21 weeks 1 day - anomoly scan!

Ahhhh finally the day arrived, Squidge's anomoly scan!

As some already know from facebook, all is well with Squidge, he is healthy as he can be that they can tell by scans, which is great :) And also I stayed strong and Squidge remains a surprise! (but still saying "he" just because it's easier!) I was impressed by the scan on 2 accounts, one being that we arrived 10 minutes early for the scan and were seen straight away (so I couldn't go for a wee), and also, the woman doing the scan was brilliant! She gave such a good commentary on everything she was doing and everything that was seen, I was particularly impressed when she informed me that she would be looking at the heart next, and that it would take some concentration, so not to be concerned that she was staring at the screen with furrowed brow, if you know what I mean! She pointed out that at one point Squidge had his hand up behind his head, and showed us his little feet, and we could see his hand waving around. Ahhh it was so lovely and cute!

Unfortunately we didn't get any good profile shots of Squidge, but we got a couple face-on, 2 where he had flipped up the other way completely lol! And one of his feet and another which was the best side on shot which was a whole body shot so not very good for profile really.

Near the beginning of the scan she went down, and for a tiny moment I thought I saw a willy.... but it could have been the umbilical cord.... and at the end of the scan she was going down through the body and ended up at the feet, at the right angle for a toilet shot, and as she went through "that area" for the split second I thought I saw girly bits. But sooo so so not sure as it was so quick and they seemed so clear which a lot of girly bits AREN'T iykwim makes me think it was actually something else... so really not sure it could be either still! And I'm glad I think I saw some of each hahaha!

Here are the scan pictures!

Face on ones! He has quite a long thin face at the moment I think! In the first you can clearly see his heart!





Here's the side on view, unfortunately he's facing away slightly so you can't see his nose or a proper profile!



Here's the two upside down ones, he flipped face down part way through (probably after the sonographer vigorously jiggled my belly to get him to move so she could see his lips!) Second one is better than the first I think.





And finally, his little foot!



So so cute :) I feel so so lucky! And I love that I can feel him kicking so much! She told us the placenta was in a good position for "the big day" and it is, at the back and not low, which is fab, means I can feel lots of kicks. I'm sure Robert's placenta must have been at the front! (don't remember if they told me for his!)

But yes, little Squidge is happy and healthy! Measurements showed head circumference 6 days ahead (!!), tummy circumference 3 days ahead, and thigh length 1 day behind. So about right :) I hope you enjoyed reading and meeting little Squidge!

My gorgeous clever boy :)

I thought I'd make a post to do with my gorgeous son. He is now 18 months old (and 2 days!) and I just adore him. I love his chatting (which mostly is still babbling, although it's more "complex" babbling now!), and his mannerisms, and his spark and energy! His understanding of us and things we ask him are amazing, it seems so strange to think how he went from a tiny boy so unable to do anything for himself to one that now can follow instructions, and asert his wants and needs to us!

His communication is still mainly non verbal, the main word he uses is "again", which he sometimes uses to mean "yes". This caused some concern to the doctor who saw him for his 18 month review on Friday, who again questioned his hearing, and mentioned speech therapy. We said we weren't concerned about his hearing at all, and he HAS made huge progress with his verbal and non verbal communication since we saw the same doctor 6 months ago. So we will wait til he's 2, and if the doctor is still concerned then we will allow them to run hearing tests and anything else they deem necessary, as if it comes back all clear, and that he is simply a slow speaker, then we will be proved right, and 2 is still an ok age to pick up any more serious problems, so we are ok in waiting until then.

But he IS getting his wants across more and more. He signs "more" very frequently, we are trying to introduce more specific signs so that he knows there is a difference between "more" and wanting specific things, so we have a clearer idea. We are teaching him "drink", "food/eat" and "sleep" on a daily basis, as well as "milk". We sign "nappy" to him regularly too. He still needs prompting to sign for a few things, the only signs he does unprompted is "more", and "milk". He also understands what nodding and shaking the head means and how to use it approptiately, which is very useful!

