Week 23/24 - Spring Forward

T-shirt dress - H&M
Maternity Leggings - H&M

This week has been quite busy baby-wise. I had my 24 week midwife appointment. My blood pressure was checked and the 'bump measurement' was taken for the first time. All is well size-wise at the moment. I also got to hear Baby Bond's heart beat and you can hear it kicking too! I have not been weighed at any appointments since the 'check-in' appointment. I find this quite odd, as most of the things I read regarding weight say how much is average to put on during pregnancy. Although I am not worried about my weight gain, as far as I can tell it is normal, I did think it would be checked more. I asked the midwife about this and she said they tend to go on the 'bump measurement'; if baby is growing as it should then mum's weight is not really an issue.

Within the NHS area that I live I have the choice of having Baby Bond at a midwife led birth unit, or a consultant led hospital. The Birth Centre is about 20 minutes from my home, with the hospital about 40/50 minutes away. Originally I had wanted to go to the hospital, thinking 'if anything happens, I'd rather be at the hospital already, rather than get an ambulance from the Birth Centre.' After a chat with the midwife Paul and I decided to visit the Birth Centre to see what it was like. Which we did this week.

I have been reading up about Natal Hypnotherapy. Basically our bodies know what to do, we have to listen to them. The best places to give birth are quiet, dark and calming. Although I haven't got to the bit of the book that teaches about the deep relaxation techniques so far everything about Natal Hypnotherapy makes sense to me. I am an anxious person and want to give myself and my baby the best chance of a calm, natural birth as possible, at the same time I don't want to put any pressure on myself to do things a certain way, I want to go with the flow.

On walking into the Birth Centre I was amazed at how quiet it was. We were informed that there was one mother in labour and two new mums in the bedrooms resting. You could have heard a pin drop! We had a quick talk from a midwife about the birth centre and then we had a tour. There are three birthing rooms, three bedrooms and a kitchen. The birth rooms are dimly lit and all have birthing pools and a couch. There are no beds, something which doesn't bother me. Another idea of Natal Hypnotherapy is that it is unnatural and uncomfortable to give birth laying down, we do not go to the toilet laying down! Birth is no different in that sense, let gravity help. Women who give birth at the birth centre are encouraged to move/walk about and find any position that is comfortable. I felt so calm on the visit that I think it is definitely the place for me to give birth.

I had a bit of a panic on later in the week; at my midwife appointment I had been given a leaflet on 'counting the kicks'. This said to call a midwife if you notice any change in your baby's movements. After a busy day at work and the leaflet ringing in my ears, I was a bit worried, I hadn't felt Baby Bond move much all day. When I got home I tried to stay calm and relaxed, after a little cry, a big hug and support from Paul I felt a bit better. I decided to have a bath and eventually felt baby moving, what a relief! Baby Bond seems to only do smallish movements and only a few at a time, I think I'd been on the move too much to really notice it moving, but all is good! I knew deep down everything was fine. Listen to your instincts!

On a lighter note Baby Bond's cot was delivered this week. I came home from work one evening to find Paul had already built it! I thought I was the impatient one. I had wanted to see the cot before I bought it but no shops had it on display, so I decided to take a risk. All other cots I had looked at were a combination of MDF and pine, whereas this cot is solid pine. I felt this was a good sign and so wasn't too worried that I hadn't seen it. Mothercare sell the cot for nearly £200, but after an internet search I found Tesco sold the cot, for the supplier at £145, bargain!

East Coast Country Cot Bed

Last Saturday my mum and I went to an NCT nearly new sale. I didn't really need much, I mainly wanted a play mat/gym and a few more clothes. But, I ended up with a play mat, clothes, two hooded towels, a blanket, a bottle bag and a sling/carrier. All for the bargain price of £19! I hadn't thought about using a carrier at all, but as it was only £3 I thought I would give it a go! I was really impressed with the organisation of the sale and would recommend them to everyone, have a look for one in your local area. 

Amy x

Baby Clubs and Apps

I have joined quite a lot of baby clubs! Not just for the weekly updates and advice (most tell you the same thing), but for the freebies and vouchers! After all, every little helps right?

So below I have compiled the list of the clubs I have joined and the benefits I have gained from joining. If you have joined any that have great benefits that I have not listed, let me know!

Boots – Parenting Club

You can join this club via the website. You can link your advantage card to your Parenting Club account. You then get 10 points for every £1 you spend on baby items, including prams, cots, 'mummy products' etc. I bought my pram from Boots and got loads of points, which I then used to get wipes, maternity pads, cotton wool and loads more!

