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

Dear Alice - 25 Months

Dear Alice,

You are now 25 months old. Do I carry on writing these? Soon I'm not sure I'll have time! For now I'll do my best.

Your words and phrases get better on a daily basis. You now understand to say please, thank you and sorry at the right times, although most of the time you're not really sorry! You're sentences get better every day, and you seem to pick up at least a word or 2 a day. I'm trying to be very careful what I say in front of you!

You can name all the colours, and about 15 shapes. You count to 20 easily, and know about 40 animals. You can tell the difference between some really similar animals - like a rhino and a hippo.

I went away for 2 nights last weekend for a hen weekend and left you with daddy all weekend. I missed you a lot, and you barely noticed I was gone! You're so good about being looked after by different people. You've never been grumpy about it, but you love attention from different people especially now that they all think you're adorable and you can make them laugh. When I leave for work I can barely get a kiss out of you, you're far too excited to be spending the day with mama or nanny.

You have developed a strange jack in a box obsession. You've had this toy for about 2 years, and not really ever been bothered about it. I put some toys in the spare room in preparation for your sister, and you found it in there. You now carry it everywhere with you and ask for it constantly. I'm hoping you will share!

You are more and more aware of your baby sister. We try and talk about her, and you give my tummy a kiss and cuddle, but you've still not fully understood and I'm not sure you will.

We've had a few colouring disasters over the past few days, and you are now not allowed your crayons without supervision! You have destroyed the wall twice, the floor, the dining table, your little table, and basically anything that will sit still long enough. Every time I think I've hidden all the crayons, I leave the room then come back to beautifully coloured walls. I'm not sure if you're being naughty or artistic?

Yesterday you did your first pee in potty, completely unprompted! You followed me upstairs, asked to sit on your potty, and just did a wee! I was amazed, but you've shown absolutely no interest at all since. I'm just going to keep reminding you of the potty and see what happens.

You ask for cuddles all the time; generally when you've done something wrong and want to make it better. I am not sure I can ever turn down a cuddle.

You've been sleeping really well (...famous last words!), and have thankfully gone back to having a little nap in the day. I'm not sure how long it will last, but you are much happier when you have it, and so am I! You sleep 7pm - 7am which is perfect, and have a nap in the afternoon about 1pm.

I have times where you seem so little and baby like to me; when I do your bedtime bottle and you snuggle up to me, twist my hair and smell like sweets. And other times when you seem so huge; you run off at the park and giggle and jump and climb up the slide. I don't think I ever want you to grow up, but I'm so proud every time you do.

With love and light xo

24+4 - Pregnancy Update

Just a brief pregnancy update as I realised I've not written anything for a while!

We have finally picked a name, which turned out to be easy after months of it being a sore subject! We couldn't agree on anything at all - I loved (love!) Matilda, but Mitch didn't like it no matter how much I brought it up. We both liked Beatrice / Beatrix but it never seemed 100% right. I woke up one morning with a name in my head that I hadn't even thought about before, rung Mitch, and we both loved it. Perfect. I think it was partly that he was fed up of picking names, but I'm 100% happy with what we've chosen!

I am very round. However at least I don't look fat anymore, just very pregnant! I am already starting to struggle a bit with rolling over at night and moving a little, and having the 4am wake ups where I get stuck a bit like a whale. I have currently found an elaborate 300 pillow wedging system that seems to be working for the most part, and I am extremely thankful for the super king size bed!

However, (touch wood) I seem to be having a pretty awesome pregnancy so far! No sickness anymore, the bug from last month has vanished, and I feel pretty great. Tired from chasing after a small Tasmanian devil, but I think that's just a tiring occupation!

The movements I'm feeling now are much more than little pops - they are huge kicks and wiggles that can be seen / felt from the outside. Feeling these now just shows me how much less I felt Alice with her anterior placenta (placenta at front). I think this time I'd only just started feeling her kick, whereas now I'm already partly recreating scenes from Alien. Mostly, I love being reminded of her. However not so much at 4am when it's party time all up in my ribs!

We have emptied the spare room in preparation for starting to get all the baby things out the attic over the next few weeks / months. I've kind of planned a few little decoration-y bits, but I know it's not super important as she will probably end up in bed with us permanently attached to me for about the first year. (I'm finding this part the hardest to be enthusiastic about!). Still, it would be nice for her to have a pretty room, and I'll put pictures up as / when we get to making it look nice.

We've left the double bed up in her room as a spare room / Mitch needs to get some sleep room - which will be loads nicer than last time we had a newborn baby in the tiny flat!

Not really bought anything or done anything - feel a bit unprepared, but I know we have everything from Alice still in the attic so there's not really a lot we need! It does make me a bit sad that I haven't been able to get all excited about buying tiny person things, but I don't want to spend money for the sake of it. I'll need to buy a few warmer outfits for her to see us through the winter, but I'll wait till she arrives and see what size she is.

