Those First Few Moments...

The day I found out I that I might be pregnant is indelibly etched on my mind.  I remember how tired and exhausted I felt, like no exhaustion I had ever felt before.  I remember the warm spring wind that whipped my face.  I remember the walk to the chemist - the streets so empty apart from a women and her baby, and wondering if that might be me soon.  I remember waiting to see if a line would appear.  I remember the myriad of mixed feelings of shock and happiness and fear and nervousness and excitement, and really really wanting to see Boyfriend, to give him a great big cuddle, and to tell him the news face to face.  

My mind was racing and heart was pounding so I went on a walk to try calm myself down.  As I walked an older man on a bicycle approached me.  He was dressed in high-visibility gear.  I thought he might be looking for directions.  Instead he told me he had just written his first ever limerick, inspired by something he had seen on TV the night before and that he wanted to test it out on me.  So he started reciting his little limerick that was all about a hedgehog in a tent.  I wish I could remember exactly how it went, but my mind was still racing with thoughts on my expanding family.  Needless to say it was a very very surreal moment in my life.

So now, when I think back to first finding out about our new addition I invariably think of hedgehogs (which is only a good thing as I adore hedgehogs).  

The other week I wanted to buy our baby something special as it's first ever toy.  Something it will grow up with and love and cherish for a long long time.  And I couldn't think of anything more special and fitting as a toy hedgehog, to mark the moment that I first found out about baby.  After an internet search, I came across UK based textile artist Sara Carr, who sells these beautiful hedgehog plush toys from her Etsy shop:

Aren't they gorgeous?  One is currently on it's way to me as we speak.  I'm sure it's going to be much loved for a very long time.  

I'm also in love with Monty the Fox - perhaps it'll be a future present for when baby is a little older...  Or maybe as a present to myself...!

xx

37 Weeks

I took this photo on Sunday, after Boyfriend and I enjoyed our last meal out as a couple.  We went to our favourite pub in Linlithgow - The Four Marys - and then walked around Linlithgow Loch in the freezing cold wind, but beautiful winter sun.

Our meal was 'enhanced' by the fact that as soon as I went into the pub the barman came running over to tell me that people under the age of 18 weren't allowed in the bar area, so I would have to leave.  I had forgotten my purse so didn't have any ID on me to prove I was over 18, so I had to explain to him that I was 30, and also 9 months pregnant, so there was no danger of me drinking anyway.  Thankfully, common sense got the better of him and he let me stay so we could enjoy our lunch.

Pregnancy has got a little bit easier for me lately.  I know it's supposed to get harder, but my back doesn't seem to hurt any more and sleep is coming a lot easier to me.  I also seem to have a lot more energy, though maybe that's from finishing up at work, not having to travel for hours each day, and getting to enjoy some much need long lies in bed.

This is going to sound a little strange, it may be just me, but it just seems so unreal that so very soon there's going to be a little baby in my arms.  However, last week two of my friends, who announced their pregnancies just a few weeks before I did, have had their babies.  Beautiful baby girls.  Which has kind of made it hit home that I will actually have a baby.  Very very soon.    I'm still finding it hard to grasp exactly how our lives will change - although I have thought about it a lot - more so than the actually giving birth bit.

I've been super emotional lately.  When our washing machine went a bit wrong I was able to cope with it for a while, but by the sixth day of us not being able to fix it I went into total meltdown and spent most of the day in tears.  Nothing Boyfriend could do would snap me out of it.  Other small things set me off as well.  I'm the first to admit that sometimes I've been a nightmare to live with lately.

Maternity leave is everything I'd hoped for and more.  I think 36 weeks was the ideal time for me to leave.  I couldn't have lasted any longer at work, but had I gone off on leave earlier I think I would have been bored and stressed out by the state of our house.  As it is, there isn't much more to do and our house will be pretty much finished on Sunday.  I'm going to finish painting the bathroom today.  The carpet fitters are coming on Friday to lay the carpet in the baby's room, and then we'll get all of the furniture and baby things in the room.  Then all of our spare furniture will be moved into storage on Saturday.  And on Sunday we'll have a great big clean.  It feels good to finally have an end in sight after months and months of living in upheaval.  This is providing baby stays in until Sunday of course.  And as I mentioned, our kitchen won't be 100% finished for quite some time, but I'm really ok with that.  

All of baby's clothes, sheets and blankets have been washed and are currently drying.  It feels good to start getting prepared on that front too.  

