38+3 - Stick a fork in me!

For a while I didn't even think I'd have to put another row on the bump picture - I was super convinced I was going to be early as I just feel huuuuge! However here we are, 38 and a bit weeks and not a twinge in sight. Obviously baby girl is quite happy in there, and far be it from me to tell her what to do!

Midwife today and baby is happy and healthy still. Still measuring a few cm large for dates but it's calmed down loads, and since the growth scan they're quite happy I'm not going to birth a 19lb baby. Heart and blood pressure all okay, and I've been booked in again for 2 weeks when I will officially be 3 days overdue. I'm not going to lie - I'm kind of hoping I don't end up attending that appointment!


I had another GTT a few weeks ago as they, yet again, suspected gestational diabetes due to glucose in urine. The GTT was no fun - could eat at 6am but then not till after 4pm and I was just feeling super sick and ratty. However, thankfully no diabetes, so still all on track for a normal birth, and hopefully a homebirth!

Everything is (hopefully) ready to go on the homebirth front now. I have a huge box of old towels and sheets; we have tried the birth pool; I have snacks for everyone involved; I've packed a bag with all mine and babies things in that I hopefully won't need; I have music; I've been listening to hypnobirth tracks; and generally reading all / any homebirth stories I can get my hands on.

This site has pretty much been my bible and I've spent countless 3am hours reading every midwife article, birth story, advice list and FAQ I can get! http://www.homebirth.org.uk/


Feel really positive about the birth at the moment. Had a lovely evening practicing with the pool and working through any little issues - e.g. which taps to use to fill, where to put it, lighting and tarps etc. It was so lovely to get in and took all the aches and pains out of my hips and legs - it's just ridiculously huge and felt completely like I was floating in all the lovely warm water. I know last time the water made a huge difference to labour pains and I'm really hoping to successfully birth in the pool again - I think it made a huge difference and would completely recommend it. 
I haven't written much about my reasons behind choosing a homebirth on here - partly because I don't want to sound like it's the right thing to do! It's what I want to do, but every woman should be given the right to choose whatever seems right for them. Birth is all about making informed choices, to hopefully be empowered by how incredible your body is. For me, there are lots of reasons I want to be at home. For others, there are lots of reasons they don't. If I end up in hospital I won't have "failed", but that doesn't mean I want to be there!
I'm really looking forward to being in my own space, with my own things, my own bath, and all my own creature comforts. Being able to make a drink or have a wander or potter about while in the early stages, without the big "is it time to go yet?!" rush of last time. I'm looking forward to feeling in control, being in my own environment, and on my terms. I'm looking forward to getting into my own bed when it's all done, with a tiny baby and no other ladies /babies in the room, and no doctors poking my baby at 6am for no reason! 
I'm mostly looking forward to all the midwives going home and leaving us to get to know our little girl, and us all getting to know each other as a family of 4!
Obviously I'm not looking forward to the pain of labour, but I feel ready now. I keep dreaming of labour, and every time I get so much as a mild cramp I think it may be something starting! Mitch and Kirsty have both guessed tomorrow, but Mitch has since retracted his guess and thinks I'll be weeks yet - rubbish! I'm getting uncomfortable and tired, and every day seem to be finding it a little harder. I will obviously miss being pregnant, but I'm ready now.
Have a guess here - chocolate based prize for the winner ;) http://bebepool.com/go/?a=lizz&view=list

Who knows - maybe the next time I update I'll have a baby?!

With love and light xo

36+3 - An update

Time for a bit of a pregnancy update I think! To put the picture above in perspective, here's last time at 36 weeks-ish!

So I am now 36 weeks, and physically getting to the "well ready" stage! Mitch is putting up with all my moaning, bless him, but it's starting to start to be a little frustrating in parts. I think baby has dropped a lot, looking at pics above, and because of that I'm having quite a lot of hip pain etc. Moving is becoming a little cumbersome, and I would say I've perhaps lost what little bit of elegance I ever had and gained a lovely waddle!

I'm sleeping okay-ish - waking up around half the time for a couple of hours in the night. I wake up, and it's just like my brain has been completely turned on and I am wide awake - normally from around 3 - 5.30ish? Then it hardly seems worth going back to sleep as Alice up anytime from 6! It seems to hit me at points throughout the day, and I could literally just sleep stood up some of the time.

She is kicking lots, and still doing lots of movements, which can get quite painful now depending on where I'm being punched! Always reassuring to feel / see though, and I'm sure will be missed.

In general, I'm super lucky and feel really blessed to be able to plod on. But some days I'm just counting down the hours till Mitch gets home and I can have a little lie down! I have found this pregnancy physically harder than Alice - I don't think it's any worse, I think I just get a lot less time to sit down, as I'm normally chasing round after a mental toddler.

