back) in Egypt!

We thought we were seasoned at this whole ‘welcome in Egypt’ thing, but coming back to Cairo this year has been a bit more of a challenge than we anticipated!  We knew things would be different packing-wise as we were bringing back a buggy and tonne of baby supplies instead of our previous booze and pork products, and we (and the buggy) managed to survive the flight which was a relief.

What we didn’t quite anticipate were some of the difficulties with changing flat and getting settled in.

The first faff of course was actually moving – but we’re trying to forget that prolonged, sweaty and stressful period (!) as we luckily managed to complete that before the summer.

Faff number two I guess has been realising all the things we need to buy for the new place that were in the old place, or that we’ve never needed before.  It was only when we were making a spag bol that we realised that not only did we not have a peeler for the carrots, but we also didn’t have a colander for the pasta.  We coped for one night, but then had to get ourselves to Road 233 (a fair local substitute for the Grand Mall, but we still believe that you can buy everything you really need at the MGM).

Larger purchases have included a vacuum cleaner, as we now have four large rugs and two corridor carpets that will store vast amounts of dust if we don’t watch out, and an emergency light.  We‘ve found that blackouts tend to hit the apartment once a week and know that with the baby our head-torches won’t quite cut it!  The light is pretty clever as you plug it in to charge and leave it plugged in all the time.  Then when the power goes, that triggers the lamp to turn itself on!  I bought it on Sunday and we got to test it out last night when the power was out for about ten mins.  It worked a treat.  When the power went out though we both admitted that we had been thinking ‘It’s a shame we haven’t had a power cut yet to see if the lamp works’ but of course didn’t want to say anything to jinx the situation!

Now on to one of the bigger faffs; the internet.  When we left Road 206 we cancelled our ADSL contract with Etisalat (which was a faff in itself as we had to do it the night before we flew and we had to visit the shop twice because they had given us the wrong change!).  So when we got back to Cairo in August we went to Etisalat to sign-up for a new contract for ADSL at the new place.  Contract signed, we came home ready to continue using USB dongles for another week or so whilst the line was being activated.  Last week I posted about how Etisalat called us after a week to tell us that we had the wrong type of phone line, so needed to request that the phone line was changed from fibre to cable (ironically this would be a downgrading of the line!).  I spent an afternoon trying to do this and a few follow-up phone-calls found that this was not possible. 

So on Tuesday we went back to Etisalat to try and claim our money back (as we had needed to pay for 6 months in advance).  When we turned up at the shop it was unusually quiet and we found out that this was because their system was down – so they could not process any requests.  We decided to have dinner on Road 9 so that the trip down there wasn’t a total waste of time.  We had a great meal at Lucille's, so can’t complain too much, but it was frustrating that we’d have to visit Road 9 again to sort it all out.

So last night, Wednesday, we went down to Etisalat again, this time a lot earlier to try and miss the rush.  We in fact hit the rush and had to wait half an hour to be seen.  They were fine about cancelling the contract, but the paperwork took some time. When it was all over though, they guy said that they couldn’t refund our credit card for the payment but had to give us cash. Except they didn’t have enough cash in the store, so we’d need to come back in an hour!  So once again we have dinner on Road 9 (we decided to have a ‘new’ experience by going to Pizza Hut. Now we have had that experience we know we never need to go there again).  We get back to Etisalat and fortunately the guy recognises us so we don’t need to queue and we get the money back (minus the cost of a new dongle).

The other part of the internet faff of course is trying to get an alternative to ADSL and an alternative to a dongle – the only other option is satellite internet which a friend of ours already has.  I have phoned the guy most days this week to ask him to install the satellite and give us a router and subscription, but he seems a little useless and doesn’t seem to want to take our money. So I’ll just keep calling him I guess until he realises that if he doesn’t want me to call him every day he just needs to sort it out.

The biggest faff of all though has turned out to be getting our security deposit back for our old flat on Road 206. 

We were sad about having to leave our home of four years (longer than we’d even lived in our house in the UK), especially as it was such a nice place and the landlord was good.  We wanted to make sure that there were new tenants in the place, to make up for the landlord losing us, and through school a new teacher decided to take the place, so we were pretty pleased. Their contract was due to start on the first of September and so we felt obliged to pay our rent through until the end of the summer and the end of our contract.  We didn’t want to screw over the landlord and we also liked the reassurance of having the apartment until the end of the summer in case we didn’t manage to move everything in to the new place before our flight.

