Last day as a family of four

That’s it: time’s up – tomorrow is Induction Day.

Today we have enjoyed a really really lovely day all together – our last proper day as a family of four.

The weather has been incredibly warm and sunny – 17 degrees on 23rd Feb! So we decided to go back to the zoo again for one final day out together.

It really has been one of those lovely family days where everything goes right – weather great, girls well behaved, everyone enjoying themselves and having fun. We decided to go and look at some of the animals and exhibits that we don’t look at all that often (we are members of the zoo so go quite a bit) and, even though it was half term for some of the schools where we live, the zoo was really quiet meaning it was easy to go and see some of the more popular animals that we sometimes miss out because of the crowds.

Isla has been really obsessed with snakes lately – she LOVES watching the Gruffalo’s Child and finds the snake hilarious, she’s also very taken with a ‘noisy’ Dear Zoo book we got from the library and the snake which goes “sssssssh” when you press the button. So we hunted down some snakes and had a look… we found two very lively ones who were sticking their tongues out at the girls, and one green one who was quite taken with Lilly and was dancing around by the glass trying to get at her… both the girls really loved it.

We played on the playground and spent some time in the Roman Gardens, where the girls were happy playing with a long stick each which they splashed in the little pools for ages, laughing together.

We even sat outside in the sunshine and had some minimilk lollies… wasn’t sure if Isla was going to like it as last time we tried ice cream with her she was still at the “too cold” stage… today she LOVED it and woolfed it just as quick as her sister, with plenty of accompanying “mmmmmm”s!

The girls were really good all the way there, sharing toys nicely in the car and laughing together, and were good when we stopped at a beer garden on the way home for a quick drink in the sunshine. They are now tucked up in bed and will hopefully have a good night’s sleep allowing us to get one too ahead of the all important day tomorrow.

The plan is that mother in law will collect them tomorrow morning first thing. We aren’t booked in to the hospital until 3.30pm, but we have to ring at 8am and, if they aren’t busy, we can go earlier. If it is going to be late afternoon we are planning to have a really lazy morning, hopefully getting some sleep if we can!

I’m not nervous or anxious – when it comes to the birth itself I believe what will be, will be. I am so, so, so excited now to meet our third baby girl… our last baby! Once she arrives our family will be complete.

And I am also chuffed that I finally managed to get an up to date picture of the girls together – this one is now the ‘wallpaper’ on my phone, which I know will bring a smile to my face whenever I see it over the next few days while I’m in hospital…

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Eight days later…

Today I am officially eight days overdue.

We had our appointment back at the hospital where they have done a sweep and confirmed that my cervix has softened and that, if it comes to induction, they should be able to reach the waters to break them without having to put in a pessary first. All good news!

As for the induction date – it has been set: This Friday, Feb 24, at 3.30pm. I have to ring at 8am in the morning and, if they aren’t busy, they may ask me to go in earlier.

Up until now I haven’t had any false alarms, any promising signs or any encouraging twinges, so I am fully expecting that this will go all the way to induction. But I am ok with that – I was technically induced with Isla (although things were starting off on their own that day anyway) and that experience was positive, so I know that being induced doesn’t have to mean something awful. It also has the major positive of being able to drop the girls off with their Nanna in a nice, planned and calm way, and no midnight dashes to the hospital.

Of course, there is still a chance the baby might put in an appearance on her own before then, but she only has two days in which to do so!

This week we have beeen a little bit up the wall as Isla came down with a really nasty stomach bug on Sunday morning. The girls had been having a practice sleepover at Nanna’s and in the morning when we came to collect her, she had been sick twice. More sick followed throughout the day, and then full blown diarrhea in the afternoon… disaster! We have been washing hands every five minutes and cleaning everything trying to prevent anybody else catching it, and are now desperately hoping we have done enough to avoid it ourselves. Isla has been much better since this morning (last sick being last night) and is now back to her cheeky toddler ways. So far neither me, Tony or Lilly has any symptoms, and we are just hoping it stays that way. I have been trying not to think about suffering norovirus and going into labour, nor too much about what would happen if hubby was ill when I went into labour and he couldn’t be with me. We have now decided to think positive and assume all will be ok… it is time to tell this baby to come out!

