Had a lovely Christmas…

It’s currently boxing day and all’s calm… Lilly’s asleep, i’m on the net and T is playing with his new computer game.

We’ve had a really nice few days over Christmas. Unlike Lilly’s first, we were all in good health and able to enjoy ourselves, and it was lovely as Lilly was old enough to get a bit excited and have some idea of what is going on!

Up until Christmas Eve, Lilly was absolutely terrified of Father Christmas – she couldn’t look at pictures or cuddly versions of him even, and she kept saying “I don’t like Christmas!” But she started to realise there was some link between the dreaded FC and presents – so she soon started saying “I like presents!”.

By Christmas Eve, we managed to look at a few Christmas cards with FC on them, and Lilly was happy to point to it and say “Fah Chrismas!” And on Christmas Eve before bed the three of us read The Night Before Christmas, hung up the stocking and left out a carrot for Rudolph.

We’ve had plenty of snow over the past week, and although we didn’t have any fresh flakes on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, we still had plenty of it on the ground. It was ok to walk on on Christmas Eve, when Lilly and I walked over to Nana and Grandads while T was at work, but by Christmas Day and especially today, it has just become like compacted ice – I’m terrified to go outside because I don’t want to fall over!

Lilly walks to Nana's house in the snow on Christmas Eve

Lilly slept in until 7.30am on Christmas Day, then when she got up she found her stocking on the landing filled with presents, which she was really excited about and opened them in bed with us. She got a lot of stickers and crayons and other little Peppa Pig things, and was really happy with those and didn’t really want to come downstairs (where she didn’t realise there would be more presents!)

We got downstairs but Lilly was a bit upset at leaving her stocking stuff behind, so we watched a bit of Peppa to calm her down (Christmas special – she was terrified of the Father Christmas in it a few weeks ago, and cried so much we turned it off… this time she frowned at him a bit but said: “I not cry.”)

After a while she became interested in the presents under the tree so we turned the tv off and got cracking! Her main presents were a Peppa Pig camper van and a wooden Thomas the Tank railway with some additional trains to go on it. The first Thomas related item she opened was the Thomas engine, and she said: “Need tracks now… I open the tracks!” like as if she knew there was also a trainset under there!! I said to Tony, it was a good job there was!!

Well, one Thomas was opened and the tracks were out she wasn’t really interested in opening any other presents, so some of them only got opened this morning!

Safe to say, Lilly loved her trainset!

And, in the morning, while we were sitting on the sofa watching Lilly with her presents, I felt the first definite kicks from her little brother or sister! I’ve been feeling something for a week or so now, but nothing I could confidently say was definitely the baby moving – but this was certain! And yesterday evening I felt more – this time more like movements than kicks, and today too i’ve felt plenty of wiggling. A fantastic feeling, which makes me feel much closer to this little life inside me which I’m sometimes too busy to think about, and what a brilliant Christmas present for me from my littlest one too (at exactly 15 weeks)!

After that, we went round to T’s mum and dads, where there were more presents and Christmas dinner, which was lovely. The big present they got Lilly was a huge Wendy House, which is currently in their living room and taking up rather a lot of space, but will go outside once all the snow and ice clears! Lilly was absolutely over the moon with it, and even declared: “This is perfect!” so again, another hit!

All in all we’ve had a really lovely time and we’re thinking of taking Lilly to Thomas Land at Drayton Manor tomorrow as an early birthday treat, as if she hasn’t been spoilt enough already!!

Ooh, and I forgot to say – my morning sickness has gone!!! Whoop whoop! I reckon it disappeared about the 14 week mark. I’m feeling much more normal now and am even contemplating trying a cup of tea or coffee again sometime soon – well maybe in a few weeks time, don’t want to jinx it!

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Half way there!

August 5, 2007

Well, today I am 20 weeks and 3 days pregnant… just over the half way mark!!

