Saturday, 29 June 2013

Momymoo changing bag!

You may remember I mentioned in a previous post here that I was uhmming and ahhing about whether to invest in a changing bag.  I kinda decided why bother and so had packed my floral satchel ready to take to hospital.  This bag is the only bag I already had that I thought would suffice, although it couldn't fit everything in it and I was concerned the bag was going to break within one use!

Callum and I had a look around for "normal" bags that could be used as changing bags, or would make do as one at least, without breaking the bank! We looked in outdoor clothing shops, and Callum spied a reasonably price rucksack but I was concerned about having the depth and having to dig to the bottom/take everything out to get to stuff at the bottom.  All whilst a dirty baby is in the public toilet waiting for a clean bottom?! No thanks.

I then started looking at messenger style bags and was edging towards an Eastpak, mostly because they were boy friendly, reasonably priced and look spacious. But I still had this underlying feeling that I wasn't quite happy, so I just kept waiting. 

In the meantime, I had been made aware that TKMAXX are good for OIOI and other branded changing bags but at a fraction of the usual cost, unfortunately my local TKMAXX (Brighton) had not stocked changing bags or baby stuff, so I was left to simply dream.  That is, until I heard about a new store opening; SURELY they would have to include a baby section?!

A text from Lauren confirmed my wildest dreams and my changing bag dreams were re-awakened and I trundled/waddled (with four wee stops) my way into town to investigate.  This was disguised cleverly by the fact we needed two 1.0 tog gro bags and Lauren told me they had them in TKMAXX.
 So, what did I come away with?  This beauty:

changing bag




 A Momymoo premium lulu changing bag (grey flowers)-for half the price of the other changing bags that I liked on the market.  I only got it 24 hours ago and I am already so much happier! When I transferred the contents from the original hospital bag to this one, I immediately noticed how much spare space I still had! Anyway, as I say, it is still early days but maybe further down the line i'll go into more detail about it. 

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Tuesday, 25 June 2013

Unisex Baby Shower!



 That's right-this weekend it was time for my "baby shower", but not just  any baby shower! One where boys attended! I am not great in social situations that involve lots of organising or me being the centre of attention, so you can imagine my reaction to my sister organisinb a Baby shower! I decided that it was only fair Callum had to come too because lets be honest, it's his kid too after all! Plus we have lots of male friends who are big parts of our day. On that topic, I get a bit confused when people start quoting gender stereotypes at me "isnt it only meant to be women? !" and watching peoples' faces when I make decisions that don't conform with the "norm" is always intriguing to me!  Why, just because that's what happens normally or has done in the past, is it so baffling for people to imagine things outside thst conformity? ! Anyway,  I think having boys there added a greater atmosphere and dynamic that really made the day what it was! Maybe that's just a reflection of my personality type.

It was a great day and both of us came away with hearts filled with love and a feeling that we might actually be able to do this! We are so lucky to have these people in our lives and will never know how to begin to repay them.





My sister really did amazingly in the whole organisation! She got a baby shower pack off ebay which included table covers, hanging decorations, cups, plates, napkins and balloons.  She also set up games including guess the bump size,guess the baby food,  guess the date the baby will come and a quiz including some really difficult questions! Hilariously my friend's eight year old won the quiz and the prize was a massive jar of mixed sweets!  The other prizes included what to expect when you're expecting and due date. One of the boys was worryingly good at all the games!


 





















We were lucky to receive very generous gifts and all with such thought! Callum's mum focused on things for us, including chocolates,  coffee, cooking books and not forgetting tuna for Inara! She also got us a gorgeous baby book which we have started to fill in.

 As always, my most appreciated things were the creations of talented people in my lives; hand knitted blanket, headbands and a purple cardigan from varying lovely people. I love the colours of the blanket and cannot believe the time and effort people have dedicated to us. I just want to be able to repay them somehow!  My friend got us a gorgeous print from a craft fair we attended a few weeks ago and I can't wait til baby has her own room and we can put it in there.


















