Audio challenges

I don't know what you mean by "je -->met" but the recording clearly sounds like "je ne pouvais pas faire grand-chose pour aider". Listening to the entire recording, everything sounds clear to me. But don't fret it, I know very well what it means to listen to French and not be able to connect what I heard to what's supposedly being said. ;)

Thanks for checking the recording Chris. The text of my question has been truncated/corrupted (perhaps due to the use of the arrow symbols in the original), so unfortunately it made little sense!

Okay, I’ve found my note, and re-written it (this time without the arrows). I thought that “Je ne pouvais pas faire grand-chose pour aider” really sounded like “Je me pouvais pas faire grand-chose pour aider”, although Chris has clarified that this is actually pronounced correctly (with “ne”, not “me”). The other thing was that in “alors je me suis concentré sur la chambre du bébé” I could hear a weird “t” sound. I hear “alors je me suis concentré ‘t’ sur la chambre du bébé”. Again, perhaps just an artifact of my untrained ear! ;)