Our babymoon in Cornwall

A couple weeks ago the hubby and I went away for a long weekend to Cornwall, for our babymoon. We'd picked St Ives on the back of dozens of recommendations from people we know.  We booked into a vegetarian B&B in Carbis Bay (just outside St Ives) called Coast (I'll talk more about that at the end).  Underneath each pic I'll talk a little about it :)

So, our first day there.  We made the mistake of driving through St Ives... I'm not sure I remember being so stressed outside of family funerals... there were people EVERYWHERE, wandering into the road with their prams, absolutely no respect for the traffic, which was very slow moving.  Once we were out of there, to try and calm me and the baby down we went for a drive down a country lane to stop and have some sandwiches (I brought a picnic for the journey).  This is the view of where we stopped, pretty nice.  While we were stopped I said I wanted a Cornish cream tea, but I wanted to discover somewhere off the beaten track, somewhere quaint.  Fast forward a few miles down the lane and that's exactly what we found!  This little gem was hidden away, the lady who ran the place did it from her home in her garden and conservatory and the scones were freshly baked and still warm straight out of her Aga :)  It was perfect.

This cream tea was so amazing, and it was so peaceful.  We were sat on a picnic bench in her garden and there were lots of little birds flying around and interested in us.  When we'd finished our cream tea, Chris picked up some crumbs and put them on the edge of the table to see if the birds were interested, and what do you know, they flew up and took them away :)  We tried this a few more times and each time (apart from the last) they'd fly up, hover and pick up the crumbs - I think they're used to this :)

After that we headed to the Seal Sanctuary.  This was a pretty expensive place to go (about £14 each), but it was money well spent because lots of that money goes on helping the seals get healthy and back to the wild.  There wasn't a great deal to do there, but after a long day travelling to Cornwall and driving around when we were there, we were happy with a chilled afternoon.

They also had penguins (and Otters) :)

When we got to the B&B we realised it was a restaurant that was open in the evenings too (Except Sunday & Monday).  We were so knackered we stayed there.  The food was lovely, in fact, so lovely I didn't get any pics of most of it.  Both nights we had Halloumi and Sweet potato skins to start - it was such a treat being able to order anything off the menu.  Considering my hubby is a meat-eater, I'm a very lucky woman that we ate here for two nights :)

The next day we decided we wanted to explore St Ives, but NOT drive into it.  Well, we kinda drove into it, parked up on the outskirts in a big car park and got a bus in.  This was a big mistake, the place is so incredibly busy we just couldn't enjoy it.  We don't like crowds, so coming here wasn't a good idea.

As idyllic as this picture looks, right behind us (about 2 ft) was a road with very busy slow moving traffic, meaning we were surrounded by petrol fumes.  And there were thousands of people everywhere, it was FAR from relaxing, so we decided to leave.

After that nightmare, we went for a drive to see where it took us.  We drove through St Just and they had some festival on and the town was basically shut down, so we followed the diversion and ended up driving down what felt like a pedestrian footpath, the side of our car got massively scratched up from all the shrubbery, but when we got to the bottom there was a little car park believe it or not, and a wonderful little alcove of beach.  This little stone seat was next to a pebble beach with only a couple of people on it.

We sat there for about 15 mins taking in the peace before we decided to head back (needed a wee!). On the way back we drove through Penzance and stopped at a pub called the Pirate Inn, a nice enough pub with simple food, which is all we needed.  We then headed back to the B&B.

Once we got to the B&B we thought we'd take a stroll to the beach, we knew there was a patch just opposite the B&B and thought we'd give that a try.  Well, it was a struggle!  The path was incredibly steep (downhill), so steep that when we eventually got to the beach (20 mins later) my legs were trembling from steadying myself all the way down.  I knew I'd never get back up, with the pregnancy and the asthma, that just wasn't going to happen.

Needless to say, when I arrived at the beach, I was a bit grumpy, but after sitting there for 10 mins enjoying the sun (with factor 50 on) and sea I chilled out and enjoyed an hour or so there.  Chris was amazing, when we decided to go, we walked to the beach entrance and Chris ran back up the hill, yes, ran! and came back to get me in the car (awwww) - I was so incredibly grateful he did that.

With lessons learned, we decided to do what we love, visit National Trust sites / Stately homes and found this place, Trerice, we made a day of it driving there and looking around.  The house was ok, and the grounds were nice, but the highlight for me was the resident cat who came and cwtched down with us in a gazebo/bandstand.  We had a lovely chat with the site manager (who's cat it was) and enjoyed some peace and quiet.

