Where you can find me!

Now that my blog has had a revamp I have social media buttons, Yay! I would love it if you could give a 'click' and follow me elsewhere. I especially want to find more of you on Pintrest :) If I'm doing so already I will give you a follow back.

 

Thank you

x

My 2014 'To do list'

I don't do New Year Resolutions, so instead I'm compiling my '2014 To Do List'. Which consists of 'sort of' resolutions and things that I do really need to get done!

 

1. Arrange a meeting with the new head at my school to discuss going back to work :(

 

2. Get in touch with the childminder I said I'd call since June :-/

(I'm in denial about going back to work)

 

3. Battle the bulge! I've always been a 'chubs', there is no way I'll ever be a 'skinny mini' I just don't have the frame. However I do need to shift SEVERAL pounds to get to a healthy weight. It is something I have always battled with, losing it, putting it and more back on before the cycle starts again! In fact I was doing quite well at the end of 2012 before discovering I was pregnant. At the moment I just don't have the motivation.

 

4. Be more organised! Something I seem to have gotten worse at.

 

5. Make the most of everything! Time just whizzes past and before you know it another year has passed by. I don't think I make the most of the day and should!

 

6. Move out of London. I don't want Eliot to grow up here...that is a future post!

 

7. See more of my friends. Since becoming a mum I have been very pre-occupied with the role and not seen much of my friends at all.

 

8. I'd love to build my blog readers/followers and work with more great brands.

 

 

I'm sure there's more but writing this at a late hour my mind has gone blank.

 

Aha! At a better time of day I've remembered what else is on my 'to do's'! 7/1/13

 

9. Move Eliot into his own bedroom. He is almost too big for his crib but I keep putting the move off!

 

10. Find a new job, this goes hand in hand with number 6. If we move I will need a new job because my current school will be too far away.

 

Have you got similar 'to do's'/'resolutions'? I'd love to hear from you :)






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My Pregnancy 28-40 Weeks

This was the final leg…we were getting closer to meeting our boy! I still wasn't free of unscheduled visits to the antenatal unit, read on for my third trimester experience.

Morning Sickness

None at this stage

Cravings
None really at this point, occasionally still had my milkshake craving.

Scares
By this stage of my pregnancy I was a lot calmer and relaxed about any worries. At 36 weeks Ailsa visited for the usual routine pregnancy checks. Unfortunately my blood pressure was a bit high and there was protein in my urine. Ailsa was concerned it could be pre-eclampsia. So she took some blood to save me waiting at the hospital and sent me to the antenatal assessment unit. When I got there they checked bubs’ heartbeat, which was all good and took my blood pressure which had mysteriously but thankfully gone back to a normal reading. The blood test result concluded it wasn’t pre-eclampsia, thank goodness!
At 39 weeks I hadn’t felt bubs move much so thought it would be wise just to get checked out at hospital. I handed over my notes and explained why I was there. As soon as I sat down to wait the little fella decided to do a dance! What a relief but typical he decided to move as soon as I arrived! They did their usual checks, hearbeat, urine, blood pressure. Baby was fine but they were concerned about pre-eclampsia again. So that meant a battle to get blood…again. By this point I’d sort of gotten used to the whole process so it didn’t bother me as much. Results came back normal so I was able to go and the following day Annie was visiting for another routine check, I felt pretty chilled.

Midwives

At 28 weeks I had an appointment at the hospital to get the anti d injection as my blood is Rhesus negative. I didn’t explain this previously, for anyone who’s not sure this meant if baby’s blood was Rhesus positive and our bloods crossed, my body would develop antibodies which would affect any future pregnancies. Even though I’d already had a couple of anti d doses you still have the one at 28 weeks.
Next it was the usual midwife appointments, I met two more of the midwives from the team who were nice but I didn’t feel as comfortable with as I did with Annie, Ailsa or Johanna. From 36 weeks the midwives came to do the routine checks at home.
t was Ailsa who was first to visit at home and the above (in scares) drama happened. Because of the ‘drama’ Ailsa wanted me to be seen the following week as opposed to two weeks later. At 37 weeks I met Jane, all the checks showed that there were no problems and she was happy to leave me to be seen two weeks later at 39 weeks. My next visit was from Annie who I hadn’t seen since my booking appointment at 10 weeks. She arrived with a student midwife, did the usual and booked me in for an induction in case our boy decided to stay comfy two weeks after my due date 24/6/13. Whilst Annie was feeling the position of bubs she said, ‘I don’t think he’s small’. Just what every woman wants to hear at 39 weeks pregnant haha!

Scans

I had been indecisive about booking a 4D scan as they are expensive and not a necessity. Friends had recommended them and I knew I would regret it if I didn’t have one. When Wowcher had one on offer I bought the deal and booked in for the scan at 29 weeks. We were so excited to see our boy in 4D and wondered who he would look like.

