So, 33 weeks and counting here! I'm getting SO big now, and achy. Waddling already, rolling off the sofa like a beached whale, that kind of thing. I'm enjoying having a big ol' pregnant tummy, but boy I forgot how exhausting it is! And I think sometimes that I have SEVEN more weeks to go. SEVEN! Which is an age away, and when people dare to say it's not that long, they face the pregnant woman's wrath ;) Seven weeks more growing, bigger belly, possibly swelling to come. But for now, it's manageable.
Heartburn comes and goes in waves - some days/weeks it's awful then it goes away for a while. I had a couple of nights last week which were awful, one night I couldn't sleep til I took some gaviscon (which I will avoid taking like the plague!). The next night it seemed to feel as bad so I took some before I went to bed, which was a much smarter thing to do.
Baby boy is now squirming and pushing arms and legs around in there rather than fierce kicks. Goes to show how big he is getting and that he's already running out of room. He definitely has his more active moments, which can leave me feeling rather breathless and sore!
The midwives appointments I've had this pregnancy are going well - my body seems to cope very well with it, I've never had a high blood pressure reading, nor anything show up in my wee. Baby is growing well too and was measuring 34cm on my visit last week at 32w6d.
I have my homebirth assessment visit early next month when I'll be 36 weeks. Seems crazy that I'm so close to the end already. I mentioned to my dad that I'm having another homebirth, and well, he didn't say much but what he did say made it clear he wasn't sure I was doing the right thing by that (but tried to sound supportive in saying that it was my choice lol). But I'm convinced it will be fine, after all, I have the experience of two births behind me, and taken things from each one.
Jonathan and I are busy preparing for the visit, as well as getting all the bits in the house ready that we want to be sorted before the baby arrives. It's a LONG list but we managed to sort out the boys' room (I say we, it was mostly Jonathan), with the boys' new beds, and moved the cot back into our room. We still have a lot more tidying to do, and cleaning too but our hoover's fan belt has broken so we can't vacuum anything now until that gets replaced. Next on the agenda is the stairs, hallway and our bedroom, as we are getting our new bed delivered at the end of the month. Then will be the old study getting sorted, and things being brought down to the new study. And the lounge as well. The boys bedroom looks great now - so much more roomy despite the two beds in there being bigger than the two beds that were there previously! Robert has a single bed now, and Christopher has Robert's old cotbed that's seen him through from birth until almost 4 and a half.
Christopher's speech has suddenly come on loads in the last few weeks. His vocabulary (though still unrecognisable to a lot of people) has exploded, and he is now joining several words together a lot of the time. He is still enjoying his jigsaw puzzles, although he is doing them by choice less often, and most surprisingly to me, he is learning letter sounds!! I know that second children pick stuff up from older siblings, but for goodness sake, he's 2 and a half and he knows the sounds for g, c, e, o, s, l, z, p, k, and less reliably for a, d, t, f, i, r. I bought the boys some foam letters for the bath today, so they played with them in the bath. Robert is coming on so well with reading and knowing how to spell simple words. I need to focus on him actually physically writing the words down too, but with pre-made letter shapes he will spell out all kinds of words, and even had a go at spelling elephant - it came out "elft" but I was still so proud! I also began to teach him about the magic e - by putting down words like "kit" and "win" and then adding an e and telling him they change the sound of the i, and did a few more words for him to practice on, all with i tonight. I know he's not specifically going to be learning how to read until he starts reception, but I figure that as he's enthusiastic, it can't hurt to give him a head start! He already knows that oo make the ooooooh sound, and ee make the sound of the letter E, so he can read words like "poo" and "sleep". He even spelt out "peas" by himself, writing "peez" :)
It's lovely to see both of the boys new achievements, and how also they feed into each other. Christopher is suddenly much more affectionate these days, and often catches sight of me and says "mummy uck!" (mummy hug) and comes and gives me a cuddle. It also makes my day when I hear him say "Booboo uck!" because that's his way of saying "Robert hug" - Booboo is his name for Robert!! So sweet! Robert to himself used to be "Ubberd". Christopher has yet to refer to himself by name though :) Christopher's new favourite phases/words though - by FAR - unfortunately, are "no WAY!" and "YUCK!" which we hear several times a day. I try to encourage "No thank you" rather than "No WAY!" but I often can't stop myself laughing! Ooops.
On other news, I have bought some cloth nappies!! Well, ordered them anyway. I have a few already I bought cheaply from someone on facebook, hardly used, and some from freegle which well.. I'm assuming have seen better days. I'm not sure if I can get those worthy for use, we'll see. But I've bought 12 minky pocket nappies, 9 with poppers and 3 with velcro, that go from birth to potty. So exciting!! I can't wait to get them, it also means I can have a go with Christopher!! :) I've ordered some extra inserts to go with them too, to bring my order total above £60 as my local government give £25 cashback on cloth nappy purchases over £60. So a little over £35 for 12 pocket nappy wraps, and 44 insert pads isn't bad at all! :) And they're so perdy!!! Oooh I can't wait to share photos!!
Anyway I'll leave this here for now, I've rambled on enough and it's getting late. :)
