weekend!

Not a huge amount to report as i have not been anywhere really. Am feeling ok, a little tired which is not really surprising as im getting big and need to buy iron as my count is dropping. Although when i asked the midwife which iron tablets i should buy, she started telling me about all the complications such as stomach cramps, constipation etc, none of which sound very appealing so have decided to wait until MIL and FIL are home and find out which the best ones are. i do also have protein in my wee, but thats all the midwife said, she didn't seem very concerned, so something that will no doubt be checked on Weds when i am back in hospital.
Managed to get out of the house yesterday as it was a glorious sunny, fresh day. We decided Mia had also been couped up for long enough so packed her roller skates and took her to Roath Park. We didnt walk around the lake as we thought that may have been too much for me so walked around the fish place. Mia was very good on her skates and is getting much more confident, she did still have to be carried down the little hill, but i don't blame her for that at all!
Mia also decided that she wanted to see the fish so we went inside the aquarium. I've never actually ventured inside before and was pleasantly surprised. THe fish were huge and Mia and Huw had long discussions about the different types of fish while i wandered over to look at flowers lol.
We took Mia to the park and let her have a little runaround before i started to get very uncomfortable...and hungry. So we took Mia to her favourite restaurantfor lunch as she'd been such a good girl this weekend. Did take some pics but Huw pulls silly faces all the time so i've just gone for ones where Mia looks good as Huw is a more difficult subject.

A Cephalic Presentation!!! normality!!!!

well it's been a long old week with my feet, up. Huw has insisted that i dont go back to work on the advice of the consultant. so Friday i phoned the doctors to find out what they thought. They signed me off immediately as they thought the stress of my job may be too much in the last few weeks. im a little disappointed that i didn't make it to the end, but realise our health is more important. i have left a lot of loose ends that i would have like to have tied up - my student, my form class, schemes of work etc but it seems pointless dwelling on it now. i have to learn to relax, put my feet up and forget about it. i have downloaded some books for the ipad and intend to get reading with a cup of tea. tracey the baby whisperer is one that Huw has promised to read. The woman was brilliant at sorting baby behaviour out and i followed it like a bible when i had Mia - and she was a perfect baby, so am planning to follow her rules again.
Went to have my haircut on saturday, haircut & hormones = disaster!! Sian got a bit scissorhappy and cut off more than she should have which resulted in a very teary mother to be and a very understanding husband, who made it all better with a big box of Ferrero Rocher.
Today was another scan and consultant time. This time Mia and my mother came. Mia was very impressed that she could see her sister's face but was a little concerned that she had no clothes on! lol. More importantly she had spun herself around and is no longer breech!! which means i can have a normal birth. my titre levels haven't risen either which is good. THe consultant was very nice and wants to see me in 4 weeeks. He did grab onto her head and gave her a shake just to make doubly sure. No bloods needed today either with the horrible new needles which is a good thing. Apparently all the mothers have been complaining about how painful they are, so the midwives had a look and they were thicker. Keeley said that hopefully that batch will have run out by next monday, so i will have a less painful time next week. Keeley however, is going skiing so she wont be there to take my blood next week which is a bit gutting as i dont bruise with her. Anyway, a good day!!

Buggy!!!

Having had time off this week, I have been able to get organised with ordering things for boo's arrival. Most impotently the buggy and carseat- without which, she would not be able to leave hospital! I ordered the pram as a package which came with the carseat cot bit etc, I have to say what a fantastic company kiddo are.com are, not only were they the best priced, but they also delivered free in 24hours perfect!
I ordered the pram yesterday and had a text within the hour to say the order had been processed. Then another to say it had been dispatched. This morning I received another text telling me that the pram would be delivered between 10:33 and 11:33. Fabulous!! I had the pram sent to my parents house as they are usually in and superstition says you shouldn't have the pram in the house before the baby is born. I'm not an overly superstitious person, but after this week I'm not really willing to take any chances!
The pram arrived promptly at 10:43, and poor mum had t roll all the boxes into the living room. We then set about fitting it together. It was a little tricky at first and rather fiddly as the instructions weren't the best, but we managed. Once you get the hang of it it looks pretty easy and the gas pump is pretty cool, basically you unclip the buggy and it pops up! Cool!! Having figured out the assembly, we set about putting all the different parts on and having a play, the cot, the carseat and the seat all fit in pretty easily and it s a rather chunky, sturdy design. I have now left it at mums along with rain covers for each part and shall attempt to upload some photos, which for some reason, cannot be done on the iPad.