If we looked out of our bedroom window and looked left, this was the view.  I wasn't tall enough to be able to do that, so Chris took this picture :)  The B&B was nice, it wasn't without flaws.  Our room was very small and we had to walk sideways around the one side of the bed to get to the bathroom (which did smell a little of wee - but it did look very clean).  The TV in the room was very small too and hard for me to see from my bed (especially without my glasses).

The food was great, but on the first day I ordered a mix of granola, natural yoghurt and fruit - sadly there was lots of banana in it, which I'm allergic to - it didn't say on the menu anywhere that there was banana in it.  I managed to pick it all out and avoided being ill (whoop).  It would have been nice to have had a little more choice for breakfast, but what they served was lovely.

The people who ran it were lovely though, the other guests were too, we certainly wouldn't be put off going there again, but I'd probably try and book a bigger room :)

One other annoyance about Cornwall was the drivers... it felt like EVERYWHERE we went, we got stuck behind some idiot doing 30mph in a 60, and there was almost no places to overtake, and on those rare occasions when we could, they'd do that horrible trick of speeding up and racing us - so frigging dangerous!  And some drivers just ignored all speeds, they'd do 40 everywhere, whether they're driving in a 30 or a 60... drove us nuts!

All in all it was nice, but not what we'd hoped it would be.  Cornwall is very pretty, but was too busy for us, and if we're honest, we might be biased, but we still do prefer the scenery around Wye Valley and Pembrokeshire - we're fans of the lush rolling hills, and I think Cornwall was a bit flatter than I expected.


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29 week pregnancy update

Top-Bottom, L-R: Homemade diabetic friendly lollies (diet lemonade), our new bedroom furniture (still waiting on the doors), Matilda helping us unpack the wardrobe, my growing bump :)

MY WEEK
This week saw us end our long weekend away in Cornwall (will be blogging about our babymoon this week), saw us find out that we're having a boy (all mentioned in my previous update, which was late) and has seen me try to get used to doing my blood sugars every day.

It's been quite busy, on Saturday hubby finished painting the bedroom, and Sunday we made an early trip to IKEA with to buy a new wardrobe, chest of drawers and bedside cabinets - then our in-laws came over to help us assemble it all, and holy moly are we glad they did!

I've been managing to do my bloods every day successfully, I'm not sure I have the knack yet as it still hurts when I do it.  My problem is that I've got really poor circulation, so I have to ensure the needle pricks my skin quite deeply, otherwise I just don't get enough blood up to do the test.  But because of that, I'm ending up with little bruises all over my finger tips.

SYMPTOMS
I've been quite tired this week, I think that's because I've been quite busy, and trying to deal with the heat.  If we lived in a normal house, it wouldn't have been too bad, but our lounge turns into our conservatory (with no doors in between) - what this means, over the last few days our house has been 28 degrees with no breeze... it's far to say, I haven't been sleeping very well.

DIET & WEIGHT
Once again I wasn't able to weigh myself this week, and I really don't know how I'm doing.  I've had quite swollen feet, so I can imagine that I could have gained, but my diet has been really good, thanks to the diabetes (or baby-betes as I call it).

BUMP
It's getting bigger by the day (as you can see in the pic above).  Squidge is moving more and kicking less, it's so lovely to feel him moving around :)

NEXT APPOINTMENT
Tuesday (tomorrow) I'm going back to the clinic to see the diabetic nurse to see how I've been getting on, and then Wednesday I'm having my whooping cough jab.  All fun stuff!

BABY STUFF
Well, now we know we're having a boy, we can start to buy some cute little outfits.  When we were in Sainsburys the other day waiting for my prescription we wandered over to the baby isle and bought a couple of outfits for Squidge, I'm still keen on buying a cute little pair of Converse booties too :)


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JellyCat haul

I promised this last week, it's a bit late but better late than never.  So, a blogger I know tweeted me a few weeks ago asking if I knew about JellyCat.  I literally thought she was talking about an internet cat, oh how wrong I was!

She pointed me in the direction of their website and I immediately fell in love.  I knew exactly what I wanted to buy for Squidge, and that was the bedtime bunny (23cm tall, and £13).

Yes we're having a boy and yes I bought this when I thought we were having a girl, but I don't think that'll be a problem, it's just a little bunny in a night gown, and I'm sure Squidge will love it.  It's super soft and very cute, I'm actually tempted to build up a collection of these for me as I love them so much!

Once the bedtime bunny arrived, I was struck with JellyCat fever!  So back onto their website I headed to have a look at what else I could buy.  I knew I needed/wanted to get some little teddy ornaments for the pram, and JellyCat sell them, so I picked three I really liked the look of, and took the plunge.  Here are the three I bought.

