25 week pregnancy update

Pic of me: Yep, boobs have gotten massive and bump is getting bigger!  Bunny booties - my lovely mother in law made these after I posted a pic of some cute ones I found on Etsy, these are unbelievably cute!!! My foot - started getting a faint (and sometimes non-faint) red stripe across both my feet, no idea why.  Rain - this is when we were off to a BBQ on Saturday, we had a massive thunderstorm not long before we needed to leave.

MY WEEK
I've had a pretty good week this week.  Felt the baby kicking lots which is always lovely, and seen my belly moving quite a bit.  I even took a little video which I posted on Instagram of the baby kicking - you have to look on the very far right to see it, it was the first one I managed to capture on vid :)

The highlight of my week definitely has to be my 24 week midwife appointment.  After she measured my bump, she got a doppler out and listened to the baby's heartbeat - first time we've heard it.  Such a magical moment, to hear the little heart beating away (around 130 bpm) and very strong, I couldn't stop grinning.

SYMPTOMS
Same as previous weeks, although the heartburn is subsiding.  I only had one day last week where I had heartburn all day, other than that it's easing off.  Still get an achy back, tiredness and nausea though.

I've had a couple of dizzy moments this week, usually after taking a deep breath, then feeling really dizzy like the room is spinning.  The first time it happened I was at work and sitting down, I grabbed onto the arms of the chair as I felt like I was going to fall over, and after about 30 secs it passed.  I went and grabbed a full fat sprite for the sugar (I'd been craving sweets that afternoon) and felt fine after.  Then on Saturday we were getting ready to head to a BBQ, I hadn't eaten in about 4 hours (I had breakfast at 11am, this was about 3:30pm - skipped lunch as wasn't hungry) and I took a deep breath, got all dizzy and had to sit down for a couple of mins, and then I was fine again.  I think it might be when I'm hungry or in need of sugar.  I had some Starburst just after this and felt fine :)

WEIGHT & DIET
My weight is down another 2lbs, so I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight again!  I do wonder how much weight I've actually lost, since I haven't put any on with this pregnancy.  I'm thinking it could be around 1 stone, I've even had people (who haven't seen me in a while) saying my face looks thinner, I can definitely see that too.  Well, I'm eating healthily so it's just a happy bonus.  Since the hubby has taken over cooking I'm eating much better.  Only once in the last week did I have a jacket potato for dinner.  We've had a couple of evenings of pasta and a couple of veg with mashed potato and a little quorn.  I still can't eat like I used to, which is a good thing, I definitely get fuller a lot quicker too. Hopefully my stomach has shrunk and when the baby is born my appetite will remain as it is now :)

BUMP
Definitely getting more noticeable.  It'll always be more difficult to tell as I'm so overweight, but I'm getting people coming up to me and saying 'You're showing!' which is nice :)  I've also had to retire my maternity jeans, they don't fit me anymore and the only shops that sell proper plus-size maternity wear (Simple Be and Bon Prix) are sold out of nearly all sizes #awesome.  What this means?  I'm living in maxi dresses.  That's fine for the hot days, not so great on days it's raining.  I only have 3 maxi dresses too, so these next few months will be challenging!

NEXT APPOINTMENT
The week after next, when I'm 26 weeks.  I have to have a repeat GTT (Glucose tolerance test), wasn't told the results of the first one, but hopefully this one will show that I'm ok.  Then, at 28 weeks I have a consultant appointment and a scan, very excited about that as we get to see Squidge again :D

BABY STUFF
Haven't bought anything new this week, although we will be picking out the moses basket soon, I think I know which one I want (one of Lollipop lane's new super soft ones) but I want to have a good look around just to make sure :)


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Big realisations

Today has been one of those days where everything dawns on me.  And I must admit, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, not in a scary way, but in a oh s**t this is really happening way.

LESS THAN 16 WEEKS TO GO
While that might sound like ages to some of you, to me, that's no time at all.  Factor in that the hubby will be starting back on his uni work before the baby is due, we'll lose a couple of weekends there, and we're hoping to go for a short weekend break in the UK, and a couple of weekends we'll be visiting family in Pembs, that basically leaves us with close to 10 weeks to get everything done.  IN 16 weeks, whether we like it or not (we do like it), we're going to be parents, and while we're both really excited and looking forward to the new chapter of our lives and all the wonderful memories we'll be creating, we're also both very aware of the short amount of time we have to prepare, and the financial turmoil we'll find ourselves in.