In terms of what movement I can feel – this baby is still exceptionally active and moves around a LOT, especially in the evening and at night. She has lots of hiccups too! I have plenty of achey feelings in the right area, but nothing that feels like a contraction, the way they gradually build and fade. These are much more like constant general aches, more like having overdone it than anything else.

Going to the hospital today and having time to think about what is going to happen – and that it is going to happen SOON – has made us both feel really excited about this new arrival and keen to get on with it asap! We will have a baby by the end of the weekend!

I will get off the computer and go and make another raspberry leaf tea, I think…

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Four days over…

Yes, OF COURSE I’m still pregnant!

Due date came and went on Monday without any excitement. And there hasn’t been any since then, not in terms of the baby trying to come, anyway.

However, it has been an eventful few days in other ways. On Tuesday we made our first parental emergency dash to hospital after Isla had a really nasty fall and banged her head. We had had a nice trip to the zoo and were on our way home when she fell walking up the garden path and landed with her head right where the bricks stick up underneath the front door. I was in the house in front of her, Tony was walking behind her, and neither of us could do anything but watch… horrific. Such a big bang and her head went instantly blue, it looked like it was dented… a few seconds later the most enormous egg shaped lump appeared. As you would expect, the screams were unmerciful. I think it is probably the worst bump I have witnessed with either child… I got a bit upset, especially when she seemed to go a little bit sleepy once the initial crying stopped, and I demanded we take her to the Walk In Centre, although hubby thought I was overreacting. We kept a cold compress to her head all the way and by the time we got there there swelling had gone down a lot. By the time we were in the waiting room she was running about as normal! The triage nurse was really nice and realised all we really needed was reassurance – she checked her over there and then and just told us to look out for symptoms like being sick etc in the next 24 hours. Isla was none the worse for her experience, but it was haunting me seeing it happen everytime I closed my eyes… my poor, poor baby!

Yesterday we spent the day with my mum and in the afternoon Isla had two loose nappies so we started to worry that she might be coming down with something. There is a LOT of Winter Vomiting Bug going around – in fact we have taken Lilly out of nursery the last week because a lot of the kids there have had it and we didn’t want her bringing it home at this crucial time. A short while after she went to bed we heard a noise from Isla’s room that sounded like she was going to be sick, though luckily she wasn’t - but that was it, our nerves were shot! Hubby and I were sat on the sofa like condemned men, waiting for the inevitable…

We decided in the end that Tony would sleep on the floor in the girls room so he could listen out for any signs of illness in the night (Luckily for me, I am way too pregnant to sleep on the fold out bed!). He did not have a good night, as Isla was whimpering pretty much all night, as if she was having stomach cramps, but was never actually sick. We let him have a big lie-in this morning to make up for it and, thank goodness, Isla seems ok today – a little bit off par perhaps, but it seems we may have avoided the full force of Winter Vomiting… for now (*starts touching all the wood in the house like a crazy person*)

And today, once we had all recovered from the nighttime shenanigans, we went for a pub lunch followed by a little stroll around the local park in the drizzle. Thankfully the cold weather seems to have warmed up a bit and there is not too much danger of snow and ice for the next week or so!

One of the highlights of the day today, baby wise, was a teeny breakthrough with Isla. I was cuddling her and saying: “I love my Lilly, I love my Isla, I love the new baby”… and she patted my tummy and said: “Baby, baby”, then patted her own belly and said it again! Later on we tested her and asked: “Where’s our new baby?” and she again patted my tummy and said “baby, baby”. So it seems that some information about the baby has gone in… obviously it doesn’t mean anything about how she might react to the reality of the new baby once it arrives, but I feel happy that she at least has some inkling, even if very, very deep down!