Having a name and feeling her move makes it a little more real, but it still feels like something super far away in the distance. I don't remember how I felt with Alice - did having more time to think about it make it more absolute? At the moment it's just a distant idea in the back of my head most of the time! Is that awful?

I know that I obviously love her, and will love her so much, but right now I'm so terrified as to how I could love anyone as much as I love Alice! How do you split yourself in 2?

With love and light xo

Birthday Party

A few snaps from Alice's birthday party...






















With love and light xo

Dear Alice - 2 Years Old!

Dear Alice,

Happy Birthday my little ducklet - you are now 2 whole years old!

We had a birthday party for you at the weekend, as we were on holiday for your actual birthday and didn't make a fuss. You insisted on dressing like a fairy princess all day, and acted like one all day too! You loved having everyone there, pulling faces, playing with bubbles, and being the centre of attention. You grasped the concept of cards and presents very quickly!

I must admit I got a little tearful when the day was done - you have grown and changed so much in the past few weeks even, let alone in the past few years. You are such a little person now, with opinions and ideas and dreams.

You can now say maybe 200 words, including sentences like "We go to the park first, then lunch". The health visitor came to do your 2 year review today and was very impressed by your vocabulary, particularly "hyena", "centipede" and "magenta"!

You have a sense of where people are and what they are doing - you know daddy is at work in the daytime and you like to call him and talk to him. You have proper phone conversations and understand what kind of things to say / questions that are asked. You also know when to say things like "see you later" and "miss you".

You say "I love you" all the time to get out of trouble. You also get into a lot more trouble and are more difficult to reason with, although you do understand exactly what we're saying!

You lead me by the hand everywhere and insist I come too, which is both adorable and can be a little wearing. You normally only want me to come and look at a raisin on the floor or something.

You make friends everywhere we go - parks / swimming / at the shops. You will literally stop and talk to everyone which makes a 5 minute journey take a lot longer!

It's becoming super difficult to get you to nap, and you haven't slept at all for the past few days. This makes mummy sad as she would quite like a nap sometimes! Has been forever since I had a nap!

You kind of understand you're having a sister, and where they are, and you'll give my tummy a kiss most days and say hello. I don't think you really understand the implications of this unfortunately!

You had your first go on an aeroplane, which you loved. You also expressed a very strange and adorable obsession with a mariachi band, which you've asked for every day several times since we've been back! On holiday you loved swimming, eating sand, and playing on the park.

We've tried big girl bed again. Big girl bed is a no go area.

Someone I work with gave us lots of outdoor type toys and you are loving them! You particularly like the toy castle, and drawing on the ground with chalks.

Today you were measured and were too big for the health visitors chart! You were 98th percentile for height, and 93rd for weight. I looked on the chart and you are the average height for a 3 1/2 year old. Stop growing so much!

Neither of us can believe you're 2, and as always, we love you more than anything in the world.

With love and light xo

Holiday Times!

So a few photos from our lovely holidays! It was a reeeally belated honeymoon, as we decided that last year when we got married she would have just been too small to enjoy anywhere, and we would have had a constant battle keeping her occupied and not burnt etc. 
We used half of the wedding money we received to help us buy and decorate our house last November, and the other half towards a holiday we would never have been able to afford otherwise. I spent months and months last year trying to choose somewhere. We wanted to go somewhere that would be warm but not burning in April, not super far away, and with nice beaches / kids stuff to do e.g. parks etc. 
I'm so used to going on weird city holidays and exploring (e.g. Russia!) that it was a bit difficult for me to find somewhere completely different to that! We also decided to go all inclusive, as it would save the trouble of budgeting; finding somewhere "kid friendly" with high chairs etc; picky toddlers throwing food and ice creams on the floor etc. We eventually settled on Fuerteventura, in April school holidays so it wouldn't be too warm. 

Before we went I was so nervous about everything! What if I forgot everything? What if she screamed the entire time we were on the plane? What if she hated it? What if we all got super burned? What if the place was horrible?

In the end, I shouldn't have worried at all. Alice was an absolute angel for the entire week, including both 4+ hour flights. She had a few mini melt downs, but on the whole was just incredibly well behaved. The iPad was a complete and utter lifesaver for the planes and transfers etc. I think it would have been a completely different story without it!

The place was lush, noone got burned, and we had a lovely time. Not relaxing, but lovely!

Tips for myself in future - lists are your friend! List everything then list it again. Then add to the list again! Also - "packing" for a few weeks beforehand helped. I just had the case out and chucked anything in it as and when I remembered, then when it came to proper packing it was just a case of sorting clothes and rearranging things. New toys for the plane was a brilliant idea and kept her entertained, as did new videos and new apps. Reusable swim nappies are ace.


Alice particularly enjoyed swimming, playing on the park, eating sand, and making friends. In no particular order! 




With love and light xo