28 weeks 1 day

Well, if I wasn’t feeling particularly tired last time I blogged, I certainly am now!

In the last week I have been feeling very pregnant indeed! I feel huge and I feel slow and I feel lazy!

I’ve also had some kind of strange bug which left me feeling a bit strange and slightly sicky – it still hasn’t really gone and it’s been a few days now. Tony has had it too so i don’t think it’s pregnancy related! When i eat it makes me feel slightly worse, so i’ve been off my food slightly for three days – nothing too major, although it’s been toast for dinner the last three nights!

We are now a week and a half into the Big Girl’s Bed for Lilly – it got a lot worse after the last post. In fact, a few nights ago, she was essentially awake for four hours through the night and T and I took it in shifts to stay with her. But last night – praise god! - she slept all night til the respectable hour of 6am!!! It felt amazing, and Lilly was rewarded with a cuddly Waybuloo which her daddy had promised her if she managed to sleep all night!

It’s now 8 weeks til I finish work. That feels like quite a long time. I could quite happily finish today, especially the way i’ve been feeling the past week. I’m just hoping that it will pass and I will get some energy back. I definitely cannot remember being this tired and slow and just all-round pregnant at this stage with Lilly – but then, I never had a toddler to look after too!

I’m hoping I haven’t been too ambitious with my plans to work until 36 weeks – I only worked to 35 weeks with Lilly but as she was 2 weeks overdue it felt like quite a long time. But this time in hindsight that extra week would have been lovely!

Note to self: In future, if contemplating number 3, start Mat Leave EARLY!!!!

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27 weeks 1 day

Well, it’s been a little while since I updated this. I am now 27 weeks pregnant, and bump has grown quite a bit. I seem to remember last time there was a bit of a growth spurt from about 24 weeks on, and that has certainly been the case again this time.

This bubba is a very, very active one… she always seems to be awake and moving around! It’s not so much kicking, it’s more moving and wiggling that I feel, although plenty of kicks too! The Midwife told me at my last appointment that they don’t worry about the baby’s position until about 34 weeks, which is good as I don’t think our little bean has any intention of settling down just yet!

Aside from all the lovely movements (which I am trying to make the very most of, as feeling the baby move is so magical and something you ‘miss’ after they’re born) I am feeling good. I haven’t been excessively tired the last week or so, although I can definitely feel myself getting a bit ‘slower’.

I also bought a little outfit for the baby a few days ago – a very cute Peter Rabit outfit for 0-3 months. She won’t really need it, as we have tonnes of baby clothes from when Lilly was that age, but it was nice to treat her to something new, and to visualise her in it. We still haven’t bought much baby stuff, mainly just bottles, bottle warmer, and ordered some free sample reusable nappies. We need to dig out all our stuff and work out what we need to buy – hopefully not much. We have our eye on a Mamas and Papas Sola pram/pushchair, and I’d also like to buy a decent sling… need to do some research into that one, as we never had one with Lilly.

Lilly is doing fine, still seems excited about her “baby stister” and talks a lot about the baby in mummy’s tummy. And we have (hopefully) had a bit of a breakthrough with the Big Girl’s Bed – she has been sleeping in there for the last three nights!!! It wasn’t painless though, I won’t lie – I had to sleep on the floor with her the first night, and she still woke up three times crying. But she didn’t ask to go back in her cot, so it was a kind of result. Second and third nights, she woke up only once, not as upset as on the first night, and was relatively easy to settle back in her bed with a story and some reassurance – and didn’t need me to stay with her. Tonight is night four – so we will just wait and see!

On the potty front, Lilly is now happily sitting on the toilet at every nappy change… in nursery. We are still a bit slack with things at our end, but vowing to get better. She never actually goes to the toilet in nursery, but I’m sure that’s just a matter of time. Need to dig out the sticker incentives and get on with things at home, I think. Semi-cracking the Big Bed thing gives us a bit of a push too, i think. Our little girl is growing up!

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10 weeks, three days pregnant

Well, we’ve reached double figures!

I am still feeling a bit “car sick” every day. It last all day and fades in the evening time. I think it might be slightly less than a week ago, so hopefully it’s starting to go away as all the books promise. My boobs are now very tender for the first time this pregnancy too.

Went out shopping for maternity jeans today – my belly is pretty big already and although I can still squeeze into my jeans I don’t really like to in case I’m putting pressure on my tum. I tried on three pairs in Next and then swapped the ones I wanted for a size smaller as they felt a bit loose. When I got them home, I realised I’d picked up a different style…. grrrrrrr…. these ones make me feel like Kris Kross cos they fall down when I walk!! So, back to square one on that front.

Aside from the pregnancy, we’ve had news on T’s job. He works as a courier driver for a fairly small local company. The run he currently does, a cheque clearance one for a big bank, is going as his company have lost the contract. He’s been lucky as they want to keep him on and he has been spared redundancy for the second time. But his new run involves working 3pm until midnight every day – which means we won’t be seeing much of each other during the week, and we’re having to totally rethink all our childcare arrangements. Currently, Tony goes to work at 5.30am (which admittedly wasn’t great either!), I get Lilly up and drop her off at nursery on my way to work. Tony finishes work at lunchtime and has a couple of hours to himself before picking her up at about 3pm. As of next week, he’ll be dropping her off at nursery late morning, I’ll be finishing work early everyday to pick her up from nursery around 5pm and doing the bedtime routine by myself.

