Infrequent musings of a meandering mind

Although many women (and couples) tend to wait until the first trimester has ended before announcing news of their impending arrival, there are also those (like me) who choose to let others know a little bit sooner. To have joy, one should share it and even though the stats show that the first trimester is the riskiest in terms of pregnancy loss, the excitement and elation of finding out that you're expecting can be too overwhelming to keep to yourself. Or too overwhelming for even your family members to keep the news under wraps! But although letting others know might bring about renewed exuberance and happiness, it can also leave you with a slightly sickened feeling in the pit of your stomach – "what if something happens?". It's the risk you take... When you let other people know about your budding baby, it's natural for them to ask questions or pass comment (assuming that they are, in fact, interested in your condition ). Unfortunately sometimes these questio

One late night/early morning experience of debilitating pain, one very stressed out husband, a cumulative four and a half hours of waiting for medical attention and feedback, three doctors, two nurses, three injected drugs, two blood tests and one trip for a X-ray cut short by the presence of two lines on a pregnancy test. It started during the night, a nausea-inducing, vision-blurring abdominal pain. I didn't bother to check what the time was, I got out of bed and let my dogs outside for their "midnight" ablutions and found myself needing to seek the refuge of the couch while waiting for them. Lying down seemed to help so I called them back in and went straight back to bed, not even bothering to reset the burglar alarm. As I tried to fall asleep, I wondered if I should wake Nik up and ask him to take me to casualty at Greenacres Hospital, but decided that if rest eased the pain I would simply go back to sleep and hope it had subsided by the time I wanted to go to gym.

Reading news of the utterances of South Africa's president often leaves me cringing. I generally become aware of his verbal spews via online news websites and social media, as opposed to actually watching news or parliamentary broadcasts because actually listening to him speak his usual drivel is often more painful (and a longer process) than reading about it after the fact. From responsibility ducking regarding Nkandla to blaming Jan van Riebeeck for many and more of South Africa's ills and suggesting that warm water from a shower head will help to protect one from contracting HIV, there is very little that this man says that I think is actually worth the breath used to express it.  So aside from dodging more Nkandla-related questioning yesterday, Zuma has, once again, pissed off a huge number of South Africans by stating that teenaged mothers should be removed from their babies and sent "far away" to complete their schooling. If you haven't heard about it, you