23 weeks! And oops, long time since update!

All is progressing well with the pregnancy. I had a bad fall at the beginning of October which saw me go to A&E instead of a wedding reception, as I badly hurt my right foot/ankle and had nasty cuts to my left knee and big toe. I was in agony with my foot and could barely walk, but as I'm pregnant they didn't want to X-ray me, especially as my foot didn't hurt in the right places that would indicate a fracture. Luckily it has healed up ok with just a bandage, although the first night I was crying with the pain and I couldn't even walk 2 metres to the toilet! Changing the pressure on the bandage and back to back paracetamol helped, then the next day it was much better.

Baby has been by far the most active little bean I remember having. I had my anomaly scan at almost 21 weeks, and I was curious to find out if the placenta was at the front of my uterus, or, as I suspected, at the back. Sure enough, it was at the back, so I'm feeling every little kick and wriggle!

The sonographer checked everything out, and could see everything present and correct as far as she could tell which was a relief, and as she did the measurements, I stared to see if I could see a telltale sign as to whether Pipkin was a boy or a girl. As she got the thigh measurement, I was pretty sure I could see what gender our sweet baby was... But wanted confirmation, so at the end when she asked if we had any questions, I begged her to find out if we were expecting a boy or a girl. I held my breath the entire time, as she positioned the device to look, and she said to us "well... It looks like you're having a baby girl!" Which was what I thought I had seen earlier but didn't dare to believe until she said it too. As I got down from the table/bench afterwards, having wiped all the jelly off my abdomen, I must have looked like the Cheshire Cat! Yes, I cried a little in the room. A baby girl!!! 2 weeks on now, and another scan later (to confirm the kidneys) at which she also double checked the gender again, and I think I might be starting to actually believe that after 3 lovely cheeky boys, I get to raise a DAUGHTER.

She is such (SUCH) an active baby. I'm feeling at LEAST 6 bouts of strong kicks a day, even though I am sometimes very busy, and she's still so little, only about 1lb in weight (although that seems very big too, as it doesn't seem that long ago she was the size of a poppyseed and weighed less than a gram in weight!). Time seems to be flying so so fast, and the older two boys are absolutely over the moon that they're getting a sister! D, is only 3.5 years old so he's not all that aware of what it means, although he had been maintaining for a while before we found out that "it not a baby boy, it a baby GIRL". Whereas R and C were hugging themselves in anticipation saying "ooooooh I hope it's a girl, I really REALLY hope it's a girl!" So when we brought home a box with multicolour stripes in, hiding a "it's a girl!" balloon, and opened it up to show the boys (and grandma and grandad) what was inside, there was lots of whooping and joyful leaping around! :) and Christopher coming up to me, giving me a hug and saying "I'm so HAPPY it's a girl!" It really really made my heart sing!

Other news, is that we have just bought some triple bunks for the boys, which will be set up tomorrow and they (and I) am very excited to get them up and built :) a nice Saturday morning job. :)

23 weeks 2 days - weekend news and update

Hello all! I hope the weather isn't getting too many people down, I'm just glad I'm not heavily pregnant with this weather! All windows and the french doors open, so luckily a nice breeze ;)

The weekend I had was really good, although the traffic down to Kent was a bit of a pain - a 2 hour journey took us about 3 and a half :( Guess what the culprit was? Yep, you guessed it, the M25. Solid tailbacks where we were joining it. No accident though! Just pure volume of traffic. Anyway, we got there eventually, I met my mum in a salon just a few minutes walk down the road from her house. We were there for a few hours, and I got an absolutely fantastic cut :) I was just about to take a photo of it when the batteries in my camera died, so they're on to charge and I'll take one tomorrow. :)

It was absolutely SWELTERING in my mum's house after, we had a fiddle with the travel system she bought us, mainly getting it out of the box and putting it together. Then once it was fully assembled, we folded it up, took it out and tested to see if it would fit in our small Yaris boot. It did, once the seats were forward a little bit. :) Then we fitted the car seat base, and put the carrier in, with the travel system in the boot, and got me to sit infront of the infant carrier. And yay, we all fit too ;) However! Getting the carrier into the car (3 door Yaris) wasn't fun... J did struggle a bit getting it in and then getting it out again. It would be a lot easier if we had back passenger car doors too. I'm sure we could afford a new car - even if it was a used "new" car, one that had a bigger boot, and one that has 4 passenger doors!

But well, it fit. Anyway, sitting outside, was just SO much more pleasant to sitting inside, where I was getting so uncomfortable it just wasn't funny. So J and I sat outside (actually on the concrete slab in front of their neighbour's house - they live on a typical victorian terraced street, where there's no front gardens, no car parking spaces, etc) while Mum and Dave got ready for the meal. Then went as soon as they were ready.