If he signs "more" while looking at the table on which there is his food, and a drink, we ask him "do you want a drink?" and if it's what he wants, he nods his head and makes an affirmative noise. Then we ask him to sign "drink" and show him ourselves and he will sign back to us, and we give it to him. After his 18 month review I did worry if encouraging signing over talking was helping, or delaying things, but I figure (with some comments from people at a forum) that any form of communication is good, and it will help him be less frustrated while he is still coming to grips with talking.

Something that I think will help him immensely is that over the past couple of days he has rediscovered his love of books and will pull out book after book after book for me to read to him. As well as just reading the story to him I now on most pages point out various things on the illustrations, or ask him to point them out, and I am sometimes amazed at how he knows what something is! I asked him yesterday where the horns were on a picture of a cow, and he pointed them out right away, I wasn't expecting him to get them, and I spent ages wondering "how on earth does he know what horns are?" and then I realised in a few of his "that's not my..." books they have horns on them :)

He is also copying animal noises of varying creatures very well! He will do cow, dog, monkey, elephant, bee, wolf, snake, cat (sometimes), duck, lion (he loves this one!), and possibly a few others!

He has mastered so many physical skills now, he runs, walks along on tiptoes, steers his pushalong toys around obstacles, climbs up onto chairs turns around and sits on them, gets down from chairs slowly still facing out and letting himself drop to the floor, he can step up shallow steps properly, deeper ones he still either turns himself round to go down or he crawls up. If he stumbles while running he can correct himself a lot of the time and can avoid falling. He hasn't figured out jumping yet but that's only a matter of time I'm sure! He even had a good go yesterday on a balance beam at a toddler group (for their physical skills), first holding onto Janice's hands as he walked along, but then he got on all by himself and tried to take a step on it!

He is also working out humour! He has learnt that doing certain things will make us laugh, and so he deliberately does them in order to make us laugh! Certain facial expressions are his favourite way at the moment, but also noises he makes, some of his laughs will often provoke us to laugh too!

He also LOVES us to sing! I have learnt that singing a song will stop a boy from wriggling while changing him, or getting him dressed, or will let us brush his teeth with little resistance! Which has made bedtime SO much less stressful I can't believe! There is now NO stress with bedtime at all, there was little before but now with no wriggles it's lovely! He doesn't really have a favourite song yet, he likes any song I sing really! But I tend to sing "if you're happy and you know it" while he's getting dressed as he then joins in the actions and it gives him something to do as well while I'm popping up his sleepsuit! He starts clapping as soon as I start that song, it's so cute! His face when I ask him "shall I sing you a song, Robert?" is lovely! His face lights up and he nods eagerly saying "Geh, geh" (again, again) hehe! So I sing him a song, and when I get to the end and stop, he'll squeal "a-GEH!" and I sing it again hehe.

Jonathan has been concentrating on the video backlog from Robert's birthday party onwards, so the photos we've taken recently aren't up there yet, which is a shame!

But here's a video he has put together which I can't help but feel teary about, a montage from birth to 1 year old. From a tiny, sleepy baby to a big boy, running around, with little pearly teeth... awwww :) I'm so happy I'll get to see another baby growing up, and also I can't WAIT to see how good a big brother Robert will be. I love him to bits and I can't believe there was ever a time he wasn't in my life!

20 weeks pregnant! Half way!

I cannot believe I am posting to say I am half way through this pregnancy already! Where has the time gone?

But before I do carry on I want to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! to the commenters on the last entry! I miss getting comments, they make me smile!

Anyway! 20 weeks. TWENTY weeks! I cannot believe we are here already!

I feel Squidge kicking several times every day! I LOVE it! And, big news, about 5 days ago, Jonathan felt him kicking for the first time! This is WAY earlier than with Robert, which happened around 21 and a half weeks. So over TWO weeks earlier! Squidge is kicking as I am typing this, and it's making me smile. How I LOVE love LOVE the kicks and wriggles! And I'm glad because last night Squidge was in a different position to normal and was booting my bladder! Eeeeshk! I completely forgot the whole bladder booting feeling! But he seems to be back in a normal position and booting the front of my belly. :)

Talking of bellies, I have a belly picture!