I broke up from work on Friday, although had originally wanted to do a few more weeks but had to use up some annual leave. Feels strange to be part of the maternity leave lot again, but definitely less relaxing than maternity leave last time ;)

The midwife came to the house on Friday to go through everything birth plan / home birth wise which was really lovely. We went through all eventualities and practicalities - I had to order a few more things for the birth, including a torch and spare batteries! Still need to get a few more bits together for it and assemble them in a box all together. Mostly just a few more old towels and sheets etc. that I don't mind throwing. I have packed a little hospital bag but really hoping not to use it.

Having a go filling the birth pool on Thursday night to see how long it takes to fill and how easy it is to get to temperature. Will have a look at what way to best arrange furniture etc. and just run through the last few logistical bits for home birth. Also planning to jump in and have a go - would be rude not to surely!!

I need to get birth snacks / drinks for me, but apparently most importantly for the midwives and Mitch / my mum! I have informed everyone involved that I'm not putting a buffet on but apparently it's falling on deaf ears!! :P

Also need to jump back on the Hypnobirthing band wagon and start listening to the CDs again. I found some of the techniques really helped me stay focussed and in control last time, and it really can't do any harm! Got some Clary Sage aromatherapy oil, and a lovely lady from online has sent me some labour massage oil too.

Mentally feeling a little fed up today - keep having glucose in urine so have to go for yet another Glucose Tolerance Test on Thursday. It's a stupid fasting test, and I'm so used to snacking all the time at the moment as I can't really eat a whole meal. I'm sure the results will be negative again, and it's just such a long time to be sat in the hospital, starving, with naff all to do. Even though I'm sure it's nothing, I will worry all weekend about results, as Gestational Diabetes would mean no home birth, no water birth, lots of monitoring and medication etc. Not a path I want to go down at all.

Still, trying to stay positive and remember my body knows exactly what it's doing, and all will be okay.


Have set up the pushchair with a buggy board, and been practicing with the Moby wrap / Babyhawk and a teddy to make sure I have options for getting out the house when baby is here! Although very tempting just to hibernate, need to make sure we all get a little bit of fresh air. Alice currently unsure about buggy board, so hoping to take her out for a wander maybe before the littlest one shows up.

We keep talking about how her sister will be here soon and she keeps telling me her sister is asleep and when she is awake she will come out to play. She also wrapped a little present for the baby for me last night, and we keep talking about babies and breastfeeding. I'm trying my best to make sure she knows what's happening, but I guess we'll see soon!

37 weeks on Friday, so baby is classed as full term and is free to show up at any point from then on! If you haven't guessed already, please place your bets! - http://bebepool.com/go/admin/?a=lizz&view

With love and light xo

Emma's Wedding

Also realised I never added any pictures of you being an adorable flower girl for Auntie Emma's wedding!




















With love and light xo

Dear Alice - 27 Months

Dear Alice,

You are now just over 27 months old, although I had to count that as now I just say 2 and a bit! I have no idea how much you weigh - I just asked your dad and he estimated you weigh about the same as a large sack of potatoes. Although you are probably not as lumpy.

Your language is better every day - you now use full sentences all the time, including conjoining words like because, almost, instead etc. You also use the right tense the majority of the time, and you constantly show me how silly I am! The other day I asked you if Lola wanted a tip top, and you looked at me like the biggest fool in the world, and deadpanned - "No mummy. Don't be silly. Lola's a cat. Cats don't likey tip tops."

I love your use of the word "likey" for everything and make no effort to correct it. I also like that you call the puffin a muffin, so will never ever correct you.


Your sentences have certainly led to you expressing your opinion a lot more, and we have most definitely had some epic melt downs. You get frustrated very easily, and you want your own way all the time - obviously not possible. This week we've introduced the naughty step a little, with some success. It seemed to work well at the beginning, but at the moment you ask to go there - not quite the reaction we had in mind! Perhaps we need to install some spikes or something?

We introduced the big girl bed a few weeks ago, which I had been really worried about doing - you were sleeping so well and napping so well I didn't want to ruin it all! However you completely surprised me and it was very successful, quite easily. We've had a few nights of disaster, and a few napless days, but nowhere near what I expected. You still go to sleep around 7 and sleep till about 6am, with a little nap in the afternoon most days.

You are pretty anti pushchair at the moment, but you are quite happy to walk either holding my hand or pushing your own pushchair. This is fine, but it means it takes us approximately 10 hours to get anywhere! You also inevitably decide at some point that you want carrying which can lead to a total melt down when I can't carry you for miles being 8 months pregnant!