On the day, bubs chose to be uncooperative, much like the 20 week scan and didn’t want to move around too much but we did get some amazing viewing of him yawning and pulling funny faces. We left with some photos and a DVD. He looked like someone I’d seen before, it was strange but I guess it was because he looked like one of us.

If you’re undecided about having one, I would definitely recommend having the 4D scan, purely for experiencing seeing your little miracle so clearly. It brought tears to our eyes!





My Pregnancy 13-27 Weeks

So here we were in the second trimester of pregnancy, looking forward to more scans and feeling those first flutters!

 Morning Sickness

My morning sickness completely disappeared before the second trimester, I was lucky!

 Cravings

I still had my inklings for strawberry milkshakes but also went through a short phase of craving cheese and tomato pizza from Dominos.

 Scares

Unfortunately little scares kept us on our toes throughout our pregnancy!

I’d started to feel really noticeable flutters around the 18-19 week mark. At 23 weeks I there was an evening when I hadn’t really felt much and I started to worry. The next morning at work my colleague and I were doing some lesson planning but all I could think about were the ‘none’ baby movements. I called the midwife and ended up bursting into uncontrollable tears. The midwife did her best to reassure me and told me to come up to the antenatal unit so she could listen to bubs’ heartbeat. I’d gotten myself in to such a state, my colleague had to get the ok from our boss. So off I went, when I arrived at the antenatal unit I was greeted by a jam packed waiting area of blossoming bumps. Luckily I didn’t have to wait long until the midwife I’d spoken to called me. This was my first meeting with Johanna, she made me feel at ease and reassured me. It took what seemed like forever to find bubs’ heartbeat and I could feel the panic start to kick in. Soon it was swept away by relief when Johanna tracked down the heartbeat, all was ok.

 At 25 weeks I got up to go to work one morning and saw the tiniest spot of blood when I went to the loo. After my previous experiences a few weeks earlier and having found out all looked ok with our bubs at the 12 Week Scan, I felt remarkably calm. I pre-warned my boss that I might have to dash off as I knew if I called the midwife they would tell me to go to the hospital. I didn’t experience any further bleeding so didn’t call the midwife until the afternoon who said I should go to the antenatal assessment unit as I was rhesus negative. I was going up to the hospital anyhoo to get blood taken as the midwife couldn’t get enough for some routine tests.

Went and got my blood done first which again proved unproblematic for the phlebotomist, then made my way to antenatal.

They did the usual checks, blood pressure, urine, listened to bubs’ heartbeat but also wanted to take more blood…are you kidding?! I had just been downstairs in the blood clinic! Alas it was an important test to check if any of baby’s blood had crossed into mine. Of course may veins weren’t playing ball and after a couple of attempts by one midwife she asked her colleague to have a go, which she managed from the back of my wrist and boy did it hurt when she took the needle out. I was not a happy bunny! I then had to wait for my anti d injection to be sent up with some very heavily pregnant women, some of whom were in early labour, daunting to say the least!

This certainly wasn’t my last visit to the antenatal assessment unit, I was there again, I can’t remember exactly why (that’s why I should of documented all my memories at the time) but I met Johanna again as the midwife on the unit couldn’t manage to get my blood so they called for the midwife from the team who was at the hospital and it happened to be Johanna, which I was happy about.  Much to my relief she managed to take some blood on her first attempt.

 Midwives

At my 16 week appointment I met a midwife called Ailsa, she was very calm and informative, again someone else I would feel happy with delivering my baby. At my next appointment I met a different woman from their team but did not feel as comfortable as with the other three I had met, I guess it was just that personal feeling you get sometimes.

 Scans

Looking back now, I had heaps of scans, much more than the usual two that most normal, low risk pregnancies have.

One of my best friends bought us a private gender scan as a gift. At 16 weeks we found out the sex our baby. I was so excited to find out if we were expecting a girl or boy, I didn’t mind what it was as long as he or she was healthy but I was convinced it was a girl! So when the sonographer said ‘congratulations it’s a boy!’ I was taken aback. Daddy was very happy as he was desperate to have a boy! We had lunch after and discussed names as now we could really pinpoint one. We then went on a bit of a spree and bought our first few bits of boy’s clothes.

Our next scan was at 18 weeks as we’d been referred for a heart scan because there was a history on my mum’s side of the family. We were excited to see our bubs again but at the back of my mind I was aware at any scan things could change drastically. I was scanned for about an hour but thankfully all looked. They said baby was still very small so they wouldn’t necessarily pick up anything and booked us in for another appointment in a few weeks time.