Taken a few minutes ago. :) I'll update the belly gallery later, there should be a 13 week one there but it's not linked in on the right yet, something else to do! And add an ultrasound gallery! Woop!

Oh and for comparison - here is Robert's 20 week belly picture



And on the matter of ultrasounds, my next scan is in 8 days. I'm so excited! We are still holding strong on not finding out the sex (although Jonathan would still happily find out if I changed my mind). I keep thinking in the back of my mind how I would like to find out, and then I think to the birth day of Squidge, and how lovely it would be to find out then! And especially if my mum is there, to have the baby born, see what sex it is, and then introduce the baby to my mum with his/her name :)

Talking of names! (wow, I'm flitting about a bit aren't I!! So much to talk about!) We have FINALLY got somewhere with names! :) Girl's name is 100% decided, boy's name is decided too but I think a little less than the girl's name. I think we both like the girl's name more than the boy's name we've picked out, so I guess the boy's name is subject to change. I don't know if I want to share the names we've chosen yet! :)

One thing I will say is that the girl's name hasn't even been mentioned here at all! I just saw it on a name site, and thought "hmm, yeah I'll put that on the list" and then Jonathan saw it and said "Oh, I really like that name" and then I thought about it, and the more I think about it the more I love it! Her middle name though is one that's been mentioned here before :) I'm so excited that we've finally got names we agree on! It's a shame the boy's name isn't as WOW as the girl's name, if you know what I mean, but we'll see :)

Back on the note of pregnancy, I am feeling completely well! Apart from having to pee at 6am every morning if I've not already been even earlier in the morning! I had one slight twinge of heartburn about a week ago which disappeared fairly quickly, and nothing since. Looking back I was already riddled with heartburn by this stage with Robert!

Also, I have weighed myself, as I know I weighed myself around this stage of my pregnancy with Robert, and I am around 14 stone 11lb, a few days before my second scan with Robert I was 15 stone 11lb, so unless I gain a stone in 2 weeks I am lighter at this stage than I was with Robert :) I am very happy about this although I am fast gaining on 15 stone so I think I will more than likely be at least 15 and a half stone by the time baby is born, if not 16+ so I will need to lose 4 stone to reach my goal of 12 stone by the time baby is a year old. I am still determined to make sure I give myself a thorough kick up the backside to lose this weight and get down to a healthy happy weight! Within 2 years of the birth I would ideally like to be down to my ideal weight of around 10 stone, if I'm not already pregnant again hahaha! But I would be happy to start off another pregnancy at 12 stone rather than 14 stone+ I've had with Robert and Squidge ;)

Anyway, here's to another good 20 weeks, and I really hope they don't whizz by too quickly! (these have gone by so fast I can't believe how fast it's all gone!!)

18 weeks - anniversary tomorrow, signing

Well tomorrow is mine and Jonathan's 5th wedding anniversary, and 9th "being together" anniversary. We've had our ups and downs but it's hard to believe that we've been together for so long, considering I'm not even in my 30s yet, that next year we will have been together a whole decade, and I still would not be in my 30s. Next year we will have been married for 6 years, together for 10 years, and have two beautiful children.

I can hardly believe how lucky I am, that my husband just fell into my lap so to speak, that we found each other and are so happy together. That we have been able to work through tough patches (and as a result are still together) and puts us in good stead to be together for a long long time, hopefully as they say til death do us part. We have been so lucky on so many counts, that we have had fabulous support from family in particular, both financial and emotional, which puts us in a very fortunate position for the future, despite us having made mistakes on when we bought this house and got out a fixed rate mortgage for 5 years (sigh).