None of my dresses fit me anymore, length wise.  They all sit so short, like tunics.  I only bought maternity jeans a few weeks ago, before we went on holiday up north, as it would be cold and we'd be outdoors walking a lot.  I was worried I wouldn't get much wear out them.  As it happens I live in them now.

And that is what it's like being 37 weeks pregnant :)

xx

Our Kitchen...

...We've not quite finished our kitchen yet, and I wasn't going to share the photos with you until we are finished, but realistically, we've got a workable, liveable and safe kitchen and what with baby expected to arrive anytime in the next few weeks I don't see us finishing it for quite some time.

So I thought I'd share with you the photos of our kitchen so far.

First, here's our old kitchen from when we first moved in:

 I guess it doesn't look *too* bad here, I guess.  A little dated perhaps?  And that Christmas tree in the corner adds a little certain something, doesn't it?!

We'll, after a year and a half of us living here, here's a really bad quality, grainy iPhone photo of what it looked like about half an hour before the workmen showed up to rip out the old kitchen:

Yes, we were living with exposed electrical cabling, big holes in the wall, and unpanelled sections.  It was lovely.

We had a very small budget, and wanted to get the most for our money, so Boyfriend and I went to Ikea and picked out a kitchen and appliances that we liked.  We went for the Adel kitchen in cream.  Design-wise, we didn't have a clue, apart from knowing that we wanted to move the sink to the far window to give us more countertop space.  So, for the small fee of £20 an Ikea designer came to our house one evening and spent an hour listening to what we do in our kitchen, what was wrong with our old kitchen, and measuring and planning and plotting.  After he'd finished he presented us with plans, 3D drawings of what our new kitchen would look like and a quote.  We were super impressed, especially what we would get with our budget.  Even better, Ikea were running a promotion at the time, where you got £100 in Ikea vouchers for every £1000 you spent on their kitchen range.  So we got some money back to spend on things we needed for the house - win!

We were going to do the work in installing the kitchen ourselves, but figured between both of us working full-time, me heavily pregnant, and us having no real DIY skills, that it would take months and months and months, time that we just didn't have, and would look less than perfect.  The Ikea quote for installation was astronomical, so we went with a joiner who is the friend of a friend and got it professionally fitted for a great price, in only five days.  

Here's how it looks so far:

We had to make a few compromises due to cost.  We wanted real wood worktops, but couldn't stretch to them.  So instead we went for Ikea Pragel worktops in walnut (£35 for over 2 metres).  Originally we were going to go for the Pragel in light oak, but after a second trip to Ikea to look at the worktops, we thought the walnut ones looked way better and more expensive than the light oak worktops.  Due to the length of our kitchen, unfortunately there has to be a join in the worktops, but c'est la vie.

We also wanted a tiled floor, but after removing the old lino we found an old parquet floor.  Which would have been perfect to sand and re-varnish, but a previous owner had at some point poured concrete over big bits of it.  To renovate the parquet would have cost too much, and to take the parquet up, level the floor and tile it would have cost a fortune.  So instead we got some timber floor effect vinyl.  I had been dead set against having any kind of vinyl/lino but after having a look in our local flooring shop at how far it has come in the last few years I was a convert.  And the price was good!

We still have to tile the walls, paint, sort the ceiling and put a couple of shelves up (which will remove a lot of the countertop clutter), but otherwise we are very happy with our new kitchen.  The sink in the new position gives us a lot more counter space, and by removing the shelving than ran the length of the right hand side of the kitchen makes the room look a lot bigger.

xx

ps: I'm not sponsored by Ikea - we just liked their kitchens :)

36 Weeks

EDIT: I wrote this a few days ago but didn't get round to posting.  So I'm now 37 weeks and 1 day pregnant :)  I finished up work and am now officially on maternity leave and we went for lunch as baby isn't here yet :)

---
I'm currently 36 weeks and 5 days pregnant.  Here's me as of yesterday:

Here's a collection of random thoughts that have been running through my brain this week (I'm a bit too tired to write something coherent, sorry!):

I'm finding it really hard to remember what it's like to not be pregnant. At the same time I'm finding it hard to imagine not being pregnant.  

I've been trying desperately hard to savour every little movement from baby.  I want to be able to remember the feeling of it moving just for me, and just how magical and special it is to feel my little one move, completely protected from the outside world.  