Although I think we are still remaining quite calm about the fact that we are once again into Extra Time, it did hit me today that this time next week will be the last chance saloon, as induction looks like it will be on Saturday. Knowing we probably only have one week left, maximum, is a bit of a reality check!

I think it is probably time to step up the hot curries and pineapple consumption!

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Hello Due Date!

Well, today is it: 40 weeks pregnant!

I have been here twice before and both times there was still plenty more days to go before either baby actually made their appearance!

With Lilly having been 11 days over (I went into labour at 10 days over) and Isla having been induced at 11 days over, born at 12 days over, I am still feeling pretty dismissive about any possibility of going into labour imminently. I suppose this time next week I will start to feel a little more hopeful with any possible twinges.

I saw the midwife last Thursday, baby is still head down, as she has been for a long while now, but she is not engaged, which I wasn’t expecting anyway as apparently this is unusual with second/third babies until labour is imminent. All her other checks were fine and I am measuring spot on. My next appointment will be in eight days time at the hospital.

We made the slight mistake of watching One Born Every Minute last week. Usually the programme wouldn’t frighten me as I like to think I am realistic about birth and the things that can and might happen. However, this most recent episode had a particularly frightening birth where the baby was 10lb 5oz and its shoulders became stuck. The head was born, and was out for about 8 minutes while the consultant frantically tried to pull the baby out. All was well in the end, but it was pretty traumatising viewing and I have to confess I am struggling to forget it… not good. Maybe we should avoid watching the programme until after this baby is born… or maybe we need to watch another episode (hopefully a less dramatic one) in order to block out the scary one a bit?!

Anyway… *deep breaths*

So far, no real twinges or false alarms to report. I am occasionally aware of a slightly aching feeling, but nothing that could be optimistically described as even a false contraction. But I am sure my body is gearing up in its own way, so that’s fine. After two overdue babies I think this is just what is normal for me, so I don’t feel too impatient or stressed about it – I am likely to go overdue, and that is ok. Even if it comes to induction, at least it means I have the chance to see the girls off to their Nanna’s house nice and calmly.

In terms of how we expect Isla to react, I am more worried! Lilly was playing with a dolly the other morning (a first for Lilly – she is not usually a dolly kind of girl) and at one point she put the doll into Isla’s cot. Isla went ballistic until she took it out! And we have noticed recently that Isla is occasionally even getting jealous of Lilly – she will make a fuss if we are reading a story to Lilly or if she is sitting on someone’s lap, for instance. So goodness knows what she will make of a new baby coming along and trying to take the limelight!

Well, we’ll soon find out…

 

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39 weeks pregnant and a slight change of plan

Today I am 39 weeks and 1 day pregnant – baby is due to make her appearance on Monday!

We have had a lot of messing about with the rental house since my last post and the upshot is that we have decided to let that particular house go for now, and revisit our house hunt once the baby has arrived and we are a little less under pressure too quickly. In a nutshell, the landlords of the new place were proving very difficult to get information from, and impossible to get a moving date from. It seems like there are still some issues between them and the outgoing tenants, and all in all it made us a bit nervous about he prospect of moving in there and being at their mercy should there be any maintenance issues etc. Plus with the looming deadline of the baby coming we just couldn’t afford to wait for them to get their act together.

So we have cooled off our house plans for the time being and have decided to concentrate first and foremost on this baby’s arrival, keeping half an eye on the local rental market to see what might come up over the coming months.

I am feeling ok, not too tired (in fact, we stayed up til midnight last night after going out for a curry – the latest I’ve been awake in a while!). I am still feeling very large and slow, bump still feels like I’ve swallowed a boulder! Baby is still making lots of big movements, especially at night once I sit down. She still feels like she’s head down, but she moves her bum around a fair bit! I see the midwife again on Thursday, then that is it… my next appointment will be at eight days overdue back at the hospital.

