Morning all.
Mini I'm very sorry about your father-in-law and fluffycat 
. Is your father-in-law local or far away?
Harriet, that's so spooky about your little sootikins because I had one too, although not as sooty as yours. Yesterday littlekitty did her "uh-oh" then the sign for frog then the sign for face washing....then she showed me her frog finger puppet. She'd stuck him up the chimney in her room and rubbed his face in the soot 
Froggy sootikins He was l blacked up like a west midlands Morris dancer It was the conversation of the day and she told everyone she met.
Re: giving birth, I'd have made a great scientologist 
I was silent throughout the whole process apart from a soft "nnnning" towards the end of the final pushes. My midwife kept asking me questions and I couldn't say anything in response 
How very rude of me!
Can someone clear up for me which bit are the contractions? Is it the cervical opening? That was the painful bit for me, I was induced, so that started Ar midnight and went in till about 10.00 the next day. The pushing part was glorious, I loved that, didn't find it very painful, it was like blessed relief. I like the thought of my monkey taking over
Now I've got that Beatles sing in my head "Everybody's got something to hide, except for me and my monkey" 
I feel really unwell at the moment. My continuous headache and face, neck, legs, shoulders, everything ache Slept badly because of it. Also got sinusitis
Ok need to keep catching up on the lengthy thread, I'm hoping bears has returned 