There is a parenting/baby magazine you can pick up in store and there are vouchers inside, along with reviews and lots of tips and check lists. You will also get vouchers when you join the Parenting Club.

The website has lots of advice and tips.

 Sainsbury’s – Little Ones

Join this club online. You link your Little Ones account to your Nectar card and get a £5 voucher to spend on Little Ones range.

On the website there is advice, tips, recipes and all the baby related store offers.

Cow and Gate - C and G Baby Club

I basically joined this club to get the free little cuddly cow toy! There are tips etc on the website and you get a little book with info when you join.

Aptamil - Aptaclub

This club, as with the Cow and Gate one, I joined to get the cuddly polar bear! The box it comes in is really neat and has little books of info for each stage of pregnancy and beyond. The website also has advice and tips. They have a helpline you can ring.

Bounty

This is the club you can join via the doctor/midwife. I got the first pack at my first midwife appointment. You can then register online to get information and tips. In the first pack is the voucher for the second; which you collect from Boots, Superdrug, or Asda. You will then get your third pack after you have your baby.

The packs include little samples of sudo crème and stretch mark creams. I am sure the contents will change from now and then. There is also a Bounty app and a name app.

Emma’s Diary

You can join this online or via the free app.

I think this is my favourite ‘club’, just because of the amount of freebies and samples you can get. When you download the app you can go to the ‘offers’ section. This has £200 worth of Argos vouchers for baby related products and vouchers for baby packs. The vouchers are emailed to you and you just print them off. Take the ‘mum-to-be’ etc vouchers to Boots or Argos to get your pack.

At the moment the packs have lots of Johnson’s samples; wipes, nappy cream, baby oil, bath wash. There are also samples of breakfast cereal, money off vouchers and, in the packs from Argos, there are nappy samples from Aldi's range. (My midwife has been told these are good and have won awards, so I will be trying these). Until the baby is here I won't know what nappies suit it and myself; I have to start somewhere!

1st Pack - Bump to Baby

2nd Pack - Mum to Be

The Johnson's items from the Mum to Be Pack

I have also joined the Pampers and Mothercare clubs. You don't get any upfront freebies with these; just the weekly email updates. I tried to join the Tesco club, but the website would not recognise my Clubcard number and so I couldn't be bothered to faff around.

Apps

Both the Pregnancy+ app by Health and Parenting and My Pregnancy by Baby Centre are pretty similar. They have daily and weekly information, for you and on your baby's development. They have checklists, name ideas and lots more. I found these really useful in the early stages of pregnancy when I didn't really have a clue what was happening to me, my body, or my baby! Both apps are free.

Baby Centre App - My Pregnancy

Pregnancy+ App

Week 22/23 - Hormotional

Lips - Revlon Colour Burst Matte Balm, Striking
Cardigan - New Look
Top - Boutique store Falmouth, Cornwall
Maternity Jeans - H&M

So, this week I have been quite hormotional (hormonal and emotional!) In the early stages of pregnancy, when you are ‘meant to be’ emotional and hormonal I can’t say I really noticed a difference. I probably had the normal female mood swings, but nothing out of the ordinary. But it seems to have hit this week!

This could be put down to the fact I met my lovely little 3 week old niece last Sunday, who was born three weeks early and still weeny. I think this must have freaked me out a bit! When you’re pregnant there is a time limit, 9 months, then you’re done. But then comes the next bit! As I am now over the half-way mark I’ve stopped counting up the weeks and now started counting down. It is all getting a bit more real, that in 17 week’s time, I will have a little Baby Bond to look after.

The fact my niece was born early, I think, has added to my hormotional-ness. I am very organised and have most things I need for the first week or so. It’s my way of not freaking out and preparing by doing things early and getting it ticked off my list – I do love a list! But I then started to worry that if my baby arrives early I am still not quite prepared and now is too early for baby to be here anyway…

But after talking to my husband, who is a great support and calms me down when I worry, and my mum, I know I do not need to panic. If I don’t have enough of something in those first few days, someone will fetch what I need! All will be fine, plenty have been there before me and there are plenty more to come.