To put it in perspective, in the 10(ish) free weekends we have, we need to:

• Finish sorting through everything we have in the bedroom
• Trip to IKEA to buy new bedroom furniture (we don't own a wardrobe currently, long story, maybe I'll blog about it)
• Construct said-furniture and turn the room around, as well as paint it and make it nice, ready for the moses basket which we have yet to buy
• Sort through everything in our spare room (currently the computer room), this is no small task
• Move some of that furniture down to the lounge (computer desk, shelves, books etc)
• Pick out carpet and paint for the nursery (what is currently the computer room) and get that done
• Get all the furniture sorted for the nursery and in place (I'm really looking forward to getting that done)
• Finish the kitchen - this is a task that hubby started nearly 5 years ago, got it to a stage of being usable and nearly complete and stopped.  So we need kickboard, gel sealant and a few other bits done, nothing major

That's quite a lot to achieve in 10 weekends...

MATERNITY CLOTHES

As a plus size mum-to-be, I knew finding maternity clothes would be difficult, but I had no idea it would be this challenging.  There's two basic sites I've been using, Bon Prix and Simply Be/Fashion World (same site).  I bought some nice maternity jeans from Bon Prix, they fitted for about a month, and now they're almost painful to wear on my bump, so they've been ditched.  I own one maxi dress and currently that's the only thing that fits me.

We looked in New Look for maxi dresses, but they were all FAR too long, I'd have tripped over them. Then we went to Sainsburys, one was a horrible cut (and colour) and the other I'm wearing now, although it's a bit clingy for my liking.  We're off to Asda too just in case they might have some, but basically I'm down to 2 dresses to cover me for the next 4 months... that in itself makes me want to cry.

Before you suggest it, I've gone back to Bon Prix and the bigger sizes in their maternity jeans are all sold out, that was the first thing I checked.  Yep, there's leggings too, which I'll happily wear around the house, but not outside, I have HORRIBLE legs, they're lumpy and gross, so no way they're being shown in public!

BIRTH
Yep, in about 16 weeks I'll be squeezing a baby out of my lady parts.  I've watched loads of episodes of One Born Every Minute but even then it didn't feel like I'd be going through it, it hadn't hit me yet, but it's starting to now.  There's no point me stressing over it, as quite frankly, there's no avoiding it.  That's going to be an occasion for my brave hat to go on and face it head on so to speak :). What a scary realisation though... I have fresh admiration for every woman who has gone through it!


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24 week pregnancy update

Top to Bottom, left to right: Me having a day off on Friday and not wanting to get up, a Totoro baby grow we've ordered on Etsy, a Leia baby grow we've ordered on Etsy, a cute and colourful baby blanket we bought from TK Maxx, a day out in town on Saturday (very rare!) and a cute little converse outfit we picked up in TK Maxx, in the boys section, but in my opinion, either could happily wear :)

This is a special week.  In pregnancy circles we call today 'V Day' - V standing for 'viable'.  It means that as of today, my baby is no longer considered a foetus and if she is born prematurely (from today onwards) they Drs will do all they can to save her, and (god forbid!) if she doesn't survive, we'll be given a death certificate and have a funeral and it wouldn't be classed as a miscarriage.  I know that's a horrible thing to think about, but psychologically it's another milestone to have surpassed.

MY WEEK
Hello! What a week! Firstly, I'm so sorry there's been no other blog posts in the past week, I've been really tired.  Basically, the hubby spent the week snoring his head off each night, I'd keep waking him up to turn over, but I think he was a bit bunged up and kept rolling onto his back.  There's nothing he could do about it, but it was loud enough to wake me up and keep me awake, so it's fair to say I felt like a zombie last week :P  I did book off Friday (and today) and spend Friday relaxing and sleeping, feeling much better for it now.

SYMPTOMS
Exactly the same as previous weeks - back ache, tiredness, heartburn (although, this has eased) and nausea.  They don't seem as bad anymore, I think I'm getting used to them :P  I have had quite swollen feet while it's been warm and with that I've had quite a pain in my left heel, I'll speak to the midwife about that on Thurs :)  My emotions seem to be a bit more stable than they were a couple weeks ago too, I'm not fond of being angry! lol

WEIGHT & DIET
Weight is back down again by 2lbs taking my total pregnancy weight gain to 2lbs - I don't think it'll stay this way for long, as I get towards the 3rd trimester I'm going to get pretty big, so I think more weight gain is inevitable, but that's fine.  My diet has been really good over the last week, I've been drinking less milk (which means less crusha) and eating more veg.  The hubby has taken over cooking dinners now as the preparation of them pretty much puts me off my food completely, so this means I've been eating fresh veg several times a week and getting more variety.  You know what, I haven't even had a jacket potato for dinner in like... 2 weeks? Crazy!