Neither of us are looking forward to this, and I think it’s going to be pretty lonely in the evenings once Lilly’s gone to bed, but at least he still has a job. Which is something we can only be greatful for in the current climate. And we’re taking heart in the fact that it won’t be forever – all being well I’ll be on maternity leave in six months time, so even if he hasn’t found anything else by then, at least we’ll have all day together with our babies.

Now we’re looking forward to the 12 week scan – only a week and a half to go – although I feel so nervous about it, I think i’ll be a wreck! I just want to know everything’s all right.

Oh, and I had my first slightly sleepless night last night thinking about the birth. I’d been having a conversation with T’s mum yesterday about Lilly’s birth and how unhappy I was with the way the consultant handled things. When I woke up last night about 3am to go to the toilet, my mind started racing about what would happen this time and I couldn’t get back to sleep for about an hour. I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come…

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Not so yummy mummy…

Lilly is 21 months now. She finds very many things amusing, not least bellies. Her own, and other people’s.

A couple of nights ago me, Lilly and daddy where lying on the bed reading a bedtime story when Lilly lifted her t-shirt and pointed to her belly.

“Lilly’s belly.” she said

“Yes!” we said.

“Mummy’s belly?” she asked.

I lifted up my t-shirt obligingly to show her mummy’s belly.

“WOW,” she said. “Big!”

And I can’t even blame her brother or sister for that yet….

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23 weeks 4

I have been enjoying some lovely time off work over the last week, and am still off until Friday when it is DEFINITELY D-Day and I will be telling work my news!

Until then, I am trying not to have too many sleepless nights worrying about things!

Since I have been off work, my bump is definitely growing – which is as i expected, due to a combination of not needing to hide it anymore and the fact that a growth spurt is normal at this stage.

Tony and I had a mini spending spree last Friday, when we went to our favourite shops of the moment, Mothercare and Babies R Us. We bought some I Love My Bear themed stuff, which was on 3 for 2 – a fleece cot blanket, a cot bumper and two flanelette sheets. We also bought a bottle steriliser kit (Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature, as they are to work alongside breastfeeding for when i express) and, most exciting of all, a Fisher Price rainforest bouncer chair (see picture)! It is one that Tony has had his eye on since we first ventured into Babies R Us many months ago and we have been having fun playing with it!!!

I do think that bubs may find it a bit scary and overwhelming at first (!!) but you can remove the archway over the top and introduce it gradually. You can choose to have it “baby activated” so that when she kicks the toys that hang down the lights come on and it plays a tune (may have the potential to drive mummy and daddy insane though… we didn’t quite think about that!!)

We have also been thinking about realistic plans for after she is born. In my ideal world i would love to give up work altogether and become a full time mum, have another one in a year or so etc etc. But realistically, we just can’t afford our ultimate. So, we had a long discussion about it yesterday and have the bones of a plan. At the moment it involves me going back to work at 6 months (yikes) and doing 3 days (ideally, 3.5 days worth of hours condensed into 3 days actual work). Those days would then be covered by Tony’s mum one day (as she has offered this) and by Tony another day, presuming his work are ok with him doing 4 days per week. The other day would be nursery. Tony isn’t that mad on this idea but personally I don’t think it will be a problem, as long as we choose the place carefully (and, of course, all the good ones get booked up). I really, really would hate the idea of putting her in nursery for 3/4 days a week or more, but I actually think that one day a week will be beneficial really, as it teaches babies to be social and interact with others from a young age. I vividly remember when I went to nursery (ok, i wasn’t 6 months old) and I absolutely LOVED it. Tony is more apprehensive because he never went to nursery himself, but he admits that when it came time to go to school he found it very hard to adjust as a result. Anyway, there is an extra day that needs to be catered for, and that seems like the best (or only) way to do it. To be honest, it wouldn’t even be a full day as Tony would be able to collect her after lunch when he finishes work anyway. Hopefully, work will be accomodating to my 3 day per week request… fingers crossed!

I don’t think until now either of us realised how expensive and difficult all this was going to be… not that for one second we would change it! I think we were both using the denial technique thinking that things would sort themselves out somehow! But I was reading the other day about how a lot of nurseries are booked up until next September, which made me realise that we have to make some decisions fairly soon. There is a Sure Start nursery near us which has just opened, which has an open day on September 14… so I think we will pop along there to see what that is like – how bad the waiting list is and how much it will dent our pockets!!

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15 weeks 4 and bubs is already well travelled!

We have just arrived home from a lovely weekend in Glasgow – so bubs has now officially been to two ‘foreign’ countries in it’s short little life!

We had a nice weekend just relaxing reallly, did a spot of sightseeing and ate some nice full breakfasts without having to wash anything up afterwards!

On Friday night when we arrived at the hotel i noticed what can only be described as a bump! Yes, definitely a noticeable baby bump… and it didn’t disappear even when i was lying down. That was quite exciting although i must admit that since then it seems to have dissappeared a bit! Probably for the best as I am still keeping these things secret from work… we have our “job interviews” next week. I expect it was partly due to bloating as i do get very full and feel massive in the evenings, consequently i can’t eat big evening meals to save my life.

Tony has also been having a little listen in to my belly and says he can hear some “swishing” like bubs moving around in there! We have our 16 week midwife appointment on Wednesday and are hoping that we’ll be able to listen to the hearbeat then – that will definitely be exciting.

Oh yes, and I bought some maternity jeans from Dorothy Perkins in Glasgow… they are definitely the way forward as they’re dead comfy. I also got a couple of maternity t shirts too.

Can’t believe on Thursday i’ll be four months pregnant… nearly half way there!

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