Lastly, the food! Oh my the food! I should've known better than to leave my sister and mum in charge of food, and hearing that they had gone to cash and carry I knew they would've gone overboard!

So there we have it! That was our baby shower.  Did you have a baby shower? Have you ever been to a baby shower before?

Saturday, 22 June 2013

36 week update

Here we are, well into my 36th week and boy did shit just get real!

In the last few weeks I've definitely felt a transition from just feeling like I was going to be pregnant forever, to realising I won't be carrying around this bowling ball for heaps longer.   I feel like the third trimester has been the worst one so far, the others have been a dream in comparison!  The first trimester I had lots of sickness and tiredness but I felt this was largely manageable as you can still force yourself to function.  The second trimester was the easiest for me, symptoms decreased and the belly hadn't grown too big yet so no discomfort in that way.  The third however, uncomfortable to the core!

Tiredness:
The tiredness reached a peak about 34 weeks which I think correlates to when the discomfort started increasing.  In light of this, I decided to use some of my annual leave to have an afternoon off a week in order to attempt to nap before combating the house work, which really helped make things more manageable for me.  Now i'm on maternity leave i've found the extra sleep is doing me wonders, funny that!! On my first day off I slept in until 11am and did nothing for most of the day which in turn meant that I actually had the energy to put washing on and do the washing up!

Bump size:
The old belly is quite gigantic nowadays which has become quite the irritant! Due to the size, it now makes doing most things unbearable, e.g. washing up for longer than ten minutes at a time starts to get painful because the bump is so big that I can't lean right up to the bowl, so instead have to bend over, thus leading to bump ache and then leading to back ache!  It also means that bending down has become horrible, as has trying to get out of bed! When I turn onto my side to try to get out of bed, the weight of the bump causes such a pain, it's just horrible! Oh, and I can no longer walk fast/run without the bump hurting...which I guess is obvious really but annoying!

Leg cramps:
These have been persistently atrocious for many a week now and mean that on a bad night they wake me numerous times every hour! Poor cat gets scared to death when I suddenly have to start jiggling my legs around! Callum's mum has always suffered with them and I could never understand how something like that could be that painful, well now I do! She recommended having tonic water as it's meant to help, although does make heartburn worse! Typical.

Heart burn/acid reflux:
I had a few tough weeks where I would wake up with sick in my mouth (lovely!) and finally bought some high street equivilant of gaviscon.  It seems to have helped although it is so rank that I still try to have it as little as possible! I find it really hard to swallow (in a literal sense) because the consistency is so thick!

Toilet:
 I think my need to wee has probably increased and I now have to get up in the night probably twice, but I still don't consider this to be too bad.  I still haven't had any problems with constipation and if anything, the bowels seem to verge more towards the other way! Oh yes, delightful!

Movements:
A few weeks ago her movements decreased dramatically, to the extent that I was vaguely worried although not enough to warrant doing anything about it.  It turns out that I had nothing to worry about, as she is now back to being a right fidget! In fact, when we were at the cinema on Monday, I felt her do a massive move and was pretty sure she had changed sides.  Up until now, she has been consistently laying head down on the right side of the bump (when I look down at her) and her movements are usually around my belly button.  Not after the big movement though! I was pretty certain I could feel her on the left side of the bump and the midwife confirmed this when I went to my appointment on Tuesday.  At the appointment, the midwife said that if the baby's head isn't engaged in two weeks, we'll need to go to the hospital.  Ive never heard of this before, have you? I'll only be 38 weeks so it surprised me and annoyingly Callum seemed to zone out at this point so has no recollection of her saying that!

Mood:
I think I would describe my mood as "fed up", because I am now unable to do much of what I used to be able to and we are nearing the end, I feel like I have definitely entered the "just get her outta me" stage.  Having said that, I generally find myself in good spirits so hopefully that'll continue!

Boobs:
I'm hoping they've stopped growing but realistically I don't think they have! Unfortunately they continue to leak at a rate of knots too! Oh well, at least the leakage is nothing new to me!