 £12

 £8

£12

A penguin, an owl and an octopus.  I didn't realise this until they arrived, but both the penguin and octopus have pull strings on them and they vibrate back up to a short string, nice!

The quality of the teddy's are fantastic, no loose stitching, all very neat and using high quality materials and if you buy them online, they each come in their own little dust bag. Don't get me wrong, you get what you pay for, they're not exactly cheap, but hopefully what we have out of it are teddys/toys that Squidge will grow up loving, and that's a price I'm happy to pay for.

Here's the baby collection of JellyCat toys :)


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28 week pregnancy update

L-R, Top-Bottom: A Cornish cream tea (I went very easy on the cream and jam), Carbis Bay beach, a diet coke with the name 'Pawel' weirdest spelling of the name I've seen!, hubby and I at the beach, one of my vegetarian meals, a stunning view we found by accident, and the museum of witchcraft in Boscastle

MY WEEK
Sorry this update is a couple of days late, we were away on our babymoon (I'll talk about that in a separate post).  It's been a crazy week starting at last Monday, the day I hit 27 weeks pregnant.  I ended up going to hospital as I was having reduced movements and had been for a few days.  As well as checking my wee and BP, they put a heart monitor across my belly to listen to Squidge's heartbeat, it was great and very strong (140-160 bpm), and with that I was discharged.

Then yesterday (Tuesday) I had my 28 week appointment.  It started off with a scan and we had the loveliest sonographer, he took the time to show us our baby, describe how Squidge was lying (head down, bum up).  Then told us that we're having a boy!!!!!!  Yep, definitely balls/scrotum that we saw!

Squidge was measuring ok - head is 2 measuring at 30 weeks, legs at 29 weeks and very long) and belly is about 2 days behind.  They also noted in the scan that my amniotic fluid seems to be a little less, not sure what it was before, but it's now 8.something, so they're going to keep an eye on that too.

I also met with the diabetic nurse who kitted me out with the stuff I need to check my blood sugar levels, I'll be measuring them 4 times a day - before 3 meals and after 1.  I so hope I don't need to do this after the baby is born, I hope my body can cope and go back to normal.

SYMPTOMS
Bit of bump ache, plenty of heartburn and getting tired very easily, as I discovered on our babymoon!

DIET & WEIGHT
Since I was away I haven't been able to weigh in this week, I should be able to next week though. I'm still getting used to this different diet.  I've swapped out white bread for wholemeal and the same with pasta.  It's difficult finding something to buy each day for lunch that fits both my vegetarian diet and the diabetic diet - so I'm going to start making my own lunch to take in, it'll be so much easier (and cheaper).  Cheese sandwiches FTW!

BUMP
Definitely growing and definitely feeling pregnant all the time, finally!  The bump is also starting to get in the way a bit - like having the laptop on my lap is getting more difficult :P

NEXT APPOINTMENT
Next Tuesday I'm seeing the diabetic nurse to see how my blood sugars are doing, fingers crossed for good news, I don't fancy having to inject myself :(

BABY STUFF
Funnily enough when we were on our babymoon we popped into a charity shop and bought a little dress for Squidge, I said to the hubby 'but what if we have a boy' and he said 'then we've just donated £2.50 to charity' :)  I thought that was a lovely way to look at it, I'll be donating the dress back to charity and they can make a little more out of it :)


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27 week pregnancy update

L-R, Top to Bottom: Found my Sooty puppet (32 years old!), Matilda chilling while we were painting, the bruise left on my hand after having my 2nd GTT on Tuesday, the purple wall in our bedroom - painting 2 of them purple this weekend, chilling on the sofa bump pic and then having a fan on me as I was overheating :)

MY WEEK
Well, it's been an eventful week!  So I had my 2nd GTT (glucose tolerance test) on Tuesday, then about 4:30 the next day I get a call from the ante natal unit saying 'hey, your bloods are back and they're high' - OK??? She followed up by saying 'just try to eat healthily, cut out sugar and come to your next consultant appointment in 2 weeks' and that was about it, she was desperate to get off the phone, and giving me as little info as possible.

So, I have gestational diabetes but haven't really been given any guidance on what I can and can't eat. From what I've read, I need to avoid white pasta, rice and bread - switching to wholemeal. Cut out any and all sweet stuff including sweet fruits and all fruit juice.  My next appointment is on the 22nd, so hopefully I'll have more of an idea what I should eat and what to avoid then - but I really am disappointed with the way I was told, it was a fleeting phone call and she gave me almost no guidance.