And now I am nearly half way through "cooking" our second child (lol, that phrase makes me giggle), and enjoying every moment! I think I am eating *slightly* better than my first pregnancy. I am certainly more active! Having looked back on my first pregnancy I am having a lot easier time so far of it. Although with this one I have had more bleeding (only spotting but still far far more than with Robert), but less of everything else. At this point in my pregnancy I was already suffering with heartburn on occasion, whereas no sign of this whatsoever yet! But there is plenty more time for me to suffer with heartburn, SPD, swollen ankles and feet, etc like I did with Robert.

When I lay down I can feel Squidge's rough position, last night I was fairly certain he was laying transverse, with his back along the top of my uterus.

Yes that's right, I'm saying he. Why? Two reasons. One, it's SO damn annoying to have to keep saying s/he, or his/her. Second... my friend Sarah has found out she's having a girl. And despite what I said before about me having no preference to which gender I was having, I did suddenly get a twinge. That if I did end up having a boy I would be sad, because she got her girl and I didn't get one. Which made me realise that I must have had a subconscious desire for a girl over a boy that I wasn't entirely aware of. I think that if I get it into my head that it's a boy now... that if I am convinced he's a boy, then it will be easier. But I am still thinking of leaving it as a surprise, that bit of uncertainty, so there is a small chance I am carrying a girl... does that make sense? By focussing on the good things of having another boy, then I will be happier when he arrives.

I am feeling him kick much more as well. In fact, last night as I was laying down with Robert before his bedtime, I could feel him moving around a bit. I put my hand on my tummy, and I felt a tiny pop against my hand! I'm pretty sure I can feel Squidge better than I did Robert, not only his kicks, but also him as well, when I feel my tummy. Maybe with Robert my placenta was around by my tummy, and this time it's towards my back? I've not told Jonathan about being able to feel the kicks with my hand yet, as the times Squidge is kicking hard enough to feel are so few, they're not nearly half the number of times he actually kicks.

What I find amazing is that despite having felt Robert move at 15 weeks, it wasn't until 19 weeks that I was 100% sure that I had felt a proper kick! Just goes to show I suppose that it's true, for second pregnancies you do realise that the baby is kicking sooner, as I know I've been recognising Squidge's kicks from at least 16 weeks as proper kicks.

As for breastfeeding. Robert is still breastfeeding morning and night. And he asked for it during the day yesterday as well. He is beginning to communicate much better, not only in his words, but he has finally grasped signing, that he can sign a particular way to get exactly what he wants. He only knows how to make 3 signs really, the three we use most regularly. He knows "more" very well, and "drink" not so well. He sometimes signs more when he wants a drink. He also knows milk, but he needs encouragement to use it. It won't be long before he is using signs perfectly to aid his communication with us. I told my dad about his signing, and how babies develop better control with their hands before they're able to talk, so they can communicate this way quicker, and he was quite impressed and said "oh, that's a really good idea!" and generally thought that it made sense, as it helps them to be less frustrated.

I want to teach him a few other signs, like nappy, so he will be able to sign to me when he needs a nappy change, sleep, so he can tell me when he's tired, and things like hot, cold, scared, hurt. Scared will be a tough one to do. I will have to get his grandad (my dad) over to jump out at him like he did last time we went down there (poor Robert got scared, my dad was trying to make him laugh but he was so loud and unexpected, that Robert's lip started quivering and you could tell he was frightened by it!) and then sign scared to Robert so he knows what it is lol!

Anyway I digressed. Robert is still breastfeeding, and I only ever offer milk to him at night before bed. But he always has morning milk, and if he asks during the day he gets it too. Yesterday he wanted it, so I let him. Usually downstairs he's happy to stand next to me but yesterday he wanted to climb up onto me and lay down while having his milky on the sofa. Which was nice to have some snuggles. :)

This morning after he'd had his milk, he got up all grins, and went to scoot himself off the bed, and on the way I heard him burp, which made me quite happy, surely that means he's still getting quite a lot of milk from me?