Here’s how baby is looking:

I haven’t posted for a while as our computer was packed away while we changed the spare room from a spare room into a nursery! The work is now complete, so we are back online at home (more of the nursery later).

Well, so much to update. Last time I posted was the 16 week midwife visit. The week after, I saw the consultant, who asked about medical history etc and said that we can have an additional growth scan at 32 weeks, but this is a formality only as there’s no reason why my history should have any effect on the pregnancy. We also had the results of our triple test – “very low risk” – which means less than 1 in 1,000 of spina bifida or Down’s Syndrome. She didn’t offer to listen to the heartbeat and we haven’t had an appointment since, so we still haven’t had that experience yet (although Tony has been trying to listen in through my tummy )

I still haven’t felt any definite kicks, although over the past few days I have been getting sensations that could well be the first indications of this. At first they started off as little pulses but occasionally now they do feel like the bubbles bursting that i’ve read about. Hopefully it won’t be long until they are full on kicks that T can feel from the outside.

We have our 20 week scan on Tuesday, when i will be 20+5. Really, really looking forward to that. It will be amazing to see bubs again and see how much he or she has grown. We’re hoping too that they’ll be able to tell us if our little baby is a boy or a girl… as long as it is feeling cooperative, of course! Neither of us have any particularly strong feelings that it will be one or another. At first when we found out, we both thought it was a girl. Now neither is sure… i think at the moment Tony is thinking more it might be a boy and I suppose I am too. But i don’t think either of us will be disappointed or surprised one way or another!

Work has (nearly) sorted itself out. We had to go through the interviews and, to cut a long story, I got my job but my good friend who I work with, didn’t. All in all a very odd situation and a very unpleasant one too. Techinically, I’ve been promoted but it doesn’t feel like anything to celebrate in these cicumstances.

I have brought a few maternity clothes, but can’t really wear them to work because they make it more obvious. Luckily, I still fit into a few of my old work clothes so they are keeping me going in the interim. Can’t wait until i’m ‘out of the closet’ at work so i can stop only having three outfits on rotation!!!

On the subject of maternity wear, I’m surprised really how little choice there is out there. I am in desperate need of something nice to wear to Louise and James’s wedding, which is on September 8. There is a real shortage of dressy enough dresses!!! There’s plenty for parties etc, although they are still expensive. I have my eye on one outfit though, which I think i will order and see how it looks when it arrives. I also need a party outfit for Louise’s hen night, and my cousin Adrian’s engagement party (the day after Louise’s wedding).

And, yes, the nursery. It is looking absolutely fabulous! We painted it in a coulour called Natural Hessian, and it is now definitely the nicest room in the house. Tony and his dad sweated for two days assembling Ikea wardrobes so we have plenty of storage too. We’ve now decided on the I Love My Bear range from Babies R Us, as it matches the decoration so perfectly. We have bought the lampshade from the set already and some wall stickers of teddies which we are yet to put on.

We also bought our pram! After a few weeks of test driving, we went for the Silver Cross 3d in Jet Sport (black).

It is really lovely (see pic) and is sitting behind me in the nursery as we speak! Pauline bought it for us from Mothercare – the only reason we got it so early was because it was in the sale and she got it for £239 instead of £279… although since then it’s actually gone up to £299!! Laura and Pauline went halves on the accessory back to go with it – the matching bag, sun shade and footmuff.

We didn’t get the car seat to go with it as we discovered that our Ford Focus didn’t have long enough seatbelts!! So instead, we went for a Britax Rockatot which we’re pleased with as it is smaller and lighter anyway. I don’t think we really planned to use the car seat clipped to the pram anyway, as it can only stay in there for up to two hours at a time.

I had a dream last night about the baby arriving and we were totally unprepared! I had to send my mum out while we were in hospital to buy everything… she did a sterling job but bought the wrong bedding etc etc!! I can only imagine this is the first of many dreams about being unprepared for baby!!!

Right well, I’ve gone on long enough. I will be back with our 20 week scan picture next week… can’t wait!

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