Had a nice chinese buffet meal. I didn't stuff myself, but they had these GORGEOUS chicken wings, with a salt and spice coating. Mmmm. I had 5 of those! And some other nibbly stuff like ribs, prawn crackers, prawn toast, won tons, chicken skewers. Then also some soup, and then some sweet and sour and some black bean beef. Sounds like loads, but wasn't too much. I even had room for some fruit (water melon! Yum!) and ice cream after ;)

Came back, and Dave went and got their air conditioning unit thing from the dining room (actually used as a study), and set it up in the living room. Sat around, chatted, watched some tv. I felt Robert give a few kicks while I was lounging on their huge sofa, and I told mum I'd let her feel him kick if he would co-operate, so I called her over and she sat with her hand on my belly for AGES, but he'd stopped. Ah well! Anyway, we finally left there around 11pm, to spend the night at my dad's. His spare bedroom is a lot closer to the bathroom, which is a godsend these days ;)

Dad and Caroline were already in bed, so we let ourselves in, and went to bed straight away. It was another hot and sticky night, Caroline had not put the duvet on the sofa-bed (thank god!) instead just leaving the duvet cover on as a sheet. The windows were also open, and there was a fan going in the room as well. Was quite nice to have it blowing on my leg, since it made my whole body feel cooler with my leg cold (for some reason!). Ended up using the toilet twice during the night, well once during the night, and then once at around 8am. I actually had a really vivid dream before I woke up at 8ish. So vivid, even remembering back now it seems real. I dreamed that we were in bed, and as usually happens, Dad or Caroline comes in (argh - a bit of a pain when we sleep in the buff, especially if sheets aren't on fully, etc) to tell us that breakfast is on the go, etc. Anyway, in my dream, Dad came in, and said "Wakey wakey!" I opened my eyes, and looked up at him sleepily and said in a really grumpy voice "NO." And then Jonathan looked up and said the same. So Dad went out, and I started dreaming "again". It was soo real! I was sure it had actually happened! When I woke up a few hours later (or what seemed to be), I turned over and asked Jonathan if he remembered Dad coming in, and he said he didn't! I looked at the time on his phone, and it said 8.14am, and I thought hmm.. there's no way that Dad would have come in around 6am to wake us... it must have been a dream! But I was sooo confused for ages! Hehe.

The day was nice, and actually quite lazy. I was expecting to be slaved away most of the day making salad, preparing bowls of nibbles, etc etc. But we only had a little bit to help with about an hour before people came round. We played a card game during the afternoon - it's a good game, although I don't know its name. Usually played with 2 people, each person with their own pack of cards in play. We decided to see if it would work with 3 players, played with Caroline (she had her own pack then too), and it did work quite well! :) It's a bit like Solitaire, but multiplayer, and you can use other people's decks and so on. The goal of the game is to be the first player to run out of cards in your pack, and discard pile. Cards in front of you are ok as long as you have no cards left to deal. I wish I knew the name of the game, it's very fun.

Anyway, had a nice time when people turned up too, food was good, and chatted away, in particular to Maria, the mother of Caroline's nieces and nephew, who was interested in my pregnancy, and so on. What I didn't know, was that the twins were born 7 weeks early! Wow... And also, her son was born 5 weeks early. Heh, and I got a comment from Caroline's dad "I wasn't expecting you to look so thin" HAHAHA! I did almost laugh out loud, I'm hardly what you can call "thin" but I guess what he meant was my tummy. And it's true, my bump ISN'T very big for someone over halfway through, but that's because it's masked by fat! ;) However, my bump to me does seem to be getting bigger. And I think my skin agrees. I AM getting quite attrocious stretch marks. I did have a few nice purple ones from my weight gain pre-pregnancy, but now I have lots and lots of not so purple ones on my bump below my belly button. Ah well! I do try and use my moisturising oil on my bump whenever it gets itchy.

It was also nice to see the kids again - the twins, Samantha and Jennifer, were 12 in January. And their brother, Timothy, was 11 in May. I remembered to send the twins cards (I hand-made them), but couldn't find my check-book nor had any cash at the time, so sent them an "IOU" for �12. Also, I completely forgot Tim's birthday. So before coming down, I made sure to have �12 each for the girls, and �11 for Tim, and got some little cards and wrote in them, apologising for forgetting, and here's their birthday money, etc. I will probably stop sending them money when they get to the age of either 18 or 21, so they all get the same amount so to speak. My flub got a pat by Caroline's mum (*sigh*) so I made sure to point out that at the moment, Robert isn't up there, but actually just down below my belly button at the moment ;) We headed back home around 8.30pm, and got home around 10.30, which was a much better journey than the one down on Saturday morning/afternoon!

As I laid down to sleep, Robert woke up, and he seemed to kick for ages, but he didn't really keep me awake with it. His kicks are still quite gentle. :)

Anyway, busy day today, got some phoning around to do, and so on (sorting out hypnobirthing classes hopefully, and finding a new Vet for Hazel). Hope you're all ok and surviving this horrid humid heat! ;) xx

11 weeks 4 days - enjoying the sun, sausage's development so far.