We have his 18 month hospital checkup on the 21st, just over 2 weeks time. I'm so pleased he's started to talk, even if it's just a few words, and that he communicates by signing. At the 12 month checkup I was quite worried as the questions the doctor asked us about his development (apart from physical, which he was ahead on), he seemed concerned about his language development, and doubted us when he said he could understand what we said.

Robert now understands most simple questions we ask him, if he doesn't know a particular word you can tell he gets confused. But daily tasks he does he doesn't even need to be verbally asked anymore. When he gets undressed ready for his bath he will put his clothes immediately in the wash basket (more than can be said for his dad!!!!), and when I let him down off the table naked, I will hand him his dirty nappy (in a nappy bag of course) and I don't even need to ask him, he will go and put it in the bin.

While I do of course get frustrated with him from time to time, it doesn't take much for me to melt :)

Who couldn't melt, when greeted with this...?



or this....?



:)

17 weeks 2 days - active Squidge!

I've not been feeling too good for a few days now. Thursday afternoon I was quite irritable, by Thursday evening I was tired, my eyes were just ACHING and I just wanted to go to bed! Friday morning I woke up with a pounding head, a blocked nose, and a head just completely full of fluff! Jonathan suggested he took Robert to his parents for the morning, and I agreed. I took some paracetomol, got Robert ready, and off they went (after checking of course they were ok with it!). How lucky am I to have such wonderful retired in-laws? :) In the end they ended up having Robert the ENTIRE day and well I feel a little bad about having a lovely day relaxing and only missing my baby boy by the end of the day ;) I did a few bits of household stuff but not as much as I originally planned in my head at the beginning of the day!

Today I was feeling better in the morning so we went out as planned with them for lunch, and also saw my sister-in-law whose husband was at a concert or something. I felt fine up until about 3 o'clock or thereabouts. Jonathan, my mother-in-law, Robert and I had gone out for a walk around the village to the local park (which apparently is getting a huge amount of funding to spruce up soon - very exciting as it only has a slide, 4 swings, a see-saw and a basketball hoop) and then we went back via a field that had sheep in it (don't worry they never let us get close!) and I started getting a bad headache during the walk, and took some paracetomol when I got back, then started to feel tired again.

I laid down on the sofa for a while, and when I did, I felt *pop* *pop* going on as little Squidge thought this the perfect moment to do some kung fu in my belly :) What surprised me most was the force behind those little kicks as they were significantly harder than any other kicks I've felt recently! So much so I even put my hand on my belly to see if they could be felt from the outside! And I am actually thinking I *may* have felt one with my hand shortly into his/her kicking session!

It has made me more determined to set aside some "quiet" time during each day to lie down and see if I can feel Squidge as I nearly cried today I cherished every single kick with a big smile on my face :) I have been on the go all during this pregnancy and today I just realised how I should really just spend some time to enjoy the good things about it, especially now I am into the "good part"! ;)

I am still feeling pretty awful tonight, but hopefully Squidge will cheer me up somewhat later. :) And I have just under 4 weeks to go until I see Squidge again. Part of me feels a little strange that I won't be finding out the sex, that I'll be avoiding looking there, that Squidge will remain a s/he, but I'm so looking forward to seeing him/her again, seeing the cute profile, and hopefully finding out that s/he is just about as perfect as can be!

Another thing I am thinking of doing, is getting together some albums. As some of you know I make graphics, I am thinking of putting together scrapbooking pages of Robert, ranging from in the womb, newborn, BLW, new skills he has learnt gradually, and getting them all put into a lovely album as a wonderful keepsake for us, and then for Robert to have when he gets older. I would love to get started on this now, but it's nearly 11pm and I am getting tired. It might well be something I have to start at a later point, but I've wanted to get a proper PHYSICAL keepsake for Robert. We have so so many photos, all online... graphics I've made and had made for me... online... and other things like that. It would be lovely to have something to flick through and to show friends and family. So many things have progressed into the virtual world, now and again it's nice to revert back to the real world. :)