Birth pool

We booked the birth pool today! It's all becoming alarmingly real. It arrives on 1st August & goes back on 8th September. 5 week hire for £340, not bad. We went with Aquabirth - Fiona, the woman who runs it is lovely and very understanding. She said that if Wiggler is late, it's more important that we have her/him rather than worrying about returning the pool so to tell her & she'll jiggle her pools from her end. How nice is that?!

Still, getting quite scared now.

*Think happy thoughts, don't get freaked out because it'll make it worse*

Baby clothes :-)

We bought our first baby clothes today! Well, technically the first piece we bought was in New York - an I <3 NY bodysuit - it's so dinky. Hope it'll fit, if only for a few days.

Anyhoo...we were at B&Q getting paint etc for the nursery & saw that Sainsbury's had 25% off all clothing. So we went in to see what they had. I'm glad we did because we got about 20 things for £20! Bargain! They range from newborn to 3-6 months. We bought some lovely Winnie-the-pooh bodysuits, plain white ones and patterned with a bear/stripes etc; some sleep suits with stripes/numbers on and a plain one and also bought a Winnie-the-pooh sleeping bag.

There are some really lovely unisex things on the Mothercare website. We've set up a gift list to keep track of things we like :-). A lot of places really are quite rubbish for unisex; it's all pink for girls & blue for boys. Adams Kids is the worst! H&M have some awesome little t-shirts for babies. Will be going back there when we need to get some more stuff.

Travelling while pregnant

We're back from the States now. We had a fabulous time, except in NYC where it rained pretty much the whole week :-( I'm glad we went; I feel refreshed having not been at home/work for 3 weeks, but if the situation presents itself again I wouldn't repeat the experience. We did a phenomenal amount of walking which, had I not been pregnant as was the trajectory when said holiday was booked, would've been fine. However, the amount of walking we we did meant that I was so very tired for the last week while we were in Washington DC. Normally I'd have been fine, but I was ready to come home by 11th May, which is a shame because DC is a really nice city - so spacious & clean. It's easily walkable, which is just as well as the metro stops are quite far apart compared with Boston and NYC.

I found it frustrating that I was ready to be back "home" in the hotel by early evening. Usually I'd have liked to stay out and seen the night-life, but I was ready for bed by about 8pm! I think Simon found it frustrating too because he didn't have anyone to go out with like he does at home.

I also did a really stupid thing - I booked our train tickets for April instead of May. Luckily the nice man at Boston South Station realised it was a genuine mistake and refunded the whole amount. We actually ended up getting a bus which was a fraction of the price of the train ($17 each for a single trip from Boston to NYC & the same for NYC to DC). I was so cross with myself and can't help thinking that it wouldn't have happened if I weren't pregnant with pregnancy dementia.

So, if you're going to go on holiday while you're pregnant, do it before you get to 25 weeks, get someone else to check your reservations before you make them and go sit on a beach!

Stokke!!!

So...we're in Boston right now...wandering around somewhat aimlessly and we stumble upon a maternity store. Inside said maternity store is none other than a Stokke Xplory! WOOOOOOOH! We knew we'd like one for Pie mini, but didn't know where to see one "in the flesh" to have a go and a play. We certainly didn't expect to find one in Boston of all places. Anyhoo, we are now decided on the Xplory. It's such a smooth ride and so much higher than regular push chairs. It's also LOADS slimmer than other ones which is great. So we are now decided that this is the travel system/thing for us and most grateful that Mum has very generously said she'll buy it for us.

I didn't realise how pushing something that big would affect me. When you're walking down the street it's just you, your bag and your personal space in front of you. When I was test driving the Xplory it felt so weird. My personal space was totally massive and it was a bit daunting. I suppose I thought it would be a little like pushing a trolley, but no. Nothing like it. When you're in the supermarket, everyone has a trolley. Not everyone has a huge multicoloured thing with a baby in it. Hmm. We'll see how this progresses. It reminded me of an article I read online a few weeks ago about the first time you go out with your new baby alone. It hadn't even occurred to me that this might be weird. Can't really comment on that yet though.

Midwife appointment at 23 weeks

So I saw another different midwife today. She seems nice and has said that I can stay with her now rather than seeing someone different each time. She was actually pretty shocked that I'd seen different people each time.

I asked her about the possibility of a home birth. She was really excited about it! She said that none of her ladies are having home births at the moment and that she likes them. This really surprised me because everyone I've spoken to and most things I've read on the internet say that midwives aren't a fan of home births. A pleasant surprise then - she even said that it was the best way to get one to one care during the birth! Phew, I'm now relieved. All we need to do now is figure out how to afford a birthing pool. It may have to be born in the bath teehee! Just kidding. I said that to Simon and he nearly died. Hahaha...

We're off to America for 18 days tomorrow. I'm nervous about all the travelling. The trip was planned before we knew about le bump so will see how it goes. I'm sure it'll be fine.

Post Germany

Simon and I went to Germany for a friend's wedding the weekend just gone. I didn't plan the return very well! We got back quite late last night and so I've taken today as extra holiday to catch up on travel sleepiness!

Ute (friend who got married) is also pregnant and expecting at the same time as me. It was really nice to be around someone who is in the same situation as you. I got sooooooooo tired at the wedding party, we didn't get to bed til gone 2. It was great to see her so happy though - and in a dress!!

Pregnant, married school friends!

Some of her wedding guests bought her baby stuff like a push chair/travel system thing. It made me realise that we haven't bought anything for our baby yet. At all. I have a list of essentials and some stuff we're having from my Mum's house (changing table/chest of drawers and a mirror). It was Mum's when she was little and I had it when I was a child and now it's going to belong to Pie mini. Dad's going to get the family crib from Uncle Mike's in the next few months. I'll feel better when we've started to get stuff together. It's creeping up faster than I thought it would; we haven't even decorated the nursery yet! We are agreed on what colours we want, which is a start. The plan is to get on the case when we're back from America - the next hurdle! (Financial and physical).

21 week pregnant bellies!

20 week scan!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! I love scans. I appreciated that bump doesn't really like them, but they're bloody wicked! It sounds incredibly cheesey and everyone says it but it really is true: there aren't words to describe the sensation of seeing the development of your unborn child.

We got 2 pictures (seems to be what they do at the hospital instead of just giving you 1) and this is the best one. It's more clear on the actual image, scanning always seems to lose clarity. It's so much more advanced than it was before - it actually looks like more of a human now! We decided to still not know if it's a boy or a girl so it remains an it until birth. I could tell that Simon really wanted to know, but we stuck by our original decision which I'm pleased about.

Not so keen on the scan lady this time, she kept poking it and got quite irritable with it when it didn't lie how she wanted. I get that she needed to get certain measurements etc, but hey!

Anyhoo, we're both really excited now!