You learned to jump, and you are a constant little bouncing bean of energy. You do not stop moving or dancing at any point throughout the day, unless I bring in the iPad parent temporarily. I wish that we could be a family that doesn't watch TV or iPad or whatever, but you are pretty crazy, and mummy needs to sit down sometimes. You can tell me I'm a failure when you're older ;)

After the potty success of a few months ago we have attempted it again a few times with no success. I'm fairly sure you know what the potty is for, but have no interest in sitting on it for longer than 30 seconds, and I have no interest in forcing you to! You're a bright kid - I'm sure you'll figure it out sooner or later!

Your favourite things to do are still singing and reading. Currently you are loving The Gruffalo / Gruffalo's Child which I have to read many times a day, but daddy reads it better. You love to sing pretty much anything, but particularly "Miss Polly had a dolly" and "Dingle Dangle Scarecrow" at the moment. Sometimes you tell me off for singing though, as apparently you are much better.

You also love to play with your doctors set and train set. About 30 times a day we have to listen to my heartbeat and your little sisters heartbeat too, which is pretty adorable until you get the scissors out to remove my nose.

I had to crowd source the internet for some crazy hair control ideas as you were beginning to look less adorbz, and more Stig of the Dump. We are now under control for the most part, although you do not like having it brushed / touched / looked at for longer than 10 seconds.

We went on holiday to Heacham for a few days this month, and you had a brilliant time. The weather was absolutely melting, so you loved the beach; lots of ice creams; paddling; swimming; feeding the ducks; making sand castles; dancing party times and just being with daddy for a week. You were a joy to take on holiday, although we all came back pretty shattered.



The weather has been super hot for a few weeks, so we've been making tons of use of the garden, and eating boxes upon boxes of ice lollies. We bought you a little water table which you're obsessed with, and you like to water the plants for me every day.

It's really not long now until your baby sister is here, and we talk about her all the time. You keep telling me that you're going to meet her soon, and you love her a lot. I hope both of these things are true! I keep finding myself getting teary and wondering how on earth she is going to fit into our little routine, and how on earth I could possibly love anyone as much. Mainly I wonder if I will ever have time to brush my teeth ever again.

You helped me get her room more prepared this morning, after a bit of an incident involving your dad and a foot and the ceiling. I'm hoping she stays away for a few more weeks so I can enjoy my time with my big girl. We all love you very much pudding!

With love and light xo

34+5 - Growth Scan

I went for the growth scan yesterday, and I'm happy to report that baby wasn't 25lb! She was measuring exactly perfect for dates, and they gave her an estimated current weight of about 5lb 8oz - not super accurate obviously as based around ultrasound but reassuring to here they don't think she's quite ready yet. A normal amount of fluid too, so no further tests needed. No idea why I'm measuring big but I just think the baby is long like Alice.

No pictures as you couldn't see a lot in the scan, a foot here or there but baby is too big for posing! I asked them to check and we're definitely still team girl which is a relief - I love boys but I don't think he'd appreciate a pink room!


Plasterer came today so we no longer have a hole in the ceiling thankfully, and when it's painted at the weekend should hopefully be able to get the last few bits up and sorted. Also intending to pack a bit of a hospital bag as a "just in case".

Started a baby pool like I had with Alice - Mitch was the only person to guess the date right last time! I think there may be chocolate based prizes for the winner? Have a guess!
http://bebepool.com/go/?a=lizz&view=list

With love and light xo

34+4 - Large For Dates

Trying out the fancy new Blogger app at 5am so excuse any spelling mistakes - realised I've not been updating much so may as well make use of some quiet time!

I had my 34 week midwife appointment yesterday, which was a little more eventful than originally planned. I have been measuring a few cm's too big the whole way through this time, and was still a little big yesterday. They've referred me for a scan this morning to have a look at baby and see if I've got like a cat in there as well or something. 

On the one hand, I'm looking forward to seeing baby again today. Fingers crossed she's still a girl or there will be one tiny boy in some ridiculous dresses. Also looking forward to (hopefully!) confirmation that baby is head down and good to go. Always nice to see baby too, although Mitch can't come because of work which is a bit rubbish. 

On the other hand, I do worry a little. But then I worry about everything. The concern with a fundal height that is large for dates is that your baby is going to be like 20lb! However I'm trying to reassure myself - bodies have been producing babies for a very long time. They know what they are doing. I am not measuring ridiculously huge, and have been following the same growth throughout. I haven't gained too much weight, and I haven't been living on Mars bars and chips - however tempting! 

My main concerns are obviously with baby, as long as they're okay I'm good. However I worry about my lovely birth too! I'm still hoping for a home birth this time, and another positive experience to go with Alice's! 

I guess this post a little pointless as I'm not really sure what's going on at the moment, but will hopefully have more of a clue later. My middle of the night research has backed up exactly what I thought - fundal height is a really poor indicator of baby size as it depends on so many things including how baby is lay, and amount of fluid. From the looks of things, ultrasound isn't a much better indicator either! But I will go for my scan and take it from there.

