2004

[radegund]

1. What did you do in 2004 that you'd never done before?
Had a BABY. Probably a few other things too, but BABY BABY BABY.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Well, my resolutions were made four days before I found out I was pregnant. I quote:

Specific goals for 2004 include finishing both of my novel drafts, resurrecting my other journal, saving lots of money and turning 30. I reckon I can achieve at least one of those.

Yeah, well :-)

Goals for 2005 include decluttering, finishing one novel, decluttering, submitting poetry and short stories to magazines and competitions, decluttering, marrying niallm, decluttering, and PLAYING WITH MY BABY.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
HAAAA.

(Actually, yes: my much loved second cousin, and also ailbhe, brandnewgun, and kasku - although I didn't get to know her until afterwards.)

4. Did anyone close to you die?
A great-aunt on my mother's side. I was too pregnant to go to the funeral.

5. What countries did you visit?
England. And bits of Ireland (Leitrim, Connemara, Kerry). Bah.

6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
Enough sex. Enough sleep.

7. What date from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
That would be 22 August, Oisín's birthday.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Well, either giving birth or learning to breastfeed. I'm leaning slightly towards the latter.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I'm really not thinking in those terms at all. BABY.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Morning sickness, torn perineum and cracked nipples about covers it, I reckon. All better now.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
You're going to make me say it, aren't you? OK, OK. My support stockings, much as I hated wearing them, almost certainly saved my legs from a horrible fate. Gah.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
niallm, my sister, and the midwives of Holles Street Hospital.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Oh god. Abu Ghraib. Beslan. And then the US election...

14. Where did most of your money go?
Once again, the mortgage.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Need you ask?

16. What song will always remind you of 2004?
Silly question! I don't know, because I haven't started being reminded yet.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier.
ii. thinner or fatter? Probably thinner, but I now have a jelly belly that I didn't have before.
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer, now that we're paying crèche fees. But niallm's earning more. Hm. Don't know.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Sleeping.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Wincing.

20. How [did you spend] Christmas?
Traditional dinner at my parents' house (well, traditional except for the vegetarian part).

22. Did you fall in love in 2004?
Yes. Falling in love with a baby is an intense experience.

23. How many one-night stands?
None.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Babylon 5, which we finished watching a few weeks before Oisín's birth. Best new discovery was Spaced.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No.

26. What was the best book you read?
Woman: an Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That my son stops crying if you sing him "The House of the Rising Sun" in a cheesy low-pitched voice.

28. What did you want and get?
Aaaaaaand, all together now...

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
You know, I can't remember a single film I saw for the first time in 2004 and really loved. Mind you, I think I saw about three films in the cinema, and all in the first half of the year. Master and Commander wasn't bad.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 30. Some friends came around and cooked veggie burritos, and niallm's mother and aunt played with Oisín in the living room while we ate. It was low-key, but very pleasant.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Finishing my novel before giving birth. But hey. I'll get there.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
Maternal.

34. What kept you sane?
niallm

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Didn't.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Our odious citizenship referendum. I wish I had campaigned.

37. Who did you miss?
glitzfrau - still do!

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Ooh, an easy one: Oisín.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004:
When changing, endeavour always to keep something between you and the baby's bottom. Shit can shoot quite a distance.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
I'm soooooooo tired, I haven't slept a wink. I'm soooooooooooooooo tired, my mind is on the blink.

All you people with no small babies to look after, sleep a good night's sleep for me!

(Last year's is here, incidentally.)

Comments

[jinxremoving.livejournal.com]

i had to wear support stockings too! i couldn't wait to get out of them.

[radegund.livejournal.com]

They're fucking manky, aren't they? Particularly in June/July. But they worked. Harrumph.

[ailbhe]

1) Had a baby.
2) No serious resolutions, but I did get more FLY-organised.

3) Me, you, lots of other people. It's catching. Some people I'm close to because I met them at antenatal classes, which skews the stats a bit!

4) Mormor Greta. I was too postnatally sick to go to the funeral.
5) England, Ireland, Sweden.
6) Any sex. We had none in 2004.
7) All of April and May stick out.
8) Recovering from postnatal physical trauma.
9) I haven't failed at anything. Anything I achieved was a Very Big Deal Indeed.
10) Yes, I suffered illness and injury. But I'm better now.

11) The best thing I bought... Good lord. No idea. Baby equipment of some kind; possibly the BabyDan BabyDen playpen. Or the safety gates. Or the cot, or the moses basket, or the various things to make postnatal physical troubles easier. I bought a lot of stuff in 2004.

12) Mine, Rob, my mother, my antenatal class friends, and almost all the staff I met at the RBH.

13) On a personal level, an obstetrician and a midwife, at 3 days apart. Globally? I have no idea how much happened this year. I missed most of it. But Bush is always appalling, and Blair usually is.

14) Most of our income went into the mortgage. Most of what was left went into me-being-sick; fast food, taxis, painkillers, gel pads, special cushions, having my mother come over yadda yadda.

15) Linnea. A Bazillion times for a Bazillion reasons. Before and after her birth. And someone who had a similarly large baby and wasn't half-dead afterwards. That was even more exciting after I heard it was ok than it was before.

16) Baa baa vita lamm, har du nagon ull? (Bad spelling, but the Swedish version of Baa Baa Black Sheep, which is about a white sheep and has a different tune). That, or "Yes, sir, that's my baby" which I had the hospital radio play while I was in.

17) Happier, thinner, richer, unless money *really* matters. I *feel* richer. We own more of our house, and it's worth more.

18) Nothing that was possible, really, except maybe walking in parks.
19) Wallowing, except I think it may have been necessary to recovery.
20) With Rob and Linnea, very quietly.
21) There is no 21.
22) Yes. Almost every day after 30 April, in fact, but most intensely on 01 May.
23) 0
24) Huh?
25) No
26) I forget
27) Linnea can sing in tune
28) Linnea
29) There is no 29
30) Didn't see anything new, I think.
31) 26 - the day before, we went to Kew Gardens with baby and sister.
32) Not being in early labour for a month, or not being in pain for 8 months?
33) No gussets
34) Linnea
35) Um?
36) I didn't notice politics - it's hard to hear the news over a baby.
37) My mother, every time she wasn't here. Wish I was an only child sometimes.
38) Linnea
39) It will get better
40) "Oh pretty baby" (most-sung lyric of the year, in fact).

[jeejeen.livejournal.com]

BAAAYYYYYYBY!

And also, torn perineum, cracked nipples! How lovely! How wonnnderful!

Here's to 2005!

[kasku.livejournal.com]

Oh, the pain of the jellybelly. I feel it, sistah. ; )

[radegund.livejournal.com]

The jellybelly, and also the jellybust, alas!

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

I really really want to do this meme, but it seems weird to make it all about Naomi, who was born on the second-last day of the year. But how could it not be?

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
That my son stops crying if you sing him "The House of the Rising Sun" in a cheesy low-pitched voice.

Naomi's favourite being-awake-and-cheerful song seems to be "Avanti Popolo", though she is also partial to the Freedom Come Aa Ye. It's possible that I might be indulging in a tiny bit of indoctrination.

[radegund.livejournal.com]

But how could it not be?

It couldn't :-)

Naomi's favourite being-awake-and-cheerful song seems to be "Avanti Popolo"

Yay! I sing that to Oisín too. And my parents sang it to me when I was small. Huzzah for little baby communists!