jamie and his ladyfriends

Pink is the going colour around these parts. Jamie has his pick of the ladies, particularly at church. Check out this photo we snapped at a BBQ at ours yesterday:

From L to R: Izzy- 2 years old, Olivia-4 months, Jamie-2 months, Grace-3 weeks, Maisy-2 weeks.

We've recently found out that our friends Lizzy and Ben are also expecting a girl in late September. 

Our antenatal group has a further 3 girls and thankfully 2 boys! Not that playing with dolls isn't fun, but at least there'll be a couple of boys to make mud pies and play with trucks...

1 month to go!

That's right I'm 36 weeks today! Crazy to think how different life will be in a month's time. I haven't yet reached that point of 'get this baby out of me' - I think mainly because I have so much left to do. I also have two more weeks at work left, a big part of me is wondering why I'm not finishing sooner, but I know I'll be glad to have those two more weeks next year at the end of my maternity leave. Anyway, I thought I'd first share a photo, which my family has been asking for. So this is me a few days ago:

I've generally found pregnany quite enjoyable. It's amazing to think there's a little boy growing inside. He's been making his presence known as well. Kicking and stretching out all over the place.  I think I've been having more (non-painful) braxton hicks contraction this week. We learned on our course that you have contractions from about 20 weeks onwards and when your belly feels compact and hard, that's most likely a contraction-well a practice contraction anyway. Pregnancy hasn't all been fun, of course, there's been some weird and not-so-wonderful aspects which I think are probably related to pregnancy. I've probably shared some before, but here's a little list (particularly for the many friends I've just found out are expecting this summer!):

• excessive trips to the bathroom to pee (first and third trimester)
• leg cramps-side and back of calves (all 3 trimesters)
• occasional sciatic nerve pain in lower back (first and third)
• sneezing (first)
• occasional lower abdominal cramping (all 3-only very painful once)
• decreased fitness, shortness of breath-especially going up stairs (increasing over pregnancy)
• difficulty rolling over in bed or getting off the floor/deep sofa (third)
• groin/pelvic pain-making crossing legs or standing up after sitting a long time painful (since running through airport at Christmas)
• dry eyes/contacts feeling irritated (6th month only)
• itchy rash on lower legs (for last week)
• shortness of breath when talking quickly! (new this week-particularly when I'm first on the phone to someone or kicking off a meeting)
• wine (particulary red) tastes cheap, and still no cravings (all 3)

To be honest, none of those are particularly bad and I don't seem to mind-especially wen you compare it to all the fun things about being pregnant-I'll try to post about that another day. 

A fun weekend ahead with a baby shower tomorrow and our last ever Valentine's day as a childless couple! And, Monday is our last ultrasound and consultant appointment (about the fibroid), and I also have my first midwife appointment at my new GP in Bromley, so expect more news next week!

antenatal course #2 and midwife appt

Sorry blogging has been a little more quiet lately. Wish I could say the new house was taking up all our time, but I don't feel like we've gotten much done here either. Busy with who knows what, but we haven't been in our house long enough to get anything substantial done. The end of February is looking less busy (so far...) so hopefully we'll make some progress then.

One thing that has taken up our time is another antenatal class which was all day Saturday. Another very helpful session. We talked mainly about the birth and some postnatal care. We covered things pain relief options (which will be necessary), ceseareans (which hopefully won't be), and birthing positions (I'll spare the details). In terms of pain relief, we covered four main options:
1.TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) machines-specifically for childbirth, which you can buy or rent. The send electric pulses which can block pain gateways to the brain and also help to release endophins. They are drug free of course and have no side effects for baby.
2. Drug similar to demoral-which is IV based drug, effecting whole body rather than a localized numbness and can sometimes slow labor. It can also cause nausea and sleepiness. I probably won't elect to use this drug.
3. Gas and Air-which is a mixture of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and oxygen. I don't think they use this in the US, but it's commonly used in the UK. Good thing about it is that it only takes 20sec to kick in and 20 sec to leave system, so if I don't like it, I don't have to use it.
4. Epideral-low or high dose. Directly into spine which numbs lower part of your body. There are lots of potiential side effects, plus you have to be tied to monitors constantly, which limits mobility. But you feel a lot less pain.

I want to keep an open approach to the birth. I don't want to go in with a set idea of I definitely want or don't want certain things.  Paul and I are going to write up a 'birth wish list' at some point this month which will outline how we want to approach the birth. 

This morning I also had another midwife appointment.  Everything seems to be in order. My blood tests from last month were back and all was good. My iron levels were high which is good. Blood pressure (118/64) was normal and so was urine test. We heard Baby W's heart beat which was strong. His position is head down, which is perfect and let's hope he stays that way for the last 6 weeks. My bump measured 34 cm which is perfectly average for being 34 weeks. Our next appointments are on Feb 15th and include my final ultrasound, a follow up appt with consultant for the fibroid and another midwife appt which is where we're meant to write up our birth plan with her. I say 'meant to' because I'm in the process of most likely changing to a local midwife so I can go to a local hospital rather than have to drive an hour+ to the hospital closest to our old flat. I've got an appt at my GP on Thursday who will refer me to the local midwife services and then we'll see how the first appt with her goes before I make a final decision.

We finally bought our nursery furniture today and just making final decisions on bedding. I won't reveal anything though until it's all put together. Maybe you can bribe my mom to give you hints as she's helping plan everything and we'll do together when she comes over early next month.  Can't wait!!

antenatal course #1

Paul and I went to our first of three antenatal classes today. These are put on by the National Childbirth Trust which has local branches. Our class was made up of 6 couples all who live in our area, all due in mid March with their first child. One couple lives even lives one street over from us and kindly gave us a ride home. The facilitator was trained as a nurse and midwife and had moved to teaching antenatal courses after have two children. She has been teaching courses for 23 years now! She was very knowledgable and encouraging.


The course started with some getting to know everyone chats and then we split into groups of men and women and brainstormed things we wanted to get out of the course. She started with some general questions and moved more specifically onto late pregnancy. The bulk of the rest of the course was on the the different stages of the labor process. We went over signs of labor, when to call your midwife and when to go into the hospital. She went over what happens and why and what can help. This included practicing different positions, breathing and also, my favorite...massage techniques.

Paul and I feel a lot more informed already. We are seriously considering changing our birth hospital to one down here so we can stay at home as long as possible and not have to worry about driving all the way up to the hospital I have been going to, which could take an hour or more to drive to in heavy traffic.


I won't go into all the details of what we learned today, but I think the most surprising thing we learned was that you are encouraged to stay in an upright, forward leaning position as much as possible throughout labor and even during the birth. This can be standing, sitting, kneeling or squatting. It isn't all about laying back with your feet up in stirrups like they make it out to be on tv. Being upright and forward allows for greater assistance by gravity and also is a much better pelvic position for moving the baby out of the birth canal. They also want you to do what's most comfortable for you throughout the process. I think the course was also very helpful for the guys in preparing them and enabling them to know how best to help us get through it all.