Heartburn seems to have made an unwelcome return – I even had it during the day today, whereas it has usually been at night that it has bothered me.

And now that I no longer have to cross my legs and hope the baby doesn’t come until after we move house, I am back on the raspberry leaf tea and can start feeling hopeful with every twinge rather than anxious!

 

 

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36 weeks pregnant and thinking about D-Day

Well, here we are at eight months pregnant! D-Day is getting very close!

Last week I went for an appointment at the hospital and later in the week the midwife. Baby is head down and all the measurements, blood pressure, baby’s heartrate etc are normal. The hospital have asked me to come back at 8 days overdue and have said that I will be induced at 12 days overdue if nothing happens naturally.

By my calculations, that takes us to Saturday the 25th Feb, and I’m not sure if they would do inductions at the weekend – so am slightly scared they might make me wait until 14 days over… I will remind you at this point that Lilly was 11 days over (spontaneous labour, but delivered by emergency c-section) and Isla was 12 days over (induced at 11 days over). I kind of had 10 days in mind for this time, which is the 23rd.

On the one hand, being given 12 days before induction means I am more likely to go into labour on my own, which is what I ideally want to happen. But I also remember only too well the feeling of being so overdue and so fed up waiting for something to happen and I think i’ll go insane if left 14 days!! By the time I went in for induction with Isla I was so fed up and just delighted that the end was in sight. And, to be fair, my experience of induction wasn’t a particularly bad one. However, it would be nice if maybe I could experience labour without being hooked up to the evil syntocinon drip! (and I have stepped up the raspberry leaf tea to three cups a day in an effort to assist this!)

Because of my previous c-section this birth is still classified as a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarian), even though I have had a normal delivery since then. According to the hospital, the success rate in my circumstances is 90%. Last time I felt like I had to fight for the birth I wanted, and I was very much against the idea of continuous monitoring because I wanted to be active to maximise the chances of achieving a normal delivery. When it came to the crunch though, I was so knackered that I was happy to be hooked up to the monitor and sat down on the bed, I was way too tired to have been bouncing on any balls!

This time I will have continuous monitoring again. I am not going to worry about it. If I am in the mood to argue the case and I want to move around the room, I’ll just do it at the time. But I understand why they want to do the monitoring and I am ok with that.

I think I have a realistic approach to my third birth. I hope, and partly expect, that I will be able to have another normal delivery. But I also know that c-sections can be needed for a variety of reasons, and I won’t beat myself up worrying about it if the doctors tell me to have one. Now I just need to look up the coping mechanisms people suggested to me last time to help me through those contractions…

In terms of how I’m feeling, not too bad. The tiredness is definitely back, and getting a bit more every day, it seems. I do sleep ok, but because it is so difficult to get comfy with my huge belly, I tend to stay in one position all night. By the time I wake up I feel really stiff. On the bright side, the heartburn has eased off a bit – it has been a few days since I took Gaviscon! The baby’s movements are still very frequent and strong, sometimes it feels like she is trying to stretch my tummy to make more room for herself – this can feel like rather a sudden sharp pain which has me wincing. My pelvis feels really loose and delicate, I have to be really slow & steady with my movements now. I know this is all part of my body preparing itself for the big day, which I am glad for, but I can’t wait until things feel a bit more sturdy down there!

The pre-baby buying and sorting has commenced too. I did my GBS test, which came back yesterday (negative), I’ve bought some nappies, ordered bottles & a steriliser. Work are kindly getting me a Moses basket, we just need a stand, and I have to sort through all the blankets & first size clothes to make sure we have enough (although I couldn’t resist a small spending spree today on some super-cute new ones). I’ve also made a start on the hospital bag but need to finish this and still need to do an overnight one for the girls.

I am still working – I’ve never worked past 35 weeks before. Now I know why! I am feeling really tired and my heart isn’t really in it, to be honest. I finish next Wednesday and I’m counting the days.