Just been looking through blog to try and find mentions of this from last time. I'm sure (but can't quite remember!) that Alice was always measuring big for dates, and they predicted she would be 9lb plus. She was 7lb14oz - perfectly normal weight. 

The other slight concern on their part is glucose. Throughout my pregnancy with Alice, and this time, I've had sugar in my wee pretty much every time. I had the fasting blood sugar test a few weeks ago, but depending on the results of scan today they may want me to go back for that again. Fingers crossed for no as I'm grumpy when I don't eat!!

To summarise my 5am ramblings - midwife pretty sure I'm having a litter of kittens instead. Get to see baby today and hoping she's still a girl. Will update later. 

With love and light xo 

30+2 - Bit of an update

Bit of an all over update as lots of little bits and pieces going off here!

We had an Alice free day today so have been blitzing lots of jobs in preparation for the arrival of new small child. Today I sorted through all the newborn / 0-3 clothes, stuff we've been given, and bits I picked up from eBay / Facebook. Finally feel much more organised in that respect although it took a lot longer than anticipated - primarily due to my OCD making me create drawer dividers!

We painted the alcoves in the bedroom and gave those a couple of coats, and the chimney breast is being wallpapered at some point in the next month or so. Still have lots of bits to do in her room but feeling much better about the state of it - pictures bought and need putting up, and I want to make a collage-y picture like one of these - http://pinterest.com/evenstarx/nursery-art/. Curtains up too, and black out blind here and ready for hanging.

Took the cot down in Alice's room today and sorted her big girl bed out. We are currently 40 minutes in to the first night and so far so good! I am envisioning a few wake ups but it needs doing, I just really can't be bothered - she sleeps so well in her cot and I would quite happily leave her in it for the next 20 years if it means she sleeps!

Still set on the name. Slightly concerned that someone famous is going to use it first as we literally have no other names. Relieved to see that the Kim / Kanye baby is called North.

Getting much bigger, and a bit more back/hip pain. Partly due to being stubborn and not wanting to slow down, partly due to chasing a small mental toddler round, partly due to my body failing me and feeling about 80! I'm at the midwife tomorrow so hoping that baby has spun a little and is pointing the right direction, but I'm not convinced and I'm pretty sure she's still sideways. Loads of time yet though.

Also had the results back from last weeks GTT and all okay - no diabetes. Winner. Pass me back the cake please.

This all seems to be absolutely flying this time. I would be quite happy to be pregnant for another 9 months if it means I get more time on my own with my special Alice. Even if it does mean I hobble round in the evenings!

However that doesn't mean I'm not excited, just can't imagine how 30 weeks has gone so quickly!

With love and light xo

28+3 - Pregnancy Update

Been to the midwife this morning and feeling a little fed up. Had glucose in my urine again so have to go the hospital on Thursday for a Glucose Tolerance Test again (had one about 32 weeks last time) which means fasting all day until test finished. In mid morning and should be done for after lunch time, so only missing breakfast, but that's tough when you're forever hungry!! Mitch can't take time off work this time so I'm just going to take a magazine / book etc. but not particularly looking forward to it. 

Baby also currently breech. I know that's nothing to worry about at this stage (28 weeks) but Alice was always head down and I'd just got it in my head that it was this case this time. I've been reading a few tips for movement on the Spinning Babies website so I'm going to get my birth ball down and start doing a few exercises to encourage baby to spin. 

So, even though I know both things will probably be fine, I'm just a bit worried. Both breech presentation and gestational diabetes would mean definitely no home birth, and probably no water birth. It's safe to say I'm feeling a bit down and a bit self pitying about it this morning, but there's not a lot I can do! 

I think I need to get back on the hypnobirth positive mental attitude - it will all be okay - birth is a natural thing and an amazing thing that your body is designed to do. 

Pregnancy wise I'm doing okay so far apart from the above! Starting to get a bit of back pain but nothing out of the ordinary. Struggling to breathe throughout the day a little as she's just so high up in my body. I think (maybe?) I had some Braxton Hicks the other day but I'm not sure as I never had them with Alice. 

I'm no further on with baby things than last post - all clothes and accessories still in attic and no further with her room. Got to decide whether to paint or not, then start getting things out and see what we're missing. She does have curtains now which is a step forward I suppose! 

With love and light xo

27+3 - Photos

I tried to take a set of proper photos but they somehow got gatecrashed by a cat and a small child! 27 weeks now, and officially third trimester. Alice has got into the nightly routine of helping me put cream on my tummy, although I'm sure the stretch mark monster is creeping up...

With love and light xo