BUMP
Definitely getting bigger and as I'm writing this she's doing some of the strongest kicks she's done yet :) I've even been seeing my belly move over the past few days with strong kicks.  I can no longer fit into my maternity jeans (boo) and the only places (bon prix and simply be) that sell maternity jeans in my size don't have any in stock that would fit, which has left me with 1 maxi dress I can wear... eek! Tonight when the hubby comes home from work, we're heading to Sainsburys and Asda to see if I have better luck.  The one I'm wearing at the moment is from Sainsburys, oh and before you suggest leggings, I'll say that no person should be subjected to seeing my legs!

NEXT APPOINTMENT
This Thursday, it's my 24 week appointment with my Midwife, not really sure what it'll entail but I'll be there with bells on :)

BABY STUFF
We've bought only a couple more bits this week (all in the pic above).  We want to make sure we get some geeky stuff for the baby, so I've been buying a couple of bits on Etsy for that, and of course our little trip to TK Maxx where we bought the cute little Converse outfit (just need Converse shoes to go with it!) and the gorgeous little colourful blanket.


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23 week pregnancy update

Weather-wise it's been a lovely week this week, we went back home to Pembrokeshire to see my step-dad and as you can see in the pics, it was glorious!  I spent much of the weekend taking pictures of birds and bees in the garden, as well as more practical stuff like sorting through some of my mums old stuff, evening finding a bag of my old clothes from when I was about 14!


MY WEEK
I've had a pretty good week.  Seeing as preparing food pretty much puts me off eating it, Chris has taken over the reins in the kitchen and has been cooking me up lots of lovely vegetables, and I've been good and eating them all :)  I'm really looking forward to getting to 24 weeks, we call it V day, v standing for viable.  It's the date when the government/hospitals recognises that your baby isn't just a foetus, and that if I were to go into labour early, they'll do everything they can to save the baby and wouldn't be classed as a miscarriage.

SYMPTOMS
Slightly better than last week I think, a smidge less heartburn (when going to bed at least).  Nausea and tiredness about the same.  Although I'm napping a little less frequently, when I do nap it tends to be for longer now (1 hr instead of half hour).  I've only really had back ache after sleeping in the super duper firm bed at my step dads.

WEIGHT & DIET
Haven't weighed myself this week, I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same as last week though.  Diet has improved, I've been having more vegetables as hubby has been cooking them for me :)  Still drinking plenty of milk with crusha in it, but instead of having frequent small glasses, I'm having infrequent pints :)

BUMP
Protruding a little more all the time.  My maternity jeans are now getting pretty tight, and the place I bought them from doesn't go any bigger, so I think I'll be switching to maxi dresses pretty soon!  I just need somewhere like SimplyBe to start selling nice ones - their current selection is pretty horrid.  The movement I've felt has eased off a bit the last couple of days, I think Squidge is chilled out, at least, I hope that's what it is :)  Today (Sunday) and yesterday I felt next-to-no-movement.  Hopefully I'll feel more this week :)

NEXT APPOINTMENT
I have a midwife appointment in 2 weeks, whoop!

BABY STUFF
Haven't bought any more in the last week, before I crack on buying play mats and other bits and bobs, we really need to start making headway in the house, and so far, we've done nothing!  I've told the hubby that next weekend we need to spend lots of time starting to get stuff done, otherwise I'll be 40 weeks and have nowhere for the baby to sleep, lets hope he gets an injection of motivation...


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Big purchases

So, last Friday saw a big day for us.  We went to Mothercare after work and bought the pram (travel system).  We opted for the Graco Evo.  When we'd been there a week earlier, it was after getting an email from Mothercare to say the pram was on offer (down from £529 to £329) so we wanted to check it out.  The lovely ladies there demonstrated how it worked and all goes together etc.  We immediately loved it!  Of course, this wasn't a decision we wanted to make on a whim, so we walked away, knowing the £200 off offer still had about 10 days left.

After heading onto the forum I frequent with other expectant mummies, I asked for their opinion - pretty much everyone loves it, and had nothing bad to say about it.  I looked up reviews and they were all awesome too, by this point our decision was pretty much made.

So last Friday we went back, had another quick look at it and decided to get it.  All in all it comes with the normal pram and small child seat (in the pic), the cot part (for new babies) and a car seat, pretty good value if you ask me!  While we were waiting to pay, I saw the baby changing table in the pic above, it was EXACTLY what I had in my mind, white wood with natural wood on top.  With £80 I wasn't sure I could walk away, so the hubby suggested we get this too (YAY!).

