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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