We've also been sorting out and decorating our bedroom, we need to sort it all out, to move some of our stuff from the spare room into it to help get the nursery sorted.

SYMPTOMS
Been quite achy, having to get up and walk around frequently at work.  A little heartburn and backache, but that's about it :)

The biggest thing this week is I've been having much less movement from the baby.  I'd normally feel about 20-30 kicks a day, but over the last few days I'm lucky if I feel 5.  So I'm just hoping little Squidge is ok in there and I'm eating right for her.

DIET & WEIGHT
Weight is up 3lbs but I expected that as I've had swollen feet all week - my weight tends to go up on weeks when my swollen.  Diet has been all over the place, first half of the week was normal, 2nd half of the week was trying to be diabetes friendly.

BUMP
Well, it's growing! Have a look at the bump pic above :)  It's so amazing to know there's a little baby in there, and I'm loving getting the house ready for her arrival :)  It's a good job we have so many months to prepare!

NEXT APPOINTMENT
22nd July - seeing the consultant, endocrinologist (thyroid stuff) and someone about diabetes.  I'll probably be having a scan too, hopefully they'll be able to confirm Squidge's gender :)

BABY STUFF
Only bought a couple of little bits this week, which I'll blog about separately, but lets just say, I've discovered the wonderful world of JellyCat and gone a little bananas :D


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My first NCT nearly new sale

On Saturday the hubby and I planned a very busy day, it was the first time I'd been out of the house all week thanks to the labrynthitis and we had a lot to do (get paint samples from B&Q, attend NCT sale, head to The Range to get some storage tubs).

If you've not heard of NCT, they're a charity set up for parents, and every quarter across they UK they hold sales of baby and kid stuff.  It's £1 to get in (members get to go in 15 mins ahead of everyone else and volunteers get 1st dibs).  They also hold parenting classes which seem to prove to be quite popular amongst a host of other ways they support parents, you can read about them here.

When we were in the queue I briefed Chris on our shopping list.  Moses basket and stand, Fisher Price Rainforest musical gym and some toys.  Maybe a bugaboo if we could find a really cheap one (they're not expensive brand new).

The first room we got to was where all the bouncers, cots and moses baskets were, but sadly all the moses baskets had already gone (I think this was down to the members and volunteers as we were some of the first non-members in).  So on we moved to the next room - clothes, we skipped past that as we're pretty good on clothes and they weren't on our list, so we headed up stairs.  First room upstairs was baby sleeping bags, bumboo's (but all without the inserts) and the next and final room was our room, toys!

Chris ran in as he'd spotted some play mats, we saw the giraffe from the Rainforest one straight away, asked how much it was (£15 - rrp £50) and nabbed it!  I think it's the old-style one as it doesn't cross over but it's basically the same.  Once we had that, I could relax, so we picked out a few toys and headed back downstairs to pay for it.  As we walked past the clothes I spotted a cute little duck baby grow which I picked up, it was only 50p and ever so cute.  All together we spent a bargainous £23!

After getting home and setting up the Rainforest play mat I was quite disappointed, it was quite dirty (baby goo all over it - food/sick not sure which) and as much as it says 'musical' on it, it makes next-to-no noise at all, only the cow/zebra thing on it makes a tiny sound and that's it... so, not as excited about that as I thought I'd be.  Ah well.

If you're interested in attending one of these 'nearly new' sales, you can put your details in here to see which one is closest to you and when.


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26 week pregnancy update

Top to bottom, left to right: The totoro babygrow arrived, packing hubby's PC Gamers into storage boxes, his oldest PC Gamer (from Oct 1994, issue 11), Matilda peeking at us from the laundry basket when we were watching the F1, my sitting down with my fav mug watching the Fi, having my toe nails painted by the hubby while the F1 was red flagged, and Matilda discovering the laundry basket, very cute

MY WEEK
Oh my, what a week it's been!  On Tuesday I woke up (with no warning) with Labrynthitis, and let me tell you, it's not exactly fun!  I blogged about it over on the beauty blog in a 'where I've been' post on Friday if you want to take a look.  But that wiped me out for the week, I had the week off work (sick) which I hated, but on the bright side Squidge was VERY active!  Hubby also saw Squidge kick for the first time, and saw it a few times, a very special moment :)  He took a couple days off work to look after me, what a hero :)


SYMPTOMS
Other than the crazy unbalanced, dizzyness/spinning room I've been having - I wasn't too bad.  Some nausea (actually threw up a bit of my dinner when I was brushing my teeth!), backache, still a very painful heel on my left foot, and general tiredness.  Oh, and some heartburn.