Due to my slight ‘I am not prepared’ panic I made a trip to Boots this week for some more paraphernalia to tick off my list; maternity pads, breast pads, all the glamorous stuff! Whilst there I decided to treat myself. I love the Revlon Colour Blast Lip Stain; I currently have ‘Lovesick’, but I wanted a bright red one. After some tips from @CymruEm and a look around I decided to go for Revlon Colour Burst Matte Balm in Striking. This isn’t a stain but more a coloured balm. Unlike the stain, the matte balm does not stay on after eating and drinking. You just need to re-apply more than a stain, but I prefer this to the feel of lipstick. I would recommend both the stain and the matte balms. Just got to find your colour.

My mum and nan this week had made a trip to Morrisons and saw these lovely blankets from Morrison’s Nutmeg range. They go really well with other bits I have already bought and as I have two one can be the wash and I still have the other to use!

Changing Mat - eBay
Blankets - Nutmeg @ Morrisons
Booties - Nutmeg @ Morrisons
Muslin - Sainsburys

Also this week I got some baby freebies from Emma’s Diary. I plan to post about baby clubs/freebies etc in the next week or so. I will then post photos of what comes in the packs.

I have my next midwife appointment next week. I think I will be starting to discuss where and how I would like the birth to go. The countdown is definitely on now!

Thanks for reading. Have a good week.

Amy

The First 21 Weeks

I am 23 weeks pregnant today and I would like to share my first 21 weeks with you.

This is my first pregnancy and so everything is new, exciting and sometimes scary. I was prepared for the ‘process’ of trying for a baby to be a long one and I had done all the research I could to prepare my husband and I for the coming months. The main task for me in the start was to monitor my cycles, which was easy and I found they were in sync a lot quicker than I had expected.

We decided not to rush things and continued to keep track of everything, but surprisingly, 4 months later I found myself expecting! I felt so lucky for things to have happened so quickly and I am thankful everyday. However, I was also nervous, having never been in this position before. When I took the pregnancy test I was about 5 weeks pregnant. I wanted to get the ball rolling with doctors and midwives as soon as possible.

I went to the doctors a couple of days after taking the pregnancy test. I was surprised to find they did not do a test to confirm. Apparently modern home tests are so good, plus the signs were there, that the doctor didn’t need to do one. If I’m honest, I felt a little disappointed, I think I felt I needed someone else to confirm it to me, even though, of course, I knew I was pregnant!

I left the doctor’s, having made my first midwife appointment, for 8 weeks pregnant, which felt so long away, feeling a little bit in limbo! We told our families, who were all hugely excited and waited for that first appointment. About a week later I had some odd pains and was advised to have an ‘emergency scan’. I was extremely nervous and just wanted to know that everything was OK. It was. There was our baby, a tiny little white blob on the screen!

It was around this time that I started a diary. I don’t write in it everyday, but it helped in those early days when everything was so new, to keep a note of how I felt, and what changes I had noticed. I think this will be great to look back on and I would recommend it.

I was feeling tired, lethargic, was going to the loo a lot more and, I wouldn’t say nauseous, but just ‘bluergh’! Again, I was very lucky as I did not have any actual sickness, just the feeling and a strange taste in my mouth, some say it is a metallic taste.

I had the first midwife appointment, which just ‘checks you in’, takes medical history, weight, blood pressure and blood test. It was then another wait for the 12 week scan, which was just after Christmas.

The scan went well and we could see the baby’s heart beat, which was amazing! We also got the official EDD (estimated due date), which is in July.

I found the next few weeks a bit strange. I stopped feeling so tired and the bluergh feeling subsided. But I didn’t really have a bump and it was too early to feel kicks. The only real sign I was pregnant was the need to buy a new bra!

From about 17 weeks pregnant my bump was starting to form and I thought I could feel the baby move. I am not sure if it was, but from what other people had described I was convinced it was. For me it feels like bubbling, a bit like a tummy rumble, or wind!! At 19 weeks I knew what had been feeling was definitely the baby kicking. I was having a bath and felt the baby move and also saw it move too. Only a little, but it was there. I love the feeling, it lets me know the baby is there, it’s like it’s saying hello!

At almost 21 weeks I had the 20 week/anomaly scan. They check for all kinds of problems that there could be with the baby’s development and so you get to see the baby in amazing detail. I was blown away by what I saw. The chambers of the heart, the brain, the bones in the hands and feet and you can see it moving around.

We have decided to keep the baby’s gender a surprise. I like hearing people’s theories on what I am having. It is one true mystery. My bump is now a definite baby bump, with strangers even saying congratulations, although I think this is a bit risky!

I hope the second half of my pregnancy will be as smooth and exciting and I hope you will join me on the journey.