We opted for the Lovespace option, which is where Mothercare send the products to Big Yellow Storage in London, they hold on to it for up to 6 months, and if we go in and make other orders, it can all be added together.  Then, when we're ready for everything we just give them a call and they'll come and deliver it, fab!  All that for £30, I thought that was fair and worth it, since we have no where to store all this at the moment.

So that's two of the biggest purchases done, we've also bought a cot off a friend, there's just the chest of drawers to go for big stuff (and carpet).  Exciting times!


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H&M Haul & Update

Both from H&M, around £3.99 each 

GnR top from Asda (£4.50), Stripy brown top H&M, around £3.99 

Both from H&M, £7.99 for the pair 

Cute little booties, from Asda for £4 (in the boys section, but clearly both can wear) :)

Hello lovelies :)  So yesterday (Tuesday) was the day of my repeat 20 week anomaly scan.  Wasn't the easiest of scans, the sonographer had us very worried there for a while thinking there was a problem with the baby's heart and brain.  She called on a more experienced colleague who came, found everything straight off and wasn't worried - so all is well with Squidge, whoop!

It was the most painful of the scans I've had, she was pushing so incredibly hard on my tummy, at some points using two hands :(  I had a very tender and achy abdomen all afternoon, but by the evening it had subsided.  I know the baby is ok as she's been kicking me all day :)

On to the gender!  Unfortunately Squidge wasn't having any of it, she was lying there, on her belly, legs crossed with the umbilical cord between her legs, so the sonographer wasn't able to see anything, so we're still a bit on the fence, leaning towards a girl.  I really wish I was able to find out... I want to start buying appropriate clothing and decorating the room a little more accordingly... it's frustrating to say the least!

Anyway, no point dwelling on it, nothing we can do about it :)  So, the day before the scan, in my lunch I popped over to H&M to check out their baby clothes and I have to say I was really impressed. The clothes were well priced (around £4 each) and decent quality.  All the H&M pieces were picked up in the 'boys' section but could easily be girls clothes too.  I for one am adamant our daughter (if that's what she turns out to be!) won't have a pink wardrobe!  I may as well buy a barbie doll if that's what I want :)  Yes she'll have some pink, but I want the wardrobe (boy or girl) to be colourful and interesting.

This was just a quick update to show you some of the things I've picked up and how the scan went :)


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Week 22 pregnancy update

1. Trying out some new eyeshadows.  2. My phone case falling apart :(.  3. The baby changing unit we've bought from Mothercare (in love!).  4. Addicted to milk with strawberry crusha.  5. A positive message on a diet coke bottle.  7.  My growing bump (it's not all baby, but it's poking out more than it did!).  8.  Baking white choc & raspberry muffins for work (making them made me feel sick).  9.  Trying out a new caffeine free hot drink (Fruitbroo).  10.  Baking brownies for the first time for work.  (Yep, I only realised after typing this out I missed a 6 in the image, sorry!)

I'm now 2 weeks closer to V-Day - thats viable day, the date when your baby is officially considered viable if you give birth prematurely, and if your baby doesn't make it, you'll be given a death certificate and you'll have a funeral, it's a sad thing to think about but I'm not one to shy away from reality.

MY WEEK
So it's been a fun week as you can see from the pics, but I have been MIA on here, I've been super tired this week, not sleeping very well, I've been waking up really early with really achy sides, and then napping for up to 1 hr when I get home from work, so both this blog and my beauty blog suffered this week thanks to the pregnancy :)

EDIT: So last night (Sunday night) I felt the baby kick for the first time :)  I think may have felt it before but didn't feel sure, well, last night OMG loads of kicks! Some really really strong and some lighter, but there must have been around 30 kicks yesterday, maybe more :)  Made me feel very happy

SYMPTOMS
Pretty much the same, back-ache, tiredness, nausea (dry-wretching), heartburn - the same 4 I've had all the way through the pregnancy.  Nothings been worse, nothing better, all pretty much the same :)

WEIGHT & DIET
I'm up 4lbs in total now on my pre-pregnancy weight, I'm not surprised, I ate a lot of ice cream last week after craving raspberry ripple :)  It's been 2 weeks since I weighed myself too - and I normally weigh in leggins, today it was in jeans.  I still don't mind, as I should have gained quite a bit more by now :)  As for diet, it's been much of the same this week. Not really fancying anything and having a pretty weak diet.  I have been drinking lots of milk though which is great and I'm getting back into marmite (which we've just run out of!).