If you're interested in my other updates, you can find them here. 

Friday, 21 June 2013

OOTD

Maxi jersey dress- Matalan, shoes-Barratts 
 Here's what I wore today to go to the cinema! Who am I kidding though?! This is pretty much what I wear most days at the moment! The dress is so comfy and a bargain at £10 from Matalan!  I also have it in grey and love that too!  I have finally started maternity leave (wooo!), although already feel like if my job wasn't so god damn manual handling involved, I would've tried to work for another two weeks at least. 

 My great photography skills, i'm sure you'll agree! My trainers were a present from the awfully nice people at Barratts and I love them! I think they're perfect for the Summer because they're in a great polka dot pattern and the material is quite light so your feet don't get too hot!
I also wore my present from the Brighton blogger event that I talked about on my other blog here. 
The event was at the Brighton shop Porta and this beautiful piece is made by Rosa Pietsch.

I haven't done an update in a few weeks, so i'll do that post soon too!
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Saturday, 1 June 2013

33 week update



Ever nearing D-Day!Today I'm 33+4 or thereabouts.

Sickness/nausea:

The nausea from Trimester 1 seems to have returned in this last week and i've been particularly struggling with waking up with sick in my mouth...wow how glamorous! I think this links nicely onto...

Indigestion: Up until now, I have had indigestion but have pretty much tried not to take anything for it.  Don't ask me why! I had bought a few packs of rennie but only took them if I really felt like it was getting bad.  This week though, I decided I needed to take the plunge to more regular remedy because it has really upped its anty! Apart from aforementioned sick in mouth in the middle of the night, I have also been getting reflux after most meals so yesterday I went to Boots and bought some of their own brand of gaviscon.  It really is rank.  Apart from the fact that the taste is awful (ainiseed), I find the consistency really hard to swallow! It does however, seem to lessen the reflux to a more manageable level.

Sleep: I had been really struggling with getting comfortable to sleep, and I still go through phases of this.  However, the last few days I SEEM to have been getting more consistent sleep and less cramp, I think this has been coupled with the fact my cat has been ridiculously well behaved these few days, letting us sleep for three hours solid in the wee hours.  I cannot tell you how much this has been appreciated! It sounds so stupid but I have really been trying to praise her for this, because for the last few weeks we have had to lock her out of our bedroom as she starts clawing the new cupboard in order to get our attention. 

Toilet habits: I think i've been fairly lucky with my need to pee.  I usually need to go once or sometimes twice during the night, but generally have found it manageable. In terms of bowel habits, I have been quite lucky and not had any constipation.  My midwife attributes this to my ridiculously healthy eating habits which I also had pre pregnancy.  So it really does pay to eat healthy!

Aches and pains: The back pain seems to have decreased slightly since I bought a bump support off Steph.  I still find the back pain is worse when I sit or stand in the same position for a period of time but I seem to be able tolerating standing longer than I could last week (helpful for the washing up!).  I also notice the weight of the bump more now when I stand, when I was in Tesco earlier I found myself holding my hands underneath it to support it, which seemed to help.

Movement: The last two weeks her movements were really big and creepy, cue sticking out bits left right and centre.  She always seemed to be like this at 6pm and 10pm, but this last week she seems to have calmed down a bit and I notice that she seems to just settle in a position which sticks out for a few hours and doesn't move so much.

Headaches:  These last few days my headaches have returned a bit, mostly at a level I can stand and I wonder if it is just because of the hot weather.

Size: I'm not sure if the bump has grown all that much in the last few weeks, looking at pictures it doesn't really seem that way.  Lots of people have said to me this week that it looks like the bump has dropped or that i'm going to give birth at any second...hopefully neither of these is true!

The heat is already starting to have an impact on me though, although having said that, i'm never very good in the hot weather! SO if anyone has any tips on what to wear in hot weather when heavily pregnant, they would be much appreciated!

Name list update:
Meredith Ramona
Olive Ramona
Zelda Ramona
Ofelia Ramona