Monday: consultant appointment

After a little bit of a stressful weekend with more pains on Sunday, we called the hospital. The midwife phoned baack to let us know that we had a consultants appointment that afternoon and also, that she couldn't find huw's blood results which did make me giggle. Huw turned White at the thought of another needle lol.
We got to hospital in the afternoon, the waiting room was pretty busy and we knew that we'd be in for a bit of a wait as we were being squeezed in. Keeley the midwife called me in pretty quickly to do my fortnightly bloods, my Titre levels haven't changed which is good, and she seems to think that this late on in the pregnancy, they probably won't. she got the needles ready, and for the first time I felt anxious and tbh it really hurt. Keeley said that they'd had a nw batch of needles and that all the mothers had been complaining for a week, apparently the actual needle was thicker. She then had to tell me that as they'd taken blood from the same vein so many times, that the vein had practically collapsed and was no good - hope it's not a permanent thing! So then I had to go through the same process with the other arm. It hurt. Keeley had managed to get hold of hue's bloods which revealed he too has anti c!! So for now I am blaming him for all the blood tests lol.
Back to the stuffy, cramped waiting room whilst we waited to see the consultant. An hour or so later, we were called in.the consultant was very nice and seemed impressed by my slightly anal practice of writing down every pain on my phone. The consultant decided to scan me to check on the baby. Boo is fine, she's a couple of days bigger than hops suggested but bang on for my dates. Baby seems to be a little like her dad, her belly is bigger than the rest of her lol. Consultant then measured the fluid around the baby, and checked where the placenta was.
He then decided he wanted to do a 'cervical examinstion' nnnnnnooooooooooooooo!!! Not the most pleasant experience but confirmed that I was not in slow labour. It did however cause a lot of pain that night.
The consultant then asked what I did for a living. he very quickly decided that the stress of my job had caused the pain and bleeding and that I should finish. Was advised feet up for the week at least. However, I have 8 weeks left which seems a little bit early, and only three weeks left before i take maternity leave, and I need to ensure my a level classes are sorted and upti date with everything before I leave them. I'm feeling much better as the week
progresses so will see how I feel next week.

Friday the 13th? Wasn't it just!!!!

Work has been a little manic this week as we have deadlines for the new schemes of work, we have all been given the day off to sort out a year group. This proved to be far more stressful than it should have been as Huw'S laptop changes all documents into gobbledygook! After an hour and a half of trying to convert them, a tearful phone call to Huw and an invite to use chris and ian's computer I sorted it! There was so much work that I don't think I had much of a break, but managed to get most of it done.
I also had the stress of going to Mia's school to sort out a bullying issue, where a boy had threatened to stab Herr to 'see what the knife felt like' where did it!! Extremely disturbing thoughts for a 7 year old. School has assured me that the are dealing with it and that he is not allowed out to play for the time being.
I decided that evening not to go for a swim as I was a little tired. I'm still managing about a mile and half a week but just wasn't feeling it on thurs night, so we watched some tv and ate chocolate - much more enjoyable.
Friday morning I didn't want to go into work, not sure why, but told myself I was being silly and had to go as I had an observation. More stress! When I arrived at work, the phone and my mobile was ringing - almost everyone in the department was off, so I sent the first 20 mins running around sorting their lessons out. no surprise really when I started getting a stitch like pain on the right side of my tummy. Still had to get the laptops to one class, explain what they needed to do before getting back to my class. The pain didn't subside for about 20mins. I sat down thinking it would ease. After realising I'd starting spotting and phoned Huw. Not sure what he would have been able to do, but text the midwife who told me to rest and ring if anything got worse. Huw by this time had phoned his parents who said I was not to drive and were on their way to collect me and my car. Felt awful causing a fuss but didn't argue too much as I was still getting little pains.
Chris and ian got me home safely and checked my mum was round the corner before leaving me to rest, and was told no work, feet up for a week. I'm an awful patient especially when it comes to bed rest as I'm not very good at doing nothing. Already wasn't to go swimming and to yoga - but I won't I promise!
To top the day off I noticed that there were messages on the machine. Hadn't listened to them as it's always dad. But thought I would as I had nothing else to do. Fur messages were dad, one was hospital oops! I called back but it was 5:10 and apparently everyone had gone home for the weekend, so now we have to wait all weekend to find out what that was a out. The only thing I can think of is a change in my bloods. I guess we will find out Monday.