And, to finish on a nice note – the baby book I ordered arrived today. It is part of the same series of books I got for both Lilly and Isla – they all have slightly different versions of the same book (My Baby Journal, if you’re interested). So I have just had a happy ten minutes filing all the scan photos into it and filling out the sections I can, like the due date, first kicks, first time hearing her heartbeat etc. It has also reminded me of the need to look over Lilly’s and Isla’s books to see if there are any sections I still need to fill in for them. Such a lovely job!

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35 weeks pregnant and counting down to maternity leave

Well I am now 35 weeks pregnant and at the stage where, in my last two pregnancies, I finished work and began maternity leave.

But this time round, I still have another three weeks to go - 15 working days to be precise (not that I’m counting!)

I am feeling the usual aches and pains of late pregnancy. My hips and pelvis feel looser and generally less sturdy. If I get up too quickly or stretch too much I get a nasty pain in the side/bottom of my bump. The baby’s wiggles are very strong and she quite often feels as if she is stretching out as if trying to make more space for herself in there – that can feel a little uncomfortable! Also, I have heartburn/indigestion quite a bit and have re-discovered the Gaviscon dependency I had in my first pregnancy (although not in my second). Sometimes I wake up at night and have to get up to take a swig of the stuff… lovely!

In terms of tiredness and energy levels, I can’t complain too much. I have enjoyed a few weeks in which I seemed to get a surge of energy, and I’ve been feeling good. In the last few days however I’ve been feeling a little more tired again, and the 7pm naps on the sofa have returned. Sometimes when I’m walking the baby bump feels like a concrete block, which only gets harder and heavier if I try to walk any faster (so I don’t!).

I went out for coffee yesterday with a friend and her little girl, who is a few months younger than Isla. Her baby was born at 34+4, so I am now more pregnant than she was then. I had a little look at her facebook pics of when her baby was first born – even after three pregnancies it still amazes me that there really is a real life little person in there who, if born tomorrow, would (hopefully) be a perfectly healthy little baby. Of course, after two babies arriving more than a week after their due date I am not expecting that we will be meeting our third any time soon…

Lilly remains really excited about the baby. She knows “the baby is coming soon, isn’t she?” Isla has got a real fascination with my belly and likes patting it. I have started telling her: “there’s a baby in there, your little sister” but at 18 months old I know she can’t really be expected to understand. We have also had a few reads of There’s A House Inside My Mummy, but again, Isla is still too little to really understand. Maybe some of it might go in, you never know. I do feel guilty that I can’t prepare her properly, and I am anxious about how she’ll react. But I also think that because she is so little it probably won’t be long before she can’t remember a time without the baby being here, and hopefully that will mean she can take it in her stride. Fingers crossed.

In terms of preparation, we have started getting our acts together. Our Sola (pram) has been in for repairs as we have bought a car seat to fit onto it. Work have very kindly offered to buy me a moses basket as a leaving present. We still need to buy new bottles and a steriliser, and I need to start washing the baby clothes, blankets and bedding. Oh, and I remembered the other night that I will need a hospital bag – and the girls will need an overnight bag packed for when they go off to stay at Nanna and Grandad’s when I go into labour or get induced. And I have stepped up the raspberry leaf tea intake to two cups a day!

Because our family circumstances have changed – hubby is now a stay at home dad and I am the only wage earner – I will be having a shorter maternity leave with baby number three, returning to work after 18 weeks when the money runs out. That is why I have decided to work for a little longer at the end of this pregnancy to maximise those precious weeks once our third little angel arrives and to make sure I save up plenty of leave to enable me to work part time for the first few months back at work.

This pregnancy seems to have gone so fast and the due date has got closer and closer very quickly, especially with the distraction of Christmas and Lilly’s birthday. Before then I wasn’t counting down the weeks and days to maternity leave like I was the first or second time.