BUMP
That's the closest you're going to get for a bump photo for a while :)  I know I took the pic cleverly so it looks really round, but it's 2 bumps - I've had that as my shape for years, it's just all poking out a LOT more now I'm pregnant :)  Still haven't felt much in the way of movement, maybe a couple of pops but that's it, I have the anterior placenta to thank for that :)

NEXT SCAN/APPOINTMENT
Tuesday!!!! I'm excited as we get to see Squidge again :D  Hopefully the sonographer will be able to say boy or girl with a bit more certainty, if they do, I'll do a quick update on here on Tuesday too :)

BABY STUFF
Bought the biggest things this week, the pram travel-system (Graco Evo in Lime - on offer in Mothercare until Tuesday with £200 off!) and the baby changing table, it was the exact one I wanted, white with a wooden top and it's enclosed which is great for storage.  That also had £80 off, making it a much more stomachable £170 :)  The plan is that when Squidge has grown out of it, I'll use it all for storage, then when baby #2 comes along, it'll be a changing table again :)


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Pelvic floor exercises during pregnancy

For the first part of my pregnancy I didn't do any pelvic floor exercises, I'd heard about them but didn't think they were important so didn't give them much thought.

After reading up about it I realised  I really should be doing these, from what I've read they help with:

• Bladder control - kind of essential when you have a baby pressing on it!
• Control the feeling of being weighed down - this is something I've noticed, like a weight down low that I can really feel when I walk
• Sneezing - ever had a teeny bit of wee escape when you do a big sneeze?  Yeah, pelvic floor exercises will help with that :)
• Bumping uglies - yep, for those 'special moments' with your other half, having a weak pelvic floor can decrease sensation - so keeping those exercises up will leave you happier ;)

So, what is a pelvic floor exercise and how do you do it?

Basically, you suck everything in/up and hold it there.  But you need to do it without moving your legs, squeezing your bum or holding your breath, pretty much the same thing you do if you're desperate for a wee and really need to go.  Try to do 10 of these a day - I've been doing them first thing in the morning when I wake up, or last thing at night when I'm about to go to sleep - I just tighten everything 10 times and that's it.  You could it when sat on the sofa or on a hard surface like the floor.  Each time you do one of these, try to hold it for quite a few seconds (around 8).

So there you have it!  They're great to do if you're not pregnant (see bullet point 4!) and great if you are expecting a baby - so head off and get your 10 done!

Georgina :)

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21 week pregnancy update

Another week and another pregnancy update from me, I've had a headache all day today (Sunday) so I'll try to keep this short and snappy :)

MY WEEK
It's been a bit of a rollercoaster week, in a good way :)  Tuesday was the scan, if you want to read all about it my blog post is here, all was great and it was lovely to see Squidge again :)  The sonographer didn't manage to check all the things she needed to as the baby was being uncompliant!  So we're off back there on the 10th June for a re-scan and we get to see Squidge again - hopefully they'll be able to see a bit better and tell us once again if it's a girl or a boy - last time they said girl, but with very little certainty.

SYMPTOMS
The same as all the way through the pregnancy, still quite tired, had a nap today and yesterday, bit of backache, heartburn and general nausea (when brushing teeth, thinking about food, smelling something etc).

WEIGHT & DIET
I forgot to weigh myself today (always do it in the afternoon between lunch and dinner), so I can't update you on that this week, although I'd imagine it have gone up as I've been drinking loads of milk (with Crusha in it!) and eating raspberry ripple ice cream (NOM!), but that's all gone now so I won't be eating any more of that for a while :)  As for the milk with Crusha - it's a great way for me to drink more milk which is needed for the baby, it's like drinking squash as a way of drinking more water :)

BUMP
When lying down, I can definitely feel it and it's starting to protrude.  When sitting down, my tummy is definitely sticking out a whole lot more!  When standing, not a massive difference, but yeah, my overweight tummy is definitely poking out more than normal :)

NECT SCAN/APPOINTMENT
10th June - rescan of the anomaly scan :)

BABY STUFF
Well, had a fab email from Mothercare this week about an offer they have on their Graco Evo pram travel system (3 in 1) - it's got £200 off, so it's now £329 which is amazing!  Whilst we haven't bought it yet, I think we probably will, the offer ends on the 10th June, so I think we'll be popping back there before then to make our purchase!  When we were there, we did pick up some cute socks and a wrist rattle, some sock-ons (highly recommended to me) and a Glo-egg room thermometer for the Nursery - so not much this week, but little bits and bobs :)


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