28 Week update

Maternity dress from ASOS

Ola! So here we are, somewhere nearing the 30 week mark (i've lost count), eeek!   Things have got tougher on the olde bod of late:

Aches and pains:
The numbness in my hips and legs has continued and has now developed into cramp in my right calf, so that everyday I am awoken by it at 4am...or maybe that's the baby and cat waking me up?  My back ache has got worse, so now it hurts if I do anything for a certain period of time.  For example, at work sitting at the computer it aches and at home I don't have to do much washing up before the ache takes over.

Needing the toilet:
This has probably stayed roughly the same, I generally need to go once during the night although this tends to correlate with my cat waking me up! During the day I go fairly regularly, but I don't feel like it is impeding!

Apetite:
My first trimester I found I went through a stage of being put off food but when I entered the second trimester this seemed to diminish.  It seems to have returned and I am finding my apetite has both decreased and I find it hard to bring myself to actually want any of the food I have planned.  I continue to love fruit though!

Boobs:
I don't think they have grown much more recently, not that I've noticed anyway. 

Indigestion:
A few weeks ago this was ridiculously bad and this last week I have been suffering with IBS type symptoms again, which is the first time its been this bad since before I was pregnant.

Tiredness:
My tiredness fluctuates; last week I found it hard to do anything at all, whether it was work or just attempting to do anything once in from work.  Incidentally, this seemed to correlate with my body deciding to then not be able to sleep when I tried to! How unhelpful! This week, I have found it slightly more manageable in that I have managed to do a few household tasks when i have got in from work. 

Bump:
The last few weeks I've had clients asking when she is due and people at work saying "Haven't you suddenly popped out recently!" so it seems I have become more obviously pregnant now, rather than just looking fat! I think the midwife is going to measure the bump this week and i'm hoping she'll weigh me so we have an idea of if I am on track or bigger than I should be!

What to do when you have no money

I can''t remember if I have mentioned it before, but due to my ill-timed change of job/getting pregnant time frames I won't be entitled to SMP or anything from my employers whilst i'm off work.  This is part of the reason why, when people ask, I insist i'll be going back to work after six months.   I won't lie, I get paid a fairly decent wage, so to have to go from that, down to Maternity allowance, it is going to be amazingly tough.  We've worked out, alongside that, if we manage to get Child Tax Credits and it's possible we might be entitled to one more, I will be able to afford my rent, gas/electricity/water and our shopping. That's all.  No few pounds here and then for a coffee once a month or filling the car with petrol to go visit my family in West Sussex. Nothing.  I've actually come to terms with that, because I realise that I'll be so pre-occupied with a child plus cat, that I won't have the energy to do all those things anyway.  However, I also realise that I will need to get out of the house at some point within those six months otherwise I might just go round the twist.  So I've compiled a "TO DO when you have literally no income" list:

• Go to the park
• Go to the beach
• Go for walks
• Geocache
• Invite friends round for tea and cake
• Invite people over for dinner
• Tackle my ever growing list of craft projects to complete
• Read

So what about any of you Mum's out there in the same or similar positions, have you got any ideas to add to the list?

Changing bags

Thanks to my new favourite Mummy blog ohsoamelia.com I have just stumbled across a great website where I am now lusting over changing bags! I think changing bags are completely overpriced, but equally I want something that makes it easy for me to grab the things I need. I was originally going to make one using my A Bag For All Reasons book, but I fear time will not be on my side.  I did try a search for cheaper alternatives but still something I like, alas no such luck on there!

Pink Lining website

This beauty is probably top of my wishlist, at £60 it is cheaper than CK alternatives and I really love the pattern!

I also like this bag, however pink is not particularly my colour and I dislike the fact it alienates men who might do the nappy change!

So what about you? Are you as picky as me with changing bags? Where did you get yours from? Or did you just use one of the free ones?  

Dropside cot or not dropside cot?

I spent last night deliberating over cots.  Trying to decide how neccesary a dropside and teething bars are.  After a lot of research I realised a)They didn't even exist when I was a child and b) people who did get ones with teethbars found the child usually bit everywhere else but the teething bars.  So that's those two issues sorted.  So now for the actual cot. 

Whilst trawling through the websites of Mothercare, Toysrus, Mamas and Papas, Argos, Kiddicare I compared prices.  For what you get in comparison to one another, some of them were charging a lot more than others.  Obviously with somewhere like Mamas and Papas you get some really high quality shizzle, but that's different.  I looked at the same cot on Mothercare and Argos and Mothercare were charging a fair amount more.  Don't get me wrong, I don't want to get any old piece of crud, but equally I don't want to pay more than I should! I had considered buying the cot secondhand and just buying the mattress new, however I then stumbled across the perfect package in my eyes.  So this is what Baby me is going to be spending (hopefully) the first four years of her life in:

 

It's from Kiddicare and for £134.99 it includes: the cot, sweet dreams mattress, Blue quilt and bumper.  There is actually a cheaper package deal for a cheaper mattress but I figured for a tenner more but a nicer mattress it's worth it.  This cot bed is meant to last the child until she is four, although I shall see about that! It has three different heights, so the fact it hasn't got a dropside isn't important because you can have it up enough to reach and gradually more the height down as the baby grows.  Not only this, but I ordered it last night and it comes Monday in theory, which is impressive for a large piece of furniture!