So at the end of June, a few days before our flight, the landlord and her son (whom we actually do most of our dealings with) came round to collect the last bit of rent and to see the apartment.  They came in and said how sad they were that we were leaving (nothing about a congratulations for our baby!) and when we offered to show them around the apartment they said that they were happy with how we had kept the place and didn’t need to see the other rooms.  We then offered them the rent and mentioned our security deposit. They asked if we could wait until September for it because they had to pay for a family wedding.  We agreed and so gave them two months rent and said we would get in touch with them in September.  We know that a few other friends had just kept their last month’s rent as the security deposit, instead of needing to collect it afterwards, but we were happy with how we’d left things with the landlord.

We were quite surprised that we hadn’t heard anything from the new tenants over the summer about moving in early – as their contract was due to start a week after they were arriving in Egypt and we knew that for us it was important to get in to the new apartment as soon as possible (!) But a few days before the start of term we heard from a friend that they had in fact moved in to the apartment – whilst it was still technically rented to us! We weren’t fussed by this personally, but thought it was a little cheeky!

We decided to wait until after September had started before contacting the landlord about our security money, so that they would have the rent from the tenants.  When we texted the landlord’s son we got this in reply:

"We have received our apartment in a sorry state u have left the key to servant she stole most important things and did not find spoons, no sheets, the apartment was dirty so my mom really sad about this"

What??!!  When we got the text through we were so surprised and shocked – at the fact that the landlord would turn so nasty and that they thought we had left the place in a bad way and stolen things.  It was just such a bizarre feeling.

Scotty tried to call them on the phone straight away, but his call was rejected, so I tried on my number and was able to get through.  When I spoke to the landlord’s son he said that the apartment was in a terrible condition again and that they were really disappointed.  I kept replying that I did not understand how this would be possible because they had seen the apartment just before we left and so knew what it looked like.  He then spoke about the missing things which he said included spoons from the kitchen and the mattresses.  Again I said that I really did not understand how this would be possible and he accused our maid of taking a copy of our keys and then stealing things.

It became clear after a short while that there was no use in talking on the phone about this, as we were convinced of our position and he convinced of theirs.  I said that we were very upset by what they had said and I would be speaking to our school to get the money that we deserve from them.

We were in such a shock by his response that we could not sleep all night.  How could the landlord turn on us like this?  What had happened to the apartment? What on earth was happening with the new tenants?

We contacted the person who sorts out apartments at school by email to give her a run down of what had happened and I resolved to go and see her first thing to see what help she could maybe give us.

When I saw Mona I started to feel a little better.  Mona did, at first, say that the apartment was not in a good condition and that they had to do a lot of work to it.  I again said that I did not understand what the problem could be because we looked after the apartment and she, and the landlord had all seen the condition we left it in.  I tried to ask about what this ‘sorry state’ was like and she mentioned the dust, dirt and things broken.  In our minds the dust was a reasonable expectation – as no one had been in for two months – but the broken and missing things confused me.

She then produced a list of the problems that the new tenants were having with the flat.  This made me realise that the problem wasn’t just between us and the landlord, but was much bigger – especially if the new tenants had had a meeting with Mona and the landlord to try and resolve their problems!  On the list were things like cleaning in each room, but also other things like the TV needing to be moved, that the step in to the kitchen was broken and that the bath was stained.

Yes all of those things were problems in the apartment, but we had never made a big deal out of them.  Things were starting to become clear – the new tenants weren’t going to be as tolerant as we were of the small problems in the apartment and the landlord was having to fix everything for them!  Our problem now being needing to make the landlord realise that these were all actually problems with the apartment itself, not problems that we had caused.

So that evening we took to looking at the old video diaries that we had recorded when we first moved in to see if they gave any hint of the general condition of the apartment.  They did, and even the video diary we recorded at the end of June just before we moved out showed the general condition we were leaving the place in. 

 

So from what we thought would be a small formality of getting our deposit back turned into a rollercoaster of emotions!

We still haven’t had the deposit back, but the most recent update has been that the landlord has admitted that they don’t have the money to pay us at the moment because they spent their money on the family wedding and because they are now needing to spend lots of money on the apartment for the new tenants.  We have said that we can wait for our money, but have said that we too will need the money for our baby (we can survive without it, but we shouldn’t have to take that hit, we don’t believe, as we think we deserve the deposit back!).  They have queried again the sheets and spoons (no mention of the mattresses again, so we think this may have been a mis-translation of sheets) and we have emailed Mona details of where we think they can be found in the apartment, stressing that they are hidden deep in cupboards because we never used them as they were so old. We have left things with Mona for the time being and will see what happens over the next few weeks.  It would be good to get the money back out of the next rent the tenants pay, but we’ve got a feeling that they might even withhold rent if they are not happy with the apartment still!