DIET & WEIGHT
Well, weighed myself today and I'm still the same as I was last week, which is my pre-pregnancy weight.  I think me being ill has kept any gain off, although I haven't been in the slightest bit active as I was confined to my house pretty much all week. So, swings and roundabouts.


BUMP
Definitely growing, last night when I went to bed it was the biggest I'd seen it (when lying down), but, I'm not sure if this happens to anyone else, but just after lying on my back, the bump goes down within a couple of mins?  Nothing I'm worried about or anything, just wondered if that happened to anyone else?


NEXT APPOINTMENT
Tomorrow, I'm having my repeat GTT (Glucose tolerance test) at the hospital - that's half a day I can wave goodbye to, and say hello to some nice bruising on the back of my hand thanks to terrible veins.


BABY STUFF
There'll be a post about this on Weds, so keep your eyes peeled :)

That seems like quite a short update this week!  It's been pretty quiet though to be fair, with me being off.  I'm happy to report that I'm feeling better now though, still a little dizzy when I'm standing up or turning, but definitely 90% better.


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5 wonderful things about being pregnant

Both the hubby and I never thought it would happen.  We tried for 8 months, which I know for some people isn't that long, but it was long enough for us to wonder if it would happen.  Combine that with having an underactive-thyroid (irregular periods) and being very overweight, most of my life I was convinced I'd never conceive.  To this day I don't know if this is a miracle baby, or that I'm pretty fertile, either way, I'm so thankful that I am pregnant.

There's so many wonderful (and not-so-wonderful) things about being pregnant, and some you only notice once you're going through it, which is why I thought I'd put a bit of a list together, not just to share with you, but so in months and years to come, so I don't forget too.

1. You have life growing inside you, it's an amazing feeling and often unbelievable, but you (and your other half) created life, something to always be treasured
2. People you didn't know cared, have become genuinely interested in how you and the baby are. This constantly amazes me.  The amount of people I have coming up to me who genuinely care how we (me and the baby) are is almost overwhelming.  To top that, the hubby has become very protective over me (in a wonderful way) and caters to my every whim and craving, I couldn't ask for more
3. Feeling your baby kick - a feeling you'll never forget and always cherish.  I think it took me a couple of weeks to realise what I was feeling, they felt like twitches, but once you see your belly move with one, you won't be mistaken
4. Hearing your baby's heartbeat for the first time - a breathtaking experience that I'll never forget, it was so strong and so amazing to hear, that little life growing inside me
5. The best in people - baby's seem to do that, everyone loves a pregnant woman and a baby - whether you have people buying or making the baby presents, they seem to bring out the best in people :)

Maybe this list will change as I become more pregnant, but I'm 6 months in and these are the things that have really stood out to me :)


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To stairgate, or not to stairgate?

image source

When discussing stairgates, both the hubby and I agreed that we didn't want one.  Neither of us remember having one as a kid and we were both fine.  They're big, clumsy and if you're overweight like me, they can be difficult to get through.

With this thought armed in my head, I went to the pregnancy forum that I'm a member of to ask other mums-to-be their opinion.  Well, safe to say, there's an overwhelming 'Yes, get a stairgate' consensus.

I totally get why they're good to have, but in a house as small as ours, we didn't feel it would be necessary, and at least, for us adults, more of a hazard to have.  But then that got me thinking, could we live with ourselves if something happened to the baby just because we didn't want a stairgate? Probably not...  This isn't about the money it costs to buy one, but the hazard they present when they're at the top and bottom steps.

After having a look at our landing we found a suitable place for one to go that wasn't near the top step, but between our bedroom door, and the airing cupboard.  This would give Squidge access to their room, my room and the bathroom, and nothing else.  This also eliminates the danger of us tripping on it and falling down the stairs, instead, we'd fall head on into a wall and mirror, not as bad as the stairs.

The other side of this - as parents, at least, our intentions, are to let Squidge be a child, let them get dirty in the garden and covered in mud, we don't want to be one of these people who get so paranoid about germs, that they're using anti-bacterial cleaner on every surface.  Children need to build up a tolerance and resilience to different things, and they only way they can do that is to be exposed to them.  That being said, there's letting your child get muddy, and the possibility of letting your child fall down the stairs and break their neck...

This all got me thinking though, aside from people who have dogs (most people who commented on the forum thread who had dogs said they just had them to keep the dogs in the kitchen), who thinks having a stairgate is a necessity, or are we being over-cautious?


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