A post or two ago I mentioned my eczema, and my hopes of curing it without resorting to icky chemicals and hormones like cortisone. Above is a photo taken just after that blog post - whilst it is clearly still red and irritated, it's no longer open or weeping the way it was before.

And here it is this morning - little more than a couple of patches of dried skin, which moisturising should fix up in no time.

So there you have it folks... salt water to kill of infection, a complete lack of scratching (achieved by covering it 24/7 if necessary), and a good moisturiser.

Uncertain as I am, I feel this is an occasion that needs immediate blogging:

I think I just felt Bean move for the first time.

Now, this may seem odd to any of you who haven't been pregnant, but it is actually kind of hard to tell. As a first-timer myself, I can't be sure it wasn't gas, indigestion, hunger, or any of another hundred things that can happen in the stomach region.

But this time, I think, it was Bean!

I want to go home.

I don't mean leaving work and going back to the apartment Aidan and I currently occupy.

I mean Melbourne.

It was only a week or two ago that I was detailing to myself and Aidan how inconvenient it would be to change cities mid-pregnancy; but further thought shows that it really wouldn't be so bad. A fairly simple matter of asking my doctor to transfer my medical records to a new doctor of my choice, with the added bonus of buying all the baby furniture in Melbourne instead of having to move it... where's the problem? Surely pre-natal classes (if I get around to joining one here anyway...) can be quit and joined and changed, if necessary? And moving without a baby has to be easier than moving with one? Surely it's better to go to the expense of hiring removalists now, while we still have some savings and two jobs, rather than later when all money will be paranoically set aside for Bean and I'll have left the workforce?

Does anyone have any thoughts, tips, advice, or experience, that they could share regarding babies and moving???

This is me and my tummy last night - at sixteen weeks and five days pregnant. When I touch it, the bump feels firm and healthy. Sorry about the spots on the mirror!

Stace's tips on managing eczema:

Firstly, soak it in salt water to get rid of any infection which may have inflamed it. This will allow the skin to heal over it much easier.

Secondly, leave it alone!! I've just had my two patches (on the back of my hand) covered by band-aids for the last two days, and the improvement is phenomenal. I'd post a photo, but seriously, have you ever tried to take a good, clear photo of the back of your own hand??

So anyway, the lack of scratching and accidental knocking has allowed it to heal up nicely. It's still a little itchy, although much less so with the killing off of the infection with the salt water. I'm hoping for a full recovery without resorting to the use of any nasty chemically hormoney creams. We shall see :)

Thanks goes to Andrew for this tip on what to do when you're locked out of your own office and can't access most of your work...

In ASCII binary , "Stace Irving" is... 01010011 01110100 01100001 01100011 01100101 00100000 01001001 01110010 01110110 01101001 01101110 01100111

Your personal power animal is the Sumatran Orangutan

Your 'Numerology' number is 1. If it wasn't bulls**t, it would mean that you are ambitious, independent, and self-sufficient. Although you are generally happy, loving, dynamic and charismatic, you can sometimes be egotistical, selfish and melodramatic.

According to the US Census Bureau°, fewer than 0.001% of US residents have the first name 'Stace' and 0.0058% have the surname 'Irving'. The US has around 300 million residents, so we guesstimate there is only 1 American who goes by the name Stace Irving.

Fifteen weeks and three days

I'm looking a bit pregnant now, the tummy's starting to "pop" fairly noticeably - and it's not because I eat too much! I still haven't really started gaining weight (I've actually lost about 4 kgs since before falling pregnant), but I'm eating quite well and I'm confident that I'll be putting on the healthy baby weight pretty soon. I'm supposed to be seeing the midwife for the first time next week, but the clinic is unbelievably busy and booked out, so I couldn't get an appointment for another two weeks or so. No big deal, I guess, but there's something comforting about being looked at by a professional and being told everything is going well! I'll just have to wait.

Apparently Bean is hiccupping quite a bit right about now, and I should start to feel it move in the next few weeks. It's about 11 cm long, and all the joints and limbs are fully formed.

I can't wait until we know whether it's a boy or a girl - then we can start buying and preparing properly, and also call it a proper name instead of Bean!!!

(This is at about 13 weeks)

Wow. I feel like I'm back in a call centre. There is a reason I stopped working in customer service, and today those reasons have come back to haunt me!

One poor guy, who I will call Mr X, has followed incorrect procedure and sent something directly to us instead of going through a third party (which he needs to do because said third party has information we require). The item has gone missing at some point, either in the post or in our internal mail processing/delivery systems. He urgently needs it back so that he can follow correct procedure and then get a response from us before March, so that immigration don't kick him out of Australia. I started out feeling sorry for him, but he's been calling four times a day for the last week or so, and today I had to get firm: "We have told you all we currently know. I fully appreciate the urgency of your situation, but you in turn have to appreciate I can do no further right now. We are looking into it, and calling us every few hours is not going to speed up the process. You are not telling me anything I don't already know." And so on and so on.

And then there's the woman Sylvia has been talking to all day. The woman has failed the test once already, and is currently so afraid of failing again and disappointing her family that she is in tears. Sylvia is playing "mum" and telling her to think positively, to practice and revise and learn... this has been going on for hours now.

And that's about my day so far - apart from lots of paperwork, letters, spreadsheets, and lunch!