The first time I went on maternity leave, I was looking forward to a few weeks of rest and relaxation, daytime TV, lazy indulgent breakfasts and lie ins. And I was extremely impatient to meet my first baby.

The second time I was hoping for one week of partial rest and relaxation, while Lilly was still in nursery. Then the plan was loads of quality time with her doing baking and playing in the paddling pool before her little sister arrived. I never quite got the week of relaxation, as Lilly came down with chicken pox and couldn’t go to nursery, so we just ended up with one week more quality time. Which was lovely, and in hindsight I wouldn’t change it for the world.

This time, things are going to be different again. I will have hubby at home with me the whole time… yay! And we won’t be stressing out about ‘what if baby comes while he’s hundreds of miles away at work?’ But there definitely won’t be much rest and relaxation going on – not with the two little munchkins we already have! Although if I am very nice to hubby he may allow me the odd daytime nap if I’m feeling really shattered… did I mention how lovely he is?!?

Now, having just had two weeks off over Christmas, I am now really starting to look forward to my maternity leave. It is going to be a really wonderful opportunity for us to spend time together as a family – all five of us. Yes, there will be stressful moments as we adjust to life with a newborn, a one-year-old and a pre-schooler. But how great it will be for us all to be at home together for a little while. Hopefully both Tony and I will get to spend some lovely time with all our girls and be there to help each other out when we’ve had a bad night with the baby or when one or other of the girls is off colour.

I am worried about how I will cope if hubby does go and work while I’m off – we haven’t yet made any decisions about this. And of course I also worry about going back to work when the baby is only four and a half months old. And how hubby will cope once I do – looking after three pre-schoolers on his own will be tough.

But these are exciting times ahead. I can’t wait to meet our new darling girl and I can’t wait to have our family complete.

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As soon as I’m not pregnant I’m going to…

• Eat a plate of pate and indulge in a goats cheese topped pizza
• Sit with my hubby and toast our family with a large glass of gorgeous vino
• Get back on the WeightWatchers and try and get back in the zone before the summer
• Ditch the frumpy PJs and try something a bit more stylish of an evening
• Be in with a chance of getting comfortable on the sofa once again
• Go hours on end without needing a wee
• Spend the run up to all future Christmasses drinking copious amounts of Baileys and munching my way through a cheeseboard
• Be helped through the torment of Jools Holland on New Year’s Eve with several large glasses of white wine
• Forget how Gaviscon tastes
• Not allow my belly to be used as an object of amusement by Isla, who currently thinks it is hilarious to pat it
• Get into normal jeans asap – I look like Jim Royle in my baggy maternity ones – AND they keep falling down
• Buy a fitted coat – my maternity winter coat may be warm but it also makes me look like a small detached house on legs

But I know I’ll also:

• Miss those baby kicks and wiggles
• Feel sad at the thought that I’ll never give birth again
• Have no excuse to constantly munch on chocolates and treats
• Be forced to hold my stomach in, rather than proudly sticking it out

But I think after three pregnancies I can safely say: my work here is done

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33 weeks pregnant

All of a sudden I am 33 weeks pregnant and on the home stretch… how on earth did that happen?!?

I must admit that in the last week or so I have certainly begun to feel “heavily pregnant” – in fact this Christmas at 33 weeks pregnant doesn’t feel too different to Christmas 2007 at 41 weeks pregnant as far as I can remember!

To be fair I think I have been overdoing things a little. Lilly and I did a mammoth THREE HOUR Asda stint the other day for the pre-Christmas ‘Big Shop’ (She was unbelievably good – Isla was banned from attending, she hates supermarkets!) and I have probably been doing more lifting than I should (although with two little ones it is incredibly difficult not to). The afternoon after the supermarket visit I was shattered and felt like I could hardly walk. For the next few days including Christmas Day I felt like I had strained something underneath my bump, and my belly itself felt like it was made of concrete… and it seemed to feel harder still anytime I tried to walk. Baby is still massively active though and knows how to pack a choice punch from time to time… ouch! So I know all is well with her.

