Kholakat.net Dissociative Ramblings

So it looks like I will have another 7 weeks or so to go until lil Munchkin should arrive into this world, hopefully via a waterbirth at home. The nursery is nearly all ready to go with the walls now a calmer cream colour, furniture assembled and placed, curtains replaced and now we just have some smaller touch-up jobs to do, some more kids books to unpack from Nath’s childhood ‘library’, some gorgeous pics to hang up and a whole load of baby clothes and MCN’s (modern cloth nappies) to wash. Yeah, not much to do there I guess!

At the moment I am planning to start my parental leave about 4 weeks before my due date although that could change considering recent events! On Wednesday night we went to hospital after I felt some pretty strong abdominal pains on my right hand side. I was rather nervous that it might be appendicitis so I thought it might be best to get it checked out. After spending a couple of hours at QE2, we got sent to the Mater Mothers hospital for further observation. They ended up keeping me in overnight just to monitor me and to have an ultrasound. I was freaking out thinking that I might need to have an operation (my first!), and that also possibly meaning that little girl might have to come out at the same time. I definitely did not feel ready to meet her just yet!! Anyway, it turned out to be a fibroid (which I had known about), and which is manageable with paracetamol. So now I am having ‘bed rest’ for a week or so, until it calms down. This means I go back to work for 2 weeks before taking 12 months off. I’m pretty excited about that!

Lessons learnt? Hospitals might seem scary but there are so many lovely people there (nurses/midwives/doctors/other patients!) that it doesn’t have to be a negative place. If I need to go to hospital for this birth (complications or pain relief etc), then I am definitely ok with that. At this stage I am hoping that this won’t be required, and that all will be well. I am keen to be flexible with whatever happens, and I think that’s very important in these types of situations. ‘All is happening as it should…’

So now it’s back to reading a plethora of books on birth and parenting, now that I have finally finished my struggle through the Twilight series. Maybe it’s time to start on the new Robin Hobb series to try and re-balance my mind again!

For those of you not on the Facebook bandwagon, our latest news is that I’m currently 16 weeks pregnant with our first baby. We’ve had one ultrasound so far, and are looking forward to the 20 week scan which will show a lot more detail (and hopefully some awesome 3D images!)

So, introducing Baby Keynes (aka Munchkin), who we look forward to meeting in March 2010!!

In other news, I’m still enjoying my night classes for the naturopathy degree, so that’s a positive. One of my classes, intro to communication and counselling, has just blown my mind with the way it has gotten me to view things in my life, and even change things in my life. When something like that happens, you know you are on a good thing

Since this was our full spare day in Cairo, we had talked about going back to the museum, or doing other exploring. Instead we decided to chill out at the hotel, ‘recover’ from the tour and absorb as much of the Egyptian vibe we could. We had brekkie (small buffet), and then wandered the streets of Zamalek. It was much quieter than yesterday cause it was Friday, and therefore the start of the Egyptian weekend. There were a lot of taxis that were stalking us as we walked, asking if we wanted a ride. There were also a couple of older women asking for money and/or food.

Zamalek has a lot of leafy streets and some interesting buildings. Some of the shops were still closed or were in the process of opening as we walked past. Nath and I both had the sniffles so we wanted to rest up and get better as soon as we could, before the next leg of our journey. We found a cafe next door – ‘Cafe Noir’ that had these huge cups of coffee and some pretty awesome burgers too. I couldn’t finish mine though (too much food) and  I think my dehydration had finally caught up with me.

I ended up resting/sleeping in the hotel room for the rest of the day while trying to rehydrate myself.

We slept in until 9:30am, which was awesome! One of our new friends had slipped a note under our door, and we met up with her for brekkie – another buffet. I was definitely going to miss the Egyptian karkade and the mini omelettes we have been getting everywhere. I did a bit more shopping and then all too soon it was time to check out. We said our goodbyes to the guys that were still at the hotel and then had the hotel car drive us to Zamalek to the Hotel Longchamps, where we were to spend the next couple of days on our own in Egypt.

It was quite a change in pace – cleaner streets, nicer shops, less dust and narrower roads. The hotel itself is gorgeous too! Lots of little nooks decorated with comfy chairs, flowers and pictures. They had 2 balconies that were covered with plants, that provided nice little reading areas. Nearby there was a building that had an entire wall covered with some sort of flowering plant. The staff were super friendly, and I was so glad to see tea and coffee in the room. As an extra added bonus, they had free wifi through the hotel! When Nath went to ask for milk at reception, the guy followed him all the way back to the room because he didn’t want Nath to do it himself!

When we first walked into the building, there wasn’t much to indicate that a pretty B&B was nearby, apart from the small sign out the front. The lifts look and sound pretty old – both sets of doors need to close before the lift will work. It was a bit difficult to fit 2 roller suitcases, plus us, in them at the same time, so it was a bit of an adventure.

We decided to go for a wander outside, and found we were hardly hassled at all. This may have been due to the area although there was one guy that did walk up to us, and I think he was trying to convince us to cross the insanely busy road to get to a restaurant nearby. Either that or he was telling us that the footpath ended soon. Not sure exactly. We ended up turning around and heading back to the hotel. I think I was getting tired and thirsty at this stage (possibly quite dehydrated but didn’t realise it). Before we left him, he asked if he could take our picture on his camera-phone. Um, sure – that was awkward…

We bought some drinks and snacks from a convenience store (trying to read the arabic numbers on the shelves beforehand so we wouldn’t get ripped off!), and then we went back to the hotel for another cup of tea. I don’t think I’ve ever drunk so much tea before in my life!

There seemed to be a lot of students around Zamalek – it somehow makes it feel kinda safer. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, western style. I would have liked to have had more koshari but I’m not sure about which nearby restaurants might have been safe. We had such a good run of things so far, that I didn’t want to risk it with unknown local shops. We had a fairly early night but I couldn’t sleep. I could hear lots of beeping horns on the road below, and maybe I had too much tea during the day too!