Why I've been a rubbish blogger

One of the "rules" you see about blogging is never to apologise for an absence. Most people don't care or notice that you've not been updating, and yet, I feel like I should explain.

Really, I haven't been that bad; just extremely lazy. I have at least five posts ready in draft format waiting for images. But, for reasons that will become obvious, downloading the pictures from my memory card has become this huge, arduous task that I haven't had the energy or inclination to do. I will get round to it, eventually.

And the reason for everything: I'm having a baby.

My first instinct after finding out was to run home. Not because I wasn't happy about it, but because I didn't want to start a family until we left Oman. The thought of going through pregnancy and childbirth in a country I don't consider home with friends, family, and convenience all thousands of miles away is scary. But I've had enough time now to accept the fact and, if nothing else, the experience will make for an interesting blog post or two.

As a government employee, I am entitled to care at the local health centres and hospitals - saving us a chunk of money since my husband's work insurance doesn't cover maternity. I've also heard that the government healthcare is better (and in worst case scenarios you would be transferred to a government hospital anyway). The obvious difference so far is that the private hospitals are shiny and modern compared to the health centres. In terms of the service, the main observation I can make is that no one likes to tell you what's going on or why you need to do something. In my case, I suspect that the occasional language barrier doesn't help; but, it is entirely possible that I just ask far more questions than the average person.

I will blog more about this in another post, purely out of interest sake since I appreciate many people don't have the option to use this system. I won't be posting weekly updates for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I don't think they'll be that interesting (reading around the subject I've had things pretty easy up to now), and secondly, I'm already over halfway through. Finally, as we have already established, I've been feeling pretty lazy. I spent most of the first trimester asleep, and trimester two seems to be a test of my willpower not to eat 24/7, which was only made harder during Ramadan. I went through that phase of looking like I had just let myself go a bit, and now a am sporting a small, but definite, bump. I'm not sure how normal this is, but it does double in size after dinner, and seeing myself inflate at night and deflate by the morning is weirdly entertaining.