I finish up work tomorrow.  This is the start of a new chapter - of being Wendy who goes to work, does her job and comes home, to being a full time mother - the most important job I'll ever do.  It feels good to be finishing up, and I certainly won't miss my 3 hour plus round commute, but it's also a little sad in a way.  But mainly good!  

I'm excited that in two days time I'll be considered full-term.  Should I get that far boyfriend and I are going out for lunch to celebrate.

I can't help but wonder what our little pudding will look like and what traits it will take from me and what it will take from Boyfriend, and what kind of personality it will have.  I also can't help but wonder if I've been growing a little boy or a little girl.  Time will tell!

xx

ps: Now that I'm on maternity leave, with bit more time and more energy, I'm hoping to catch up on all of your blogs!  Yay!

Holidays...

The other week, Boyfriend and I (and our parrot - it's her annual break too!) headed up to the Highlands of Scotland for a week, thanks to my kind parents who let us stay in their holiday cottage.  As our first and only holiday of the year it was a much needed break.

We've been up there a few times now, and normally we do lots of cycling and walking and outdoor activities, but  being 8 months pregnant with a growing baby in my belly meant we had to curtail our outdoor activities.  Growing a baby and carrying it around in your belly is hard and tiring work!  No mountain biking for me this year.  

Instead we discovered the best cafe in the world, ever.  Seriously.  We had the best veggie burger of our lives, and believe me, we've tried many a veggie burger.  Although it was hard to pick something to eat - every item on the menu sounded amazing, and all of the plates coming out of the kitchen looked seriously delicious.  It honestly took us half an hour to choose what to eat.  Which is unlike us.  I am sorry I have no photos of any of this, but as soon as food is put in front me I have to eat, straightaway.  I don't know how food bloggers manage to take photos of their food.  It really is beyond me!  

The Mountain Cafe also has the biggest homemade cake selection I have ever seen, with what must have been over twenty types of cake.  We were sat right beside the cakes, and could not take our eyes off of them.  The veggie burgers were seriously massive and we didn't have room for cake in the end, so we did the decent thing and got cake to go for later.  Boyfriend opted for a chocolate and beetroot cake (so good) and I went for a berry and chocolate brownie (also good).  The cakes were so good in fact, that on the day we were leaving I had to pop in and get more cake to take-away.  I'm having serious withdrawal symptoms from lack of cake now.  

Best find ever.  Just a shame we live so far away.  

Unfortunately our other favourite cake shop (we are all about the cake!) was closed for the season so we didn't get to go.  Which was probably a good thing for our waistlines.

Apart from eating (which we did a lot of), we met up with friends in our favourite pub again, went on lots of little walks, spied red squirrels frolicking in the trees and on the ground, and even fitted in a trip to the Culloden battle field and visitor centre.  And also just generally ambled around Aviemore and Rothiemurchus. It really is our favourite part of Scotland.  One day we hope to find ourselves with the good fortune to live up there, but for now it's nice to be able to go and visit, and then look at our photos and sigh...

xx

35 Weeks

...Hello, and sorry for the blogging absence.  We've been on holiday in the Scottish Highlands (blog post to follow).  I was also diagnosed with a very low iron count, which accounted for me being super sleepy and having no energy.  Hence lack of blog posts.  I'm now on iron tablets, which have been almost as bad as having a low iron count - leaving me feeling sick, with hot flushes and more.  I seem to be adjusting to them now and feeling leaps and bounds better, with a bit more energy, which is a relief!

So here are Bump and me at 35 weeks (and 5 days):

This little pudding is already making moves to enter the world, having dropped down into my pelvis.  Apparently this doesn't mean it's going to be early though.  Which I'm happy about.  I'd rather it stays in and grows healthier and stronger for as long as it can.

Nonetheless, my hospital bag is packed, and I'm all prepared with my birthing ball and Tens machine.  I tested my Tens machine on Boyfriend to make sure it works.  I wouldn't recommend this!

We built our moses basket stand the other week, and put our moses basket on it.  It's odd to think in a few weeks time a little person is going to sleeping in there.  

I finish up work next week - I am beyond excited about this!

Our whole house is still a disaster zone, but this weekend will see us working super hard on getting the baby's room ready.    

I'm going to miss my perfectly round baby bump. 

In spite of my low iron count and things we still have to do to the house, I can honestly say I don't think I've ever been happier than I have been now.  Baby and I have come a long way in the past 35 and a bit weeks, and I'm so glad we've made it this far.  Lets hope the next 4 and a bit weeks go smoothly!

xx