The second round of IVF successfully made me pregnant. You can see details on our wordpress blog.

I'm officially 23 weeks pregnant now. The baby is kicking all the time, and I'm looking distinctly big. Some people are very proud of their pregnant bellies - I think it's horrifying, and do not look forward to continued belly expansion over the next 4 months. At the moment, I'm still able to wear big shirts and cover it up, but that will only work as long as my breasts poke out farther than my tummy, which will undoubtedly cease to be the situation. I'm feeling pretty good, though, and can often almost manage to forget that I am pregnant sometimes (i.e., no nausea, less fatigue, etc). The baby has been designated as probably a girl. In utero, we're calling her Tex. Her due date is in late February.

The allotment didn't do too badly this year after all, although we got only half as many plums this year as we did last year (20kg instead of 40kg), and we had a lousy crop of strawberries. We got a lot of beans, though, of the sort that we are able to dry out and cook in stews (e.g., borlotti beans, ying-yang beans, and runner beans). I froze all the plums straight away, and haven't actually made any chutney or jam yet, but have dried and saved over 3 pounds of beans. They look really nice in glass canisters. This past weekend we dug up a bunch of carrots and jerusalem artichokes, and pulled up all the dead bean vines. I've still got 3 huge jars of pickled beets, several zucchini in the fridge, and there are still a few giant sunflowers dried out and standing on the plot. Hopefully by the end of November, we'll have the bulk of the allotment weeded and covered in manure/mulch or black weed-suppressing fabric, so that in the springtime it will be easy to till and plant, regardless of the new baby.

The emergency trip we made to the US in September was tough - not only because of the family matters that brought us there, but because I found that pregnancy made the jetlag a lot worse, and gave me a tendency toward being airsick during landings. Still, I'm trying to figure out how we can make it to Pompeii before the first of the year, and we're still considering a weekend in Berlin at some point.

I'm spending a lot of time now reading books on pregnancy and babies, cleaning stuff out of the house and giving it away on freecycle or selling it on ebay, and doing research on baby related stuff. My NCT classes are due to start in about 3 weeks, and I am looking forward to meeting some other pregnant people.

Books I've read this year: Matter, by Iain M. Banks. The Ministry of Food by Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall. The Last Demon, by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Tom Brown's School Days, by Thomas Hughes. The Hite Report on the Family, by Shere Hite. [interlude of incompletely reading various prenatal books]. How Not to be a Perfect Mother, by Libby Purves. Call the Midwife, by Jennifer Worth. Shadows of the Workhouse, by Jennifer Worth. Farewell to the East End, by Jennifer Worth. Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, by Ina May Gaskin.

I am missing the following Starbuck's city mugs:
US: Minneapolis/St. Paul, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Portland (Portlandia)
Europe and the middle east: Brussels, Mykonos (2), Lisboa, Valencia, Antalya, Aydin, Balikesir, Bursa, Izmir
Mexico, the Bahamas, and South America: Argentina, Brazil, Sao Paulo, Cancun (Red), Ciudad Juárez, Cozumel, Leon, Merida, Monterrey, Morelia, Playa del Carmen, Puebla, Saltillo, San Luis Potosi, Torreón
China: Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shenyang, Wuxi, Xian
the rest of Asia and Australia: Adelaide, Bogor (India)
You can see photos of most of these here.