Amy x

Weekly images from appox. 18 weeks

Week 21/22 - Another Skirt Bites the Dust!

Top - F+F @Tesco

Maternity Trousers - H&M

This week I turned 22 weeks pregnant and, due to my growing bump, two more skirts and a dress have now been confined to the 'pre-pregancy' pile of clothes! This pile, along with bump, is growing weekly. I haven't bought too many maternity clothes and will wear my 'normal' clothes for as long as possible. I will be heavily pregnant towards the, hopefully, warmer months and so don't want to buy too much now.

Another milestone has been reached this week; Paul (hubby) felt baby move for the first time! I love the feeling of Baby Bond moving around and now being able to share that with others is great. I am waiting for the moment I see an elbow or knee protruding from my belly!

Not much more to report on the pregnancy front this week; things are plodding along nicely. (I hope to post about 'my first 20 weeks' within the next few days/weeks.)

This week the sun has finally made an appearance. It's great, I love Spring, but my Hay Fever doesn't! Now that things are starting to bud and grass is getting cut my nose is getting that familiar twitching feeling, mouth and ears start to itch too. I hope I am not in for too bad a Hay Fever season. I will definitely  be talking to my midwife about what I can do about the symptoms; I will be pregnant throughout the worst parts of the season.

Yesterday Paul and I made a trip to Ikea and Kiddicare to get some bits for Baby Bond. We had a very successful trip, no 'shopping arguments', kicked off by the pretty good, and cheap Ikea breakfast. We wandered through the showroom, which makes it far too tempting to buy what you don't need! Then headed for the 'Market Place'. We picked up a few bits for the kitchen, new glasses etc, a little storage box/foot stall. I plan to use this downstairs for wipes and nappies, so I don't have to run up and down stairs too much and a playmat/rug for Baby Bond's room We don't know what we are having, but Paul and I both like cars and so couldn't resist the rug, especially at £10! Then on to the warehouse to pick the bookshelf and inserts we had made the trip to buy. 

We then made our way to Kiddicare where I wanted to get a Maxi Cosi parasol for our Elea pram (will blog about this soon) and a changing mat. We then made it home just in time to watch England beat Italy in the Six Nations.

After a busy day we then spent a fun evening with friends, greyhound racing. Although I won a few times I don't think I made back what I bet! But we had fun and that's what it's all about!

Expedit Bookcase/Storage Unit - Ikea
Expedit Cupboard Inserts - Ikea

Li llabo Play Mat - Ikea

Funky Friends Changing Mat - Kiddicare
Maxi Cosi Intense Red Parasol      

Max Factor CC Cream

I wanted to treat myself to a new product and as my current BB cream, Garnier BB Skin Perfector in Light, isn't quite cutting it. The Garnier BB cream only comes in two shades and for my rather pale skin even the light is too dark.

I asked Faye of Faye's Fix for her recommendations as I don't really know what I am looking for, she asked her brilliant Twitter followers for their suggestions. I narrowed it down to the following to check out.

Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream: £7.99

Maybelline Dream Pure BB Cream: £6.99

Bourjois 123 Perfect Colour Correction Cream: £9.99

Rimmel London BB Cream Matte: £6.99

Max Factor CC Cream: £9.99

I applied a small amount of the testers to my hand, so I could do a 'swatch' test. The Rimmel and Maybelline creams only had 2 shades and, as with the Garnier, the lightest shade was still too dark for me.

The Bourjois was a strong contender. It had a few shades, with the lightest being quite a good match. I also liked the idea of the different shades within the cream to correct different complexion problems.

Apricot - Anti-fatigue     Green - Anti redness     White - Anti dark spots

However, the Max Factor, again with more shade options, seemed the better match for my skin tone. When rubbing in to my hand I preferred the consistency too. Another plus is the fact most of my other makeup is Max Factor.

I use BB/CC cream as a quick fix when I am at home or just need to pop somewhere. I never leave the house without makeup on, however natural it may be. And even when I am at home I feel better having a bit of coverage, especially at the moment with my break-out prone pregnancy skin!

When I got home I wanted to try the cream out as soon as possible! I like the consistency and the feel of the cream. It goes on well and feels light. The coverage was pretty good, considering it is light and I have a few red patches at the moment. I felt the product did what it promised 'instant complexion enhancer.'

I would recommend this for a quick fix, it will definitely be joining my other Max Factor products in my make-up bag and will be coming in my hospital bag too.

Before                                 After