We have also made something of a breakthrough, name wise. For a while now, we have had two names in the front running – one Tony prefers, one I liked best. But for both of them we were really struggling with middle names which sounded “right”. I was just nodding off on the sofa on Christmas Day when inspiration struck and now (hopefully) I think we are decided. It’s a state secret though, of course!

Oh, and I’ve started on the raspberry leaf tea! I still have no idea if it makes any difference, but it can’t do any harm. It feels a little bit surreal thinking that we’re already at this stage but those are the facts… And now that I am feeling so huge and uncomfortable at times, and because baby is giving me plenty of booting to remind me that she is around I suppose her imminent arrival is feeling more and more, well, imminent!

Lilly remains massively excited and is so cute, talking to my belly and ‘cuddling’ the baby. She factors the baby into everything, for example always saying that the baby can have Isla’s old clothes and toys when Isla gets too big for them, or that the new baby can share her things once she gets big enough. The other day when we had people round on Christmas Eve, Lilly was passing round the bowl of nuts and raisins to everyone, and, when she came to me, she said: “Now, are you sure the baby will be ok with having these?” And then when I said yes, she told me I better just have raisins as they would be “softer” for the baby. A right little mother hen!

So now we have Christmas out of the way, we just have Lilly’s fourth birthday to enjoy and then before we know where we are, it will be baby time… again!

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Center Parcs has given us a festive feeling…

We have just returned from another really lovely break at Center Parcs.

This time, we wanted to experience the Winter Wonderland they do each year, as the first part of our build-up to Christmas.

We had booked plenty of lovely Christmassy activities for Lilly to do, including Christmas pottery painting, a Santa and Snowman hunt and a Frosty the Snowman art session which involved lots of glitter and Christmas stickers!

Lilly enjoying the 'Frosty the Snowman' art session

The weather at Whinfell Forest (Cumbria) was fabulous for the whole week – it only rained the day we left. The rest of the time it was crisp and sunny – perfect.

We were very excited to hear that there was going to be a fireworks display on the second night at 5.30pm – conveniently timed before the girls’ bedtimes, which is usually about 6.30pm. It is only this year that Lilly has recovered from her total and utter terror of fireworks - in fact on November 5th Lilly actually ventured out into the neightbourhood with daddy to admire the fireworks… even the really loud ones! But this was her first proper display.

We had such a tiring day on the Tuesday – starting with pottery painting in the morning. Lilly chose to paint a snowman, a stocking and a Father Christmas shaped ornament for the tree. Technically there should have been a lot of red and white involved… but I think Lilly considered white a little bit too boring to paint much of – so snowman ended up with a red face and Santa’s beard is a very attractive mix of purple and green! But they do look rather lovely all the same – and once again I was so impressed with how delicate and detailed she can be when she tries!

In the afternoon we’d gone swimming – which can be a bit of a military procedure with two little ones at the best of times. Everytime we have taken Isla swimming (on all our three previous visits to Center Parcs with her) she has hated it, where Lilly has always loved it. I think Isla has found it a bit of an overwhelming, noisy and hot experience. And at first when we took her in she was upset again and grizzly. So I sat with her in the baby pool and she sat on the edge with her feet in, playing happily with a bucket and a watering can for a while. Once she had acclimatised to the environment we tried taking her into the big pool – and this time, she actually seemed to quite like it! In fact, after a little while, she was giggling! It was a major breakthrough!

Lilly’s favourite thing about the pool as always was going round the ‘rapids’ and dodging the water sprays (she calls the big one Mr Sprayer and the little one Mrs Sprayer!) She also liked swimming outside – which was rather cold, I must say!

After the swimming we were all exhausted so decided to get a bite to eat in the village square instead of going home for tea and coming out again for the fireworks. It was a great plan (although an expensive one) – I was way too knackered to cook after all that exercise – and the timing was just perfect as the fireworks display started not long after we finished eating.

