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!
