39 weeks - busy day ahead, practise contraction last night - no labour yet!

Sorry to disappoint again Sarah, but this isn't a "I've gone into labour entry!" Hehe. However, it is a "Oh my goodness I'm 39 weeks pregnant!" entry. ;)

Also, last night, I *think* I had a practise contraction... not just simply a braxton hicks, but something that made me think "oh goodness, am I in labour???!!!" We were downstairs watching a film, I was laying on the sofa, with my legs up on the beanbag I'd perched on the end, and after a while, I got this very strange feeling all over my abdomen, along with the tightness I usually get with braxton hicks. Unlike braxton hicks though, I was getting progressively more uncomfortable, and in the end I felt I had to get up, I was also feeling like I needed a wee, so I got up to have a wee, and as soon as I did get up, the odd feeling went away. I did get more braxton hicks afterwards, but they were just braxton hicks, not anything more.

I am finding sleeping progressively harder. Last night, thank GOODNESS I didn't have to get up to take gaviscon, although I did have to take some before I went to bed. But I did still get up to wee twice (not bad, usually it's 4+ times now). But I woke up many more times, simply trying to turn over. I feel lately like my joints have become stiffer and more painful, as well as the fact I'm carrying around a 7+lb baby and trying to shift him around as well! Sitting down is getting more painful in my knee joints. I sometimes wake up as well to find one or both of my hands have stiff and painful joints - possibly from how I've placed my hands while sleeping.

I do still wonder if it's likely to be the 17th... it's 5 days early and apparently first time mums are more likely to have late babies. I guess I'll see. But I hope he doesn't go too much overdue.

Jonathan has left for Aylesbury, and I'm just writing this entry quickly before I get to work too - putting on a load of (our) washing, doing the washing up while that's doing, then hanging up the washing, maybe putting on another load, and while that's doing, sort out some boxes in the spare room. Or take a rest and lay on the sofa for a while. Whatever my feet decide! ;) He almost went off without his phone, which would have been BAD... I wouldn't have been able to get hold of him incase things started to move along today.

I have my 39 week appointment on the 17th too, I wonder whether he'll start to move before or after that! ;) Anyway, I'd better get going now, and look lively, and all that!

Thanks again for your comments, I do appreciate hearing from each of you and value your insight! And sometimes it's nice to get comments which make me laugh like some of yours have!

38 weeks 6 days - replies to comments, good dad-to-be, busy weekend scheduled

Thanks for your comments! :) Heartburn is still here and quite bad, last night I felt I had to lay down but then once I did it just got so bad that I felt like I was going to be sick and even once I sat back up again it still lingered for a while. The comment from singledadguy I got about the heartburn causing hairy babies, or vice versa.. I immediately thought "if only!" because it sounds like an old wives tale, and as much as I'd like a baby with lots and lots of hair, I thought what a load of codswallop... so I googled it, and lookie what I found! It's not 100% but there is some scientific evidence to support that claim! The hormone that relaxes the sphincter and causes heartburn is also the one responsible for fetal hair growth. So there is a correlation. But I guess we'll see!

Thanks also for your reassurance over the nursery! Hehe. I don't think my brother did one either. But when you hear from people "Oh, we're doing the nursery this weekend" and things like that you suddenly think "hmm, should I be doing one too?" But the baby really doesn't care if he's in a perfectly decorated room with winnie the pooh borders and curtains... :)

It's getting so close now, but at the same time I think "ooof, when is it going to happen? I'm sooooooo uncomfortable!" J is being great, he helps me get up from the sofa when I've been lying down on it, he helps me put on socks and shoes, he gets drinks for me, he puts on dinner. And he STILL gets me tea every morning before he leaves for work. :) He started early on in the pregnancy when I was feeling a little morning sick and the queasiness first thing made me feel a little yeuuugh. And he's done it every day (well, every working day!) since then!

As much as I am nervous about the next stage of our life, which could begin any day now, I am looking forward to it so much! I think by the time you get to 38 or 39 weeks pregnant, however nervous you might be about becoming a parent, the uncomfortableness of it all just makes you think "sod it, lets just have the baby out already!" Oh goodness I just can't wait! I can't WAIT for labour!

If it's going to happen early it'll probably happen this weekend though, because that's when it'll be most inconvenient. J wants to head over to the flat to sort out the last few bits that need doing - the smoke alarm, shower curtain, and stop cock under the sink. I've told him I don't think I should go, besides there is lots of things needing doing here, like finishing up the spare room, washing all the baby clothes we got from the lady from the paper (we're not going to bother with the newly bought clothes - just the second hand ones), and catching up on our OWN washing... and generally tidying. I looked through the baby clothes we got second hand, and for the most part they're pretty good! I saw one that had a rip in the side, but should be ok once it's sewn up. But one out of 60+ items of clothes isn't bad at all. Tonnes of newborn clothes - body suits and sleepsuits, but also little tops and trousers. I might ask people if they want to get clothes to get him 3-6 month stuff as we only have a bit of those.