Wheee, happy anniversary me! Thanks to those of you who sent me notes wishing me the same. xx We're going to walk down into town and have a nice meal out to the Indian restaurant. We went there last week some time and it was gorgeous! I can't believe that the sun is STILL out! I just feel like I'm on holiday, it's so great! This morning, I got a bowl of cereal and a cup of tea, and went and had my breakfast OUTSIDE! And this is the 5 day forecast for my area! For when the data changes in days/weeks months to come, I'll say it here: Today: 22 degrees, sunny with some cloud. Thursday: 23 degrees, sunny. Friday: 22 degrees, sunny with some cloud. Saturday: 24 degrees, sunny. Sunday: 23 degrees, sunny. I just feel so cheerful now with the sun, before in the flat if it got too hot there wasn't much I could do other than open all the windows, lie under the fan in the bedroom starkers and wet (haha) to cool off. Being on the first floor meant it was hotter than the flat below us, we got all their heat rising as well. This summer, I can go downstairs, open the french doors, hear the birds tweeting, and ahh it's just sooo blissful! I am SO lucky.

Now, to make this entry a BIT about pregnancy (hehe), here's what is happening with my baby right now and what s/he has already done!

Sausage is now over 2 inches long! S/he is also very active although I cannot feel him/her moving yet. Sausage's fingers are now developed and no longer webbed, and are growing fingernails! All of Sausage's major organs are now formed and functioning too, and s/he is practicing swallowing the amniotic fluid (and his/her kidneys are busy turning this fluid into urine!). Sexual organs are also developing, and should be formed in a few weeks.

It seems so crazy - especially since my symptoms haven't been severe, and I'm just waiting for the scan to show me that yes, this is really happening! I'm also eager to see if the LMP based EDD was close - I might have to change the ticker if it is way off! Hoping you're all okay. xx

11 weeks 3 days - changing body, lovely weather in the UK!

My goodness! What has HAPPENED to England?? It's suddenly turned into a gorgeous summer! Yesterday's weather was absolutely perfect! We invited my in-laws over for a BBQ - and J's sister and fiance too who are vegan. I asked Steve to bring a big umbrella with him incase it rained (the 5 day forecast we had a few days ago said it was going to be cloudy with intermittant rain! haha!), but in the end it wasnt needed. :D We had a lovely time sitting out in the garden and chatting, eating. J cooked the food beautifully, and the potatoes and salad I did went down a treat. Naomi and Ben brought their own BBQ food - vegan sausages, kebabs, samosas, that kind of thing. After we ate we went for a walk around the town - up through the gate at the top of the garden, then along the fields and round in a big circle. It was a lovely walk, and made me appreciate the town we live in a lot more. I thought the street we lived in was the only nice one in town, but I was wrong, which is great :) And we passed by a shop in town with an advert in the window advertising a table and 4 chairs for �40... mght have to go and have a look at that at some point! We do really need a dining set. I seem to have a sunburnt patch on my chest from the sun... ah well, it's not very sore, just a bit pink ;)

And yesterday with the sun and the good times flowing I just felt so overwhelmingly HAPPY that I'm pregnant, and that inside me is growing my first little son or daughter. I keep rubbing my tummy gently... there's no real bump there yet, just the same flubber that's been there since before I got pregnant, but I just feel so connected with this tiny being I know is inside me.. already! It's hard to imagine how I will feel in 6 days when I see my baby on that screen. I'm 11 weeks and 3 days pregnant. When I reach 12 weeks on Saturday it will be just AMAZING :D Just... wow. But I'm also a little nervous because I know my mother had two threatened miscarriages at 12 weeks each time. I think I will be over the moon if I reach 13 weeks with no problems or bleeding. I have had NOTHING like that at all since about 6 weeks pregnant, no spotting, nothing. I have had a LOT of EWCM for well over a week now, each time I go to the bathroom. But I'm assuming that's normal, since I'm not spotting with it.

Thank you Jemma for that link you sent me about the cloth nappies! I'll try and fill that form out for nappylady this week sometime. I'm so excited to be thinking about things like this - I think J would prefer disposables - he's all about the convenience, and I do admit, if I'm not strict with myself, I'd end up choosing convenience over effort too. But it's something I really want to try for my baby. I've also been watching a lot of youtube videos and things like that about breastfeeding latches and positions - I want to do everything I can to make sure that the baby will be able to breastfeed from me when s/he arrives. My sister-in-law as far as I know still isn't able to breastfeed very often, I think she still tries for the morning feeds, but she says she doesn't have a lot of milk. My mother also didn't have a lot of milk for my brother. I just really hope it's not the same for me.

I'm pretty sure that something IS happening to my tummy, lately whenever I scrunch over a bit, my tummy feels a lot firmer, and also when I laugh sometimes I can feel it's different. Also, my nipples are changing - J has noticed them getting bigger *rolls eyes*, I've noticed them getting darker. Not that difficult for me to notice anyway, my areola since forever have been practically the same colour as my breasts. But now... they definitely stand out! It's so fun noticing all these little things about my body that are changing with pregnancy. I just can't WAIT til I start showing. :D I wonder how big I'll get?

Well tomorrow is our 3 year wedding anniversary. And we're finally pregnant! Our last anniversary just us two. Well, hopefully! I'm just so happy to be having a baby at last. Hope you're all well, and thanks for reading. xx