Huw's a big brave boy!

This was almost two weeks ago and can't believe I forgot to post about it! Will, blame it on baby brain! I had my fortnightly blood appointment at the hospital, and this time Huw had to come and have his bloods taken, which was quite amusing for me as Huw can be a bit of a baby when it comes to seeing his own blood.
He wasn't too impressed at the fact that they wanted two vials, but they were very good with him and took him to a room where he could lie down. His face was a picture when the midwife told him he didn't have very good veins! He did resemble a rabbit in the proverbial headlights. As soon as she'D finished he lept off the bed and ran out, leaving me alone for mine. Luckily ive had so much taken now that it doesn't really bother me. We had the blood results which are good as the Tigre level for neither anti c or e have risen, so we were allowed home with no further fuss. I gave Huw some chocolate for being a good boy in hospital!

the weekend

having the first dry day since Christmas day on Saturday, we decided to take Mia to Roath Park to test drive her new roller skates. I've decided it will be easier to teach Mia to skate by having a pair myself, an idea that Huw has vetoed until the baby is born - spoilsport!! Chris and Ian decided to come too, so we met at the park. Mia was surprisingly good on these skates to be fair and managed not to fall over once. She did resemble Bambi on ice at first, but soon got to grips with it and was off on her own in no time. She didn't do quite so well up hill but it's a learning curve and she'll do better when i get mine!! Ian and i have decided that Huw can have a bike that attaches a seat for the baby so that he can come around the parks with us while we skate. I took our new camera to get some practice in but Mia moved too fast for me to keep up.
Deciding that we were all hungry, we called into the Hungry Horse and had a lovely meal together before taking our tired daughter number one home to watch a film before bed.
Mia also became a brownie this week, she seems to be growing up so fast. She's very thrilled that she is no longer a rainbow but is not so excited about the Brownie uniform!!!

Sunday, Mia went swimming with her dad and the four of us went over to the Vale. Huw and Ian went off to play a game of golf and Chris and i went for a sauna and swim. Unfortunately the pool was rather packed with the newbies ( it is January after all ), and a swimming class at the bottom. So we decided we'd go in the fast lane as there were only two men in there. it turns out that they were alternating members of Cardiff City football team in the fast lane, with Chris and i getting in the way with our breast strokes. They were very nice about sharing the lane with us. The jacuzzi was far too hot today and i couldnt stick it for very long.
afterwards, Huw and I toddled off for sunday lunch whilst Ian and Chris went home for a rest.
anyway, here are some shots for our maiden voyage witht he new camera.

The nursery

Last day of the Christmas holidays Monday, so we decided to use the time wisely and decorate the nursery. i thin we did quite well considering Huw is not one for decorating. we managed to assemble the cot and paint the walls and ceilings, without wrecking the rest of the room. Mia helped too but got a little bored half way through and went to visit my mum instead.
we've opted for a creamy yellow as its nice, bright warm colour and matches the furniture quite nicely. Huw is getting to grips with the costs of baby things, although he was very miffed that a tin of paint cost him £23!!! he's in for a bigger shock in Mothercare soon!!!

anyway, here's a picture of baby Boo's awaiting nursery :)

happy New Year

Well the new year if finally here and feels much closer to boo's arrival. Only 10 weeks to go (hopefully)!! The break is over all too soon, have had a lovely Xmas with the family and the rest has been fabulous. Nit looking forward to the end of the holiday and the next half term of work, but only have 6 weeks left in work before my maternity leave starts!!!! Yay!
I seem to have grown at a rapid pace over Xmas and am feeling rather huge. Which is probably nothing compared to how I will feel in a month or so time. According to the websites, boo is now approx 39cm long and weighs 3lb. I can feel every centimetre too when shie starts wriggling around, and weirdly, even thou she is more active than Mia ever was, she is veery similar in the positions that she likes to lie. Always on the right side of my belly and up as high as she can go. anyway, here's to the new year and a few months off with boo!