Anyway today's task, along with eating (haha!) will be to catch up with the big pile of washing up and clean up the kitchen. Already practising my post-birth strategy! ;)

Keep well girlies!

33 weeks 1 day - daily heartburn now, and flat update.

A quick update entry, because we're expecting my Dad and my step-mum over in about 45 minutes, and I still need to finish up the washing up and sort out the table etc.

Thanks for your comments on my last entry! I seem to be getting heartburn on a daily basis these days, sometimes several times a day (yeuck), but most of the time I just let it run its course unless it hangs around for more than 5 minutes, or if it's in the middle of the night. In Aylesbury yesterday, while I was cleaning the floor in the lounge (getting paint spatters off the laminate) and cleaning the walls in the hallway (grubby finger marks and streaks) I got heartburn every 10 minutes or so! :(

We went round because we were expecting a visit from the estate agent who had been round to see the flat before we started any work on it, and his comments were very encouraging, especially when he said that our flat stood out very well now against the one downstairs from us, who had had his kitchen and bathroom redone, but those were the only rooms to use as a selling point apparently, the rest of it looked very tired and dated so he told us, and ours he said looks a lot better. The guy downstairs apparently has his flat on the market for about 10k more than it's worth, which is why it's not selling, along with the housing slump. But the guy reckons that we should get offers for at least 115k, even though it's not as much as we were once hoping, the housing slump is a bit iffy, so we will have to think about renting and such.

Anyway, the pelvic pain has reached a consistent level these days (for now). One where it's ok generally when getting up and moving around, but after laying down, it can be a little painful to get up. I think this is due to my pelvis being pushed around by my weight on it when I lay down, I often hear and feel it "clicking" when I move around at night. But it's bearable, so that's the most important thing.

Right, well I'd best be off for now, hope you're all ok, tata!

31 weeks 2 days - weekend ramblings for the most part

31 weeks! (and 2 days) I can't believe how close it's getting already. These past 7 months, oddly, have gone by so fast, and yet so slow. If that makes sense! In that it feels like time has whizzed by since I was 12 weeks pregnant and seeing Robert on that scan monitor for the first time, and yet it does feel like I've been pregnant forever. And yes, wow, it is exactly 2 months until my EDD!

This weekend has been a little hectic. Friday, Jonathan came home early from work, due to his flexitime scheme. Later in the evening I got all hormonal and weepy because I couldn't remember the last time he told me I was beautiful. So he sat down with me and hugged me and told me that he did think I was beautiful, even if he hadn't said it a lot lately. And he did also put his foot in it with something he said, but I decided not to dwell on it too much and put it down to him not thinking about what he was saying. But overall I did feel better and was glad he came over and was with me and gave me the affection I felt I really needed. And I think to be honest it was the first time I got overly weepy and hormonal so far, I think I've actually been pretty good, apart from crying easier at sitcoms and romcoms. (like crying when Chandler beat Mike at table tennis in Burmuda when Monica hurt her hand - wtf is up with that?? lol)

Anyway, Saturday we went to Aylesbury to do more stuff with the flat. We got there for just about 9am, because the carpet fitters were coming to do the hallway carpet (the red and yellow flowery carpet didn't really go too well with the lilac walls we did a few years ago). We also did some cleaning. I didnt actually do a lot, I'm finding it hard to stoop and lean over as much now. I did the insides of a few cupboards, emptying one that was full of cat food, cleaning products, etc. Then I cleaned the salloon style kitchen doors as they were so dusty it was crazy. Jonathan scrubbed the floor in the living room, which had got paint splatters all over it while we were decorating. Then after the carpet fitters had gone, we cleared out all the junky furniture in the bedroom - a hand-me-down bookcase which was falling to bits, a hand-me-down sky blue chest of drawers which was still ok but meh, was old and dated, and a hand-me-down desk type thing that we used for a bedside table. Took them downstairs, Jonathan demolished them, and then we loaded up the car with old scraps of furniture and also the old carpet from the hall, and some old rugs which we didn't want anymore. Went down to the tip, and were expecting to sit in a queue for about half an hour as usual, but it was almost completely empty, went straight into the tip, just sat waiting for someone to leave for their space, and we were in! When we got back, we loaded up the car with all the rest of the boxes from the loft (how on EARTH did we manage to fit so much crap into our tiny one bedroom flat???), which literally did fill the entire car, but now we know, we have everything at the new house! I took a nap on the sofabed (last thing that'll need to go down the tip), and we finally left Aylesbury around the time we usually ARRIVE there to do stuff in the flat - around 2pm.