The display was brilliant - and all set to Christmas music. Watching Lilly’s face was the best thing for me - she was totally in awe of what she was seeing. Isla even tolerated the first few fireworks but once they started getting noisier she got upset and Tony took her back to the lodge. As Lilly and I walked home afterwards in the dark she was talking ten to the dozen about what she’d seen and what a “fantabulous” day she’d had. Such a wonderful thing.

Isla is chuffed after doing a slide all by herself for the very first time!

During the week we did plenty of walking and took in all the soft play areas Whinfell has to offer. Isla climbed up and slid down a slide all by herself for the very first time – and was pleased as punch with herself as a result! It then meant that she got a little bit overconfident and wanted to follow Lilly into the ‘big girls” area of the soft play – which meant that I once again found myself six months preggers and flying down numerous ‘tunnel slides’ and crawling through too-tight spaces to rescue a child who was stuck!

We also took part in the Santa and Snowman hunt which involved following a trail to find a series of Christmas related questions which we had to answer (some of them quite hard: name all of Santa’s reindeers being one of them… we *may* have had to google this…) At the end an elf gave Lilly a little prize for taking part and all the entries were entered into a draw… which we only won! We had a phonecall later on to tell us that Lilly had won a teddy making session and we took her up to the Time Out Clubhouse where she chose a tiger toy, was helped to stuff it and then picked an outfit to dress it in. Being totally mad on soft toys this couldn’t have been better for Lilly!

Lilly cuddles up with 'Amelia', the tiger she stuffed herself after winning the Santa and Snowman Hunt

There were, of course, some stressful moments – Isla is at that stage where she only wants to walk and refuses to go in her pushchair. The only problem being, she doesn’t neccessarily want to walk in the same direction as everyone else and is rather prone to falling! Lilly moaned a lot because we didn’t get her a bike, and is possibly the world’s slowest dawdler at the best of times. And Isla was a little bit scared of the jet planes and Chinook which were practicing their flying overhead… although I loved them, I must say. Hubby wasn’t very happy because the nearest place to park the car while unloading was a fair trek from our lodge. But all in all I would say this trip has to go down in my memory as our best trip to Center Parcs yet – and we’ve now been seven times (Elveden twice, Sherwood once, Whinfell four times)!

But of course the main event of the whole week was saved for the afternoon of our last full day – a trip to see Father Christmas. Wewere all really impressed with it… Father Christmas was very authentic and really lovely – it melted our hearts to see Lilly so happily chatting away to him while so obviously in awe! She asked him for a surprise – and he promised her he had “just the thing in mind” for her, before asking her what Isla would like – “erm, I think a baby toy” Lilly suggested. She was also very eager to tell Father Christmas that she had made a snowglobe with his picture in it at the art workshop. And Father Christmas asked the girls to leave out a carrot for Rudolph on Christmas Eve. Then he gave the girls a gift each – a cuddly horse for Isla and a cuddly cow for Lilly. This AMAZED Lilly as she had been asking for a cuddly cow a few weeks ago – and Isla goes crazy for horses. So it just goes to show: He knows, you know.

Meeting Santa's reindeers

Our other holiday highlights included:

• Isla saying “wack wacks” to all the ducks - first time she’s done this
• Isla’s giggling when she, Lilly and I all went down a ‘tunnel slide’ together
• Isla giggling as we went round the rapids and Lilly’s hysterics at being splashed by “mrs sprayer” as we went
• Lilly’s insistence that she kept seeing a badger “I saw a badger! He was climbing a tree!!” and later, “I saw another badger, on the roof of that house!”
• Discovering a ‘secret’ play area that we never knew was there before – it’s above Cafe Rouge, for anyone who wonders…

So yes, we’re still big Center Parcs fans. And no, this isn’t a sponsored post! And it is so strange to think the next time we visit, there will be three children… yikes! And that this could potentially be the last time we’ll be visiting in term time… ouch!!

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