 Next on the list was the important 20 week anomaly scan. That day our boy decided to be particularly stubborn. The sonographer confirmed ‘he’ was a ‘he’ and saw most of the things she needed to apart, from one side of the heart. So first of all I was required to do some ridiculous thrusting movements to prompt him to move but no joy came from those! Off I was sent on a jaunt around the GP surgery to see if that might entice bubs to turn…still no joy. Of course I was thrilled when she then asked me to go have some chocolate and a sugary drink. I certainly didn’t need an excuse for chocolate! Even after all that our lil man still hadn’t budged so it was back to those thrusting movements. Eventually after all that malarkey the sonographer saw what she needed and everything looked ok. The only small issue was that my placenta was lying low. I would need to have another scan at 36 weeks to check it had moved out of the way, if not it would mean Caesarean, eeek!

At 26 weeks it was back to hospital for the second heart scan. Now our boy was bigger, they confirmed that everything looked ok. They do warn you that not all heart defects can be picked up on the scan. Of course we were happy and relieved that bubs looked healthy.

Other

I’d been looking into different types exercise and started pregnancy yoga around 17 weeks. It had been recommended by one of the midwives who had also warned me that in her experience ,women who had done pregnancy Pilates were more likely to tear. Of course she wasn’t saying every women who did it would but that definitely put me off!

We have a children’s centre attached to the school I work at and they ran pregnancy yoga there, ‘Yoga Bumps’. It was a great deal cheaper than other pregnancy yoga classes I’d looked into. The lady who ran it was also a Doula and was expecting her own baby. I found it extremely relaxing and found it helped prepare me for labour and birth, I definitely give it 10/10 for pregnancy exercise.

My pregnancy 0-12 Weeks

Weeks 0-12

I was around 4-5 weeks pregnant when I made the discovery I was expecting, read my experience here

From the moment I found out I was terrified something was going to go wrong and I would miscarry. I was desperate to get to the 12 week stage, have the scan, see and hear my baby’s heartbeat and be told everything looked normal. So of course the weeks dragged on and here are a few of the things I experienced.

Morning Sickness
After hearing and reading about other mum to be’s morning sickness traumas I was very lucky with my experience! It must have been around 7 weeks I started to get nausea. It would come on as quick as it would go. I’d be teaching my class and all of a sudden I’d feel sick and start to retch. Some of the kids would notice and look at me like I was nuts. It would last for a couple of minutes at most and then disappear. I noticed being very hungry at this stage of pregnancy and I would get nauseous if I got hungry. I found dry cream crackers helped and had a pack on my desk at work. I was lucky it never got worse than this. The hunger would wake me in the early hours and I would get up to chomp on a cereal bar or something like it. 

Cravings

I was always asked by friends and family if I had any cravings. During this time period I remember fancying strawberry milkshakes and would pick a bottle up on a jaunt to the supermarket.

Scares
When I thought I was around the 11 week mark, I went to the loo and noticed brown blood when I wiped. Naturally I panicked and thought the worse especially when over the course of the afternoon it increased and I saw red blood.
I was extremely upset and my other half went into panic mode too. I looked up early pregnancy clinics and my bf called our local hospital who booked us in the following day. I was due for the booking appointment with the midwife around the same time so had to call and cancel. She tried to reassure me as I wasn’t experiencing any pain. It was a long rest of the day and night and I became quite hysterically upset at one point.
The next day the bleeding had seemed to have worn off and we made our way to the early pregnancy clinic.

There were several other people there and I waited anxiously. They took a urine sample and my blood pressure, then there was more anxious waiting for a scan.

When we were eventually called I explained what had happened to the doctor and got ready to be scanned, petrified of what the outcome might be. She prodded and pressed as she rolled the scan wand across me then said she needed to do an internal scan. My heart dropped. But soon after the internal scan had started she said ‘I can see the heartbeat’, what an overwhelming sense of relief and happiness I felt and shed a few tears. The doctor dated me at 10 weeks, so a week earlier than originally thought. She told me if I experienced similar bleeding in the next couple of days not to worry but if it happened after that then to come back.
A week and a half later I went to the loo on my lunch break and the same thing happened, there was brown blood. I burst into tears and called the early pregnancy clinic. They told me I needed to get there before 4pm to ensure a scan. I got hold of my boss and she agreed to let me go early. Thankfully all was ok and this time little bubba was bouncing all over the place. They did struggle to take blood from me at this appointment but were eager to get so they would know if I was Rhesus negative as this would impact any future bleeds and I would need an anti d injection. It turned out I am Rhesus negative so would need anti d in the future.

Midwives
I had my first appointment with the midwife I’d spoken to when I had my scare. She explained that at my GP surgery there were a team of midwives and over the course of my pregnancy, I would meet them all with the idea that one of them would deliver my baby. The midwife was called Annie, I really liked her, she was honest and straight talking, someone who I would’ve been happy with delivering my baby. It was a