Yesterday, J was going to do his finances, but I was beginning to get desperate for some new maternity clothes - the trousers I've literally lived in for the last 7 months have got holes in, paint stains on, and despite my best efforts to keep them clean (and find something else I can wear while they are washing and drying) are a little smelly. :S So we went into Milton Keynes to do some shopping. J is getting a little antsy about the amount of money we have spent since moving - apparently we've not had a single month where his salary has paid off all the bills and his credit card bill.. eeep. What with all the new furniture we've needed, and so on.

But anyway, we still have quite a lot of vouchers to spend, we had about £50 for Marks and Spencer, which we successfully spend on some maternity wear for me - a pair of 3/4 length trouser/jeans things - a little snug around the thighs, and only a tiny bit of room growth left, but if I scrunch them under my bump it'll be fine. Also a looooooverly stretchy blue 3/4 length sleeved top, which goes alllll the way over my bump and then some, and is soooo flattering! And then a black cardi thing (apparently maternity! But doesn't seem very fitted) which will be great in the winter over some little tank tops I have which would otherwise bare my belly! Haha.

We also had £20 in Woolworth vouchers, so we mooched around there to see what we could spend, and decided on 6 ceramic pebble-shaped placemats for our new table. Which came to £21 but was cool. They were quite heavy and J was moaning for most of the rest of the shopping trip! (We got them first lol) Although bless him, he didn't moan constantly, just every now and then ;)

We did look around John Lewis for maternity wear, but they didn't do any. We had quite a hefty amount of vouchers to spend there, but no luck. However, they have a HUGE baby section! And I spent a little while in there cooing over the gorgeous little dungarees and suits and other boy clothes. Hehe!

Finally I said to J, I really wanted some new trousers like the ones I have at the moment, but without holes (haha), so we we went to Mothercare. Now if anyone has been to MK shopping center before you will know that Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, and Mothercare are all over the damn place, and it's friggin huge. I went to the loo in JL, but for some reason, I've been peeing LOADS the last few days, and by the time we were walking to Mothercare, I kept feeling my bladder getting squashed, and it was getting increasingly uncomfortable, but I knew that when I went, all that would come out would be the tiniest trickle and I'd still feel like I'd need to go about half hour later. So I just dealt with the discomfort. By the time we got to Mothercare, I was feeling exhausted, and then my bump started to feel uncomfortable, and odd... in a way I can't really describe now. I kept having to stop and put my hand on it. I was wondering if I was getting Braxton Hicks contractions, but then they felt nothing like the plain "tightening" sensation I've had before that could have been BH. So I'm a little confused. Anyway, we looked around Mothercare for another pair of trousers identical to the ones I had on, but no luck. Took some other "lounge" trousers to try on, but they were both like leggings, and not at all what I wanted. (Severely unflattering for a start!!!) I found a top that looked like it would look nice, and tried it on, and it did. :D Then I asked J to go and find me a pair of trousers in 20 long if he could, and he came back with some, I tried them on, and BINGO they were perfect! Although I could see them being waaaay too loose around the belly if I'd bought them a few months ago, because on their "tightest" setting, they fit me PERFECTLY now! And there's still tonnes of growth room left in them! Zips down the sides, with stretchy material between. Right now they fit great with the zips closed. And sooo flattering, it makes my bump look great! Anyway, we went to pay for the nice black top and the trousers, and the lady spent ages putting them through, there was some problem or other. Which wasn't great as I was still feeling iffy, and in the end, put the bags I was holding down, and leant forward onto the huge pile of boxed up trikes by the till, which made me feel a little better.

There are still a few things I want to get - which we didn't have time for, like new pillows (our ones are gross - really disgusting), maybe some matching coasters for our new tablemats, and there was something else which has completely flown out of my mind in the last 3 minutes. Doh. ;)

Anyway I know this entry has been long and rambly, and for the most part not about pregnancy, so well done if you've managed to read it all! Hehe. I had some odd dreams last night, oddly not about you know what, like usual, but instead the main bit was about us being in Church, winning £95,000 while we were in there, and then coming out to find our car (along with most of the others in the carpark) completely gutted - emptied of EVERYTHING of value, including windows (lol) and seatbelts. But I also remember being excited (in a different dream, unrelated to the church/car thing) that Alice was pregnant at the same time as me. Not that she knows yet, maybe it's a sign that she is? Who knows! The signs look promising. Although if she isn't, and her period comes afterall, I know I'll be disappointed, but eagerly awaiting the next month's updates! Hehehe.

Hope you're all okay chickies xx

29 weeks 2 days - flat update, fewer kicks from Robert

Thought I'd better update before people start to get worried about my whereabouts again!

We spent the weekend in Aylesbury, finishing off some bits there. Mainly what's left to do now is cleaning, getting rid of rubbish furniture (old bookcase, very worn sofa bed with its stuffing coming out of it and scratches from the cat all over the arms, desk, etc), getting all our stuff down from the loft and taking it back to our new house. We've looked around for a new hallway and stairs carpet, since the old one is reddish/orange and flowery, and the hall is now painted lilac! So we've been to a carpet selling place who have now measured up and taken our money (!) and now we're waiting on them to get the carpet in stock ready to arrange a delivery and fitting date. It's one of the big UK chains though so I'm sure there'll be no problem there regarding the fact they've taken our money before they even have the carpet in stock! It didn't cost too much really, considering it's an awkward shape (sort of a T shape on the hallway and then the stairs coming off the top left section of the T), because we already had underlay and grippers down, which saved a huge bulk of money.

The bathroom and bathroom suite look AMAZING! I have NO idea what my mother-in-law did to the toilet bowl to get all that caked on limescale that was around the water rim off. I scrubbed at it for AGES with a scourer with no luck whatsoever, (well, a little luck but still not a lot) but succeeded on leaving a grey residue all over the porcelain from the scourer. Somehow she's got all the limescale off, and the grey residue which I thought was actually me wearing the colour off of the porcelain, has gone, leaving a perfectly pink (yes pink lol) toilet bowl!

I tackled the kitchen this weekend - cleaning all the cupboards inside and out (except for the ones that had things inside, then I just did the doors), and yesterday I did the cooker. Now the cooker was a thing that we got second hand from someone - can't remember who, but I remember my brother bringing it over in a van, and the two of us struggling to get it up the stairs!!! Anyway, it was FILTHY. When I say filthy I mean it. There was caked on grease and dust combined on the top of the cooker panel (splash back with buttons). The buttons for the grill/oven/hobs themselves had caked on grease (mainly from fingers - ewww!), under the hob there was caked on god-knows-what with dust. And the sides were caked with splashes from food that had dribbled down the sides. And that's not even going into the state of the INSIDE of the grill and oven. Anyway, yesterday I managed to get the cooker to actually look like it was brand new (sort of!) using neat all-purpose cleaner on some bits of it, and oven cleaner on other bits. Next time we go down there (probably next weekend bleugh), I'll do inside the oven and grill, although that's not so essential seeing as very few people will look inside a cooker that's obviously not built into the kitchen and may end up going! (but hopefully will end up staying - less hassle for us)

Robert's kicks lately seem to have subsided lately. I am still getting some every day, but they seem a lot fewer in general, and fewer BIG kicks. I am putting this down to possibly another growth spurt, and possibly the actual SIZE of him now means he might have less room in there already. He's now around 2.5lbs, and about 15 inches long. (although maybe with Robert he may be more like 16 inches!) I'm well and truely into the third trimester now.

Something new I want to document here is that last night for the first time I actually felt one of Robert's feet! I felt him giving me a few little jabs just a little way above my belly button last night while we were watching a movie, and I felt around with my finger tips, pressing in a bit where he was jabbing, and felt a resistance on only a tiny certain part of my belly, which receeded when I poked it a bit, and then came back again! (accompanied with aforementioned jabs from within!) It was so precious and lovely, I said to Jonathan that I could feel Robert's foot, and he said "how do you know?" and well - I don't know how I knew, I just did! I replied with something like "Because I can FEEL it!" Hehe.

I also feel lately that he likes to start jabbing away at night now when I go to bed - particularly on the side of my belly that's on the bed, which when the kicks are hard can feel VERY uncomfortable! Luckily the ones he was doing last night weren't very hard, but I'm sure if I could see my belly it would have been wobbling away again!

Anyway I'll leave the entry here for today. I hope you're all well, and I thank you again for reading! x

26 weeks 5 days - sorry for the long gap

Ooops! Realised I haven't updated in almost a week because Becca commented to see if I'm ok. Sorry! :) I'm fine, Robert's fine, just nothing really to update about much except that I'm almost 27 weeks pregnant! And that I'm really beginning to feel like I have half a football stuck to the front of my belly. Robert's kicks and squirms are becoming much bigger, and even now kicks that feel "small" can be felt by hand.

He certainly does seem to react to the relaxation music we got given from Hypnobirthing - I laid down to have a small nap on the sofa last night, and Jonathan went upstairs and put on the music so it came through the living room speakers. Got given a few kicks and squirms throughout, but then, when the bit where a woman speaks over the music with relaxing words, oh my gosh! He just literally started kicking, squirming and punching away in there like mad! It really does make me wonder when a baby reacts like that to music/sound whether they LIKE it, or whether they really hate it! Maybe it might be because I start relaxing more when I listen to it, and because my body is more relaxed, there's more room for him to move, so he does. I don't know really, it is so odd. Does he like it? Or does he want me to turn it off?

I am quite looking forward to taking my 28 week belly picture. I think I must have grown a lot since 24 weeks. I FEEL massive! And sometimes, it's quite freaky, Robert gets into a position inside me that makes my belly HUGE, and rock solid. Like - no give to it at all. Usually I can poke my belly and it'll "squidge" in a little bit (or a lot!), but then when it goes solid, I can poke and it'll maybe give like half a centimeter, if that. (Can usually poke it inward at least an inch)

My belly button is becoming less indented too. I find it fascinating to put my finger in and see how far it goes in, compared to how far I used to ;) Also, holding my tummy, and moving it up and down while looking at my belly button. I am looking MUCH more pregnant now. Finally!

We've been doing a lot of work on the old flat, and last weekend we got Jonathan's parents to come and help (they offered!). So Jonathan, Betsy and I were in the living room painting, cutting in, etc, and Steve was in the bedroom glossing. Anyway, by the end of Saturday we managed to FINISH the wall painting in the living room! (We only managed to get the bedroom done over 3 days I think between us two) And Steve had glossed the picture rail, the door, doorframes, and two walls' skirting boards.

Then, Jonathan had a call from them on the Sunday night I think it was, and they said they'd go there midweek if he dropped a key in to them, so they'd fix the wardrobe doors, and maybe do more glossing. Then, on Tuesday night they said they'd fixed the doors, done ALL the glossing in the bedroom, ALL the glossing in the living room, AND Betsy had cleaned in the bathroom (our old toilet was disgusting - I tried god knows how many times to clean it but couldn't!) and in the kitchen! Which means that all we may have left to do is painting the bathroom ceiling (there's a nice orange patch on there around the lightbulb from when the previous owners took down their ball lamp and replaced it with an ordinary lamp and didn't bother to patch it up), and then replacing the hall carpet with something more inkeeping with the new decoration (and less filthy), and then giving the whole place a thorough clean and getting rid of crappy old bits of furniture.

Can't wait to go back and see how it looks with all the work they did for us on Tuesday. :) Gotta love having retired in-laws ;) They really are great, and have done so much for us over the years.

Right, well tonight is our fourth Hypnobirthing class, then tomorrow we have follow-up jabs for the cat, then on Saturday we're heading down to Kent as it's my dad's birthday. We're going to make sure we see Mum for a good few hours on Sunday, because we just cannot go down without seeing her, especially as she is feeling so left out these days anyway.

Part of me is wondering whether I should suggest we stay over at some point so she feels better. But I know the problem is deep-rooted, and I have a feeling that either Stephen or myself will have to talk to her or each other or all together about it, because I think there is a reason why Stephen and Nicky don't want to stay overnight at Mum's anymore, and I don't think it's only the reason they've been telling her. And when I think about when Robert is here, and especially when he's at the crawling/hoisting himself up stage I think I probably wouldn't want to stay at Mum's for a huge length of time either. Partly because there is only ONE room that a baby could stay in, partly because it's cluttered, partly because there are two fairly boistrous dogs (although getting better - they've been going to a dog trainer), partly because the house always looks so dirty... I don't know if Stephen and Nicky knows how Mum feels, and I don't know exactly what they've told her, but from what Mum has said to ME, I think they've told her they are staying at Dad's because there's more room there. (Which is true!) But I think what they AREN'T telling her are the other things as well. But Mum is under the impression that her house IS big enough, and she is feeling hurt that her house is no longer good enough for either of us to stay in. (She said "So what if the buggy fills the dining room?")

I've told her that the reason why we don't stay at hers at the moment is because I am needing more and more bathroom trips in the middle of the night, and since her bathroom is somewhat of a trek from the bedrooms compared to at Dad's, that's why we stay at Dad's now. Which is one of the reasons, but also, the dogs (I don't really like the dogs a huge amount, although they're getting better with their barking and jumping up), and also the smells in the house. Although the smell that jumped out at you in the bathroom (a damp, musty smell) wasn't there last time, probably because they've now been leaving the bathroom door open.

So it seems at some point Mum might be having some serious conversations that no-one really feels comfortable with :( Also, I think I'm going to have to talk to her about another thing. And I know it's stupid, and I know she's just trying to be jokey and affectionate with it, but she's now taken to calling me "Tubs". And I really don't like it, because I am overweight. I know she is only calling me it because I'm pregnant, but still, I'm NOT really comfortable with my weight. It's NOT overly obvious that I'm pregnant, so calling me Tubs is like calling me Fatty. Ah well. Anyway, I'll leave this entry for now. Sorry for leaving it on a down note, but I can't be bothered to rearrange the entry now.

Can't believe I'm almost 27 weeks. Where has the time gone??

25 weeks 2 days - bedroom finished (mostly), Robert's developments

25 weeks pregnant! I still get really amazed whenever I reach a new week thinking "Wow, another whole week pregnant!" It's like I'm still in a bit of a dream about it all and that I can't believe we are actually HERE. Amazing, that I'm almost in the THIRD trimester! And confusing how different websites reckon different weeks for each trimester ;) Robert is now viable, but please Robert, stay in there at least 13 weeks longer!

Robert is now about 1.5lbs, he responds to light and touch as well as his hearing having being developed now for a couple of weeks. His taste buds are forming too! His nostrils are beginning to open so he can practice "breathing" through his nose.

I wasn't actually going to get up this early today. I was extremely tired, as we've been decorating the flat in Aylesbury all weekend (well, about 5 hours both days), and as such have been achy, which makes turning in bed difficult and wakes me up. Anyway, as I laid there after J went to work, it seemed that a certain little someone decided he didn't want me to stay in bed... as I got several kicks to my bladder as if to say "Cmon, stop being lazy now, get yo ass out of bed!!!" Ah well! I think he's definitely already got a little personality going on there, and I agree with Jemma's comment on the last entry or the one before, that he's going to be a bit of a handful! Although, since his ultra active day on Thursday last week, he's not been AS active, but still several bouts of kicking each day. Although with having such busy weekends it might have been hard to tell when he's been active.

We've now finished painting the bedroom (well, apart from glossing, and possibly going back over the magnolia on top with white to break up the wall a bit), and it looks SOOOOO much better now. I cannot believe what a great improvement a lick of paint has made to that room. It took 2 coats of white and a coat of magnolia to cover up the red, oh and something that was quite bizarre, above the window in the bedroom... after we applied the magnolia paint and it had dried a bit, Jonathan called out to me "There's writing on this wall!" I came and looked, it was quite hard to make out at first, but yeah... take a look at this photo! Jonathan reckons that we have ghosts there, which is why it never showed up til we painted. On that bit of wall, there was 1 coat of white, and 2 coats of magnolia (he painted over the writing after he saw it the first time to see if it would cover it). Very odd.. Sacred Spirits.. hmmm... But when the curtain pole is back up it won't be noticeable. But yes, overall very happy with the bedroom.

Jonathan's parents are coming over next weekend to help with the living room, so maybe, the living room will be done in one day?! :) Would be handy if it was, will save us going over there on the Sunday, and we can't go round the next weekend because we've said we'll go to Kent for Dad's birthday thing. If the living room hasn't been finished by then we'll have to go back and do it the weekend after Dad's birthday BBQ. Then once all the decorating has been done, we can hire a cleaner, and they can give the house a fantastico clean, and then we can put it on the market! And hopefully sell it before Robert is born.

Anyway, I'd better get going now, had to go to the toilet AGAIN after Robert decided to give my bladder another kicking. Can't have my usual honey nut cornflakes breakfast, because we ran out of milk (well, only enough for J to make my tea this morning), and it being Sunday yesterday, tesco closed early. Pfff. So will have to settle for toast, and then walk down to the tesco in a bit and get some milk. Hope you're all well, and a HUGE congrats to Megan!!!! She has had her little Matthew and it sounds like he's breastfeeding like a champ! Can't wait for more updates from her, but I guess I'll have to be patient ;)

Oh, something I forgot to add (so am adding it now at 1.15pm hehe.. I am feeling now as though my belly is ballooning - it really feels huge. I find myself sometimes waddling around (although this is mainly when I'm tired last thing at night or first thing in the morning, or somewhere in between). I was laying down in bed (went back for an hour or so for a snooze after my tea), and my tummy just felt huge and ROCK solid. Huge pregnant tummy yay ;) I think it's expanded up furthur a lot since I last noticed, the last time I felt where it was (even only about a week ago), it was only a small way above my belly button. But I feel it's now a huge amount higher, maybe 2 inches above?

We really need to see about getting a new table and chairs before my belly gets too big for me to be able to eat on my lap... Right, am off again now. Need to phone up the doctor's today to book an appointment for my 28 week blood tests. Joy of joy. Only 3 weeks away from my 28 week antenatal appointment now :) I do so like going because I get to hear my little Robert's heartbeat galloping along! :)

24 weeks 2 days - flat decorating, and new belly pics!

Well, J and I had a very productive day yesterday. We went to our old flat in Aylesbury (we still own it, we're getting it ready to sell) to start on the decorating. We have taken down the shelves in the living room (ugly ones we put up to house all of our DVDs and computer stuff), then we went around filling in all the holes in the walls in both the living room and the bedroom. That took a while because I also washed down all the walls in the bedroom ready for painting - they were extremely dusty. We took a late lunch break, got back around 5pm, and then sanded down all the holes we'd filled in the bedroom, and then got started painting. Now, this is what the bedroom looked like before. Of course there's no furniture in it anymore, well except a bunch of crap stuff we didn't want anymore - an old bookcase, the blue chest of drawers you see in the photo, and also the black desk like thing the lamp on the right is sitting on. But yeah, VERY red. We basically painted the whole room (the whole room was decorated like that - it wasn't just one wall of red in a nice otherwise plain bright room) with the first coat of white to try and get rid of the red. The room will need at least 2 coats of white, followed by the coat of magnolia (yay! haha) on top. But goodness, it'll be worth it, the room should look so much brighter. And hopefully, it'll also look bigger. But we have so much work to do. We also need to paint the living room, replace the hall carpet, and then probably hire a professional cleaner to just blitz the place from top to toe. And then maybe hire some furniture just to spruce the place up and make it look presentable, get rid of all the crud in there at the moment.

We got home around 10pm, and I was absolutely knackered. Maybe it was the long car journey home from having just been very active painting, bending, squatting to do the bottoms of the walls, standing on my feet a lot, but by the time we got back and I sat down, it was like my entire body stiffened up, and it was agony even to walk over to the coffee table (currently pushed up against the wall), bend down and get myself some fruit. Followed by an extremely uncomfortable night of not being able to turn over without being in agony. Luckily, being up and about for a few hours seems to have loosened my joints a little, and I'm no longer in pain. But I feel so proud of our day's work on the flat. :) Yes we only managed to put on one coat, but we're done with all the filling in, and all we need to do now is more painting. And it was quite fun and theraputic :)

Right. Well now weekend (well, Sunday) news has been done, I can tell you I've taken more belly pictures! I haven't compared them to the old ones yet, I'll post the new ones here (well I took different angles), so I'll post the un-traditional ones here, and the traditional one to the belly gallery for comparison. I also took a picture of my new hair cut, although grrr, the straightening didn't last long, and it now looks all wavy as per usual, and of course nothing like it did when I came back from the hair dresser. Which is a shame because I have no photographic evidence of my post-hairdresser-pre-wash hair cut. I take horrid photos, my usual looks are horrid when captured so I have to grin totally over-the-top to actually look semi-normal in photos.

So, here are my belly pictures (you'll find the usual half-bare pic in the belly gallery).

First off is the clothed bump, wearing a top that is a little too short for my bump right now, really need to get some belly belt things so I can keep wearing little tank tops if I need to.

Next is bare belly side shot, you can see some horrendous purple stretchmarks here, they were already there from pre-pregnancy though, just got a bit worse since Robert started his journey ;)

Next I decided to do a frontal bare shot. You can really see the extent of my stretchmarks here, ones that I DIDN'T have before pregnancy, these are all new! Looks like I'm not going to be as lucky as Alice or Megan!

Right, well I'll sign off here, and go put that normal belly shot in the belly gallery, and then compare ;) I feel bigger (slightly) but we shall see!

24 weeks - Hypnobirthing classes, Robert's kicks

24 weeks pregnant today! Wowzers. :) I cannot believe how quickly this pregnancy is flying by now. Robert is now around 11 and a half inches long. He's well proportioned, but still very thin with very little body fat. He weighs around 1.3lbs! Robert's ears are fully functional, he can now hear sounds from outside the womb very easily.

He is also still kicking for Britain! I still absolutely ADORE these little kicks he gives me. I love just laying down, with my head propped up a bit, staring at my tummy, and watch it "bounce" around as he kicks. They are getting so strong too! The other day, I was laying on the bed, Jonathan came and joined me, and laid his hand on my tummy to see if Robert would start to kick, he did start kicking fairly shortly, and then BAM he gave a MASSIVE kick, which Jonathan said was the strongest he's felt, and boy, it was the strongest I've felt! It did actually take me a bit by surprise, when Robert did that kick. I just LOVE seeing my stomach "blip" out in places when he kicks. I love that I can feel my little boy getting stronger every week too!

Other pregnancy related news: the Hypnobirthing class on Thursday. It went great. :) There were 5 other couples there, but only two weren't first time parents-to-be. I was the youngest person there! I think the next youngest woman was 30. But anyway, Jenny, the practitioner, went through basically how it's fear that causes a woman to tense up during childbirth, and it's that tenseness that makes muscles in the uterus constrict, which means they're not working properly to do what they're meant to do during the birthing process. Which causes the pain. So from what I can tell, these classes will be basically how to get yourself into a state of calm relaxation (aka hypnosis) during the labour, which will enable your body to work as it is supposed to when giving birth, both in the uterus muscles remaining relaxed, and allowing the body to produce the natural pain-killing chemicals that naturally occur when the body goes into labour. (I forget what they are called - but they are the same chemicals that make you feel good)

It did seem a bit "hippy-ish" at first, doing the breathing techniques, and so on, allowing yourself to get into a state of extreme relaxation just by breathing. But it seems that if it works, if these breathing exercises allow you to relax and birth comfortably (they use different terminology too, softer language that doesn't have negative connotation - comfortable birthing = pain-free labour, opening and thinning of the cervix = dilation, surges = contractions, etc) then it'll be worth it. She also seems very pro home birthing. I would consider it, but Jonathan isn't keen, and the midwife when I mentioned I'd like to do some research on it and maybe I might try to have one, she sort of pooh-poohed it, and said "well it's not recommended for the first birth as we don't know if you'll have any birthing complications" or something like that. I'll finish the hypnobirthing classes shortly before 29 weeks pregnant - which means I guess we will have to continually practise the techniques to make sure we don't go "rusty".

So. Tomorrow we will be going to Aylesbury, back to the flat to decorate there a bit. We need to do some painting, taking down shelves, refilling holes, and so on. We'll make sure the rooms are well ventilated before we do them of course. I hope you're all well. I'll try and get a picture in the belly gallery in the next few days. I think I must have grown a bit since 20 weeks!

11 weeks - 9 days to gooooo til scan!

11 weeks pregnant! 1 week til the next belly picture! It's so exciting that I've come this far already - seems crazily long ago since I was 5 weeks and announcing I got pregnant! Nine days until the scan. I am soooo excited about the scan. I just can't wait to see little Sausage! To know that the lack of period and the occasional (!) icky feeling and the line on the test wasn't just a freakish co-incidence determined to disappoint me with a lack of baby in November. J thinks that my "boy vibes" I've been having are silly, he says that he "thinks it is a girl, because it's random, and so that when it is a girl I can say 'I told you so'" I know it's random too.. I do, I just can't explain why I think it's a boy. And I will be so happy either way, whether I am proved right or wrong! I probably will be looking out during the scan to see if I can see any "bits", but I've looked at a bunch of scans where they say whether it's a boy or girl, and draw arrows to the relevant bits, and I really can't tell HOW they knew from that picture! (Half the time I can't even tell where the baby's head/bum/legs etc are on the pictures I saw) Maybe it will be more obvious when we see the actual scan moving rather than the stills... I will wait and see! :) Nine days to go! :D

Next Wednesday is mine and J's 3rd wedding anniversary. Since a lot of the non essential stuff is still in boxes, I have all my craft stuff still packed away so am probably not able to make him a card for it. But oh my gosh - our last anniversary just us two! (Well, technically I guess that's not true, but you know what I mean!) We were engaged for 3.5 years before we got married - together for 4 years. We decided we wanted to get married on our "getting together" anniversary, so we have nearly been together for 7 whole years!

This week I have also found several more "mommy" or "mommy-to-be" diaries, I really look forward to reading each and every one!

Yesterday I looked around on the internet at cloth nappy sites. Having been a long term reader of Alice, I really see the benefits of using them, and would LOVE to use them on my little ones. But omg, they are so baffling! 3 different types, some come in one size others you get for different ages, different brands, different "stuffers".. Since we don't have a tumble dryer, I guess we would be best off using the "pocket" sort so we can dry the padding and the outer bit separately. But I'm just thinking - what do I do? Do I order trial packs for about 5 different brands so we have enough for the new baby when it arrives? Or do I use disposables as well for when we run out of clean dry cloth nappies? And what stuffers do I use? And then once I decide which sort I like, what do I do with the spares? Send them back to the company? Give them away to friends? The only person I know with a baby from my non internet life is my sister-in-law, and her baby will be a year older than mine, so the spare nappies will be useless for her. What I do know though is that I will NEED to use them from straight away, or I know I will get into the habit of using disposables. And will like the convenience of disposables. If anyone has any advice, I'd be very grateful to hear it, notes or email would be lovely. :)

J and I have decided to sell the flat. He's spoken to his financial advisor, and he reckons there isn't a lot of difference between selling and renting, so we think it'll be best to just get rid of the "hassle" so to speak, and sell. Then we'll also have a huge chunk sum to put aside for paying off a lot of the mortgage, and also we can put some aside for buying the new baby bits we'll need, and things like that. We can't pay off the mortgage straight away because we're on a 5 year fixed, but we can pay some extra off per month until the contract runs out, and reduce our interest a bit on it. So, all in all, things looking good :) And maybe, if some time in the future, the owner of the house next door decides to sell, we could buy it, and convert the house into a huuuuuge 6 bedroom detached! heh. But that's just a pipe dream really, assuming that the owner will decide to sell before we have to move somewhere bigger (although that may not be the case, we have lots of conversion-ability here), and then assuming we have the money to buy, and then convert! ;)

Anyway, will leave this for now, on this nice bank holiday weekend. :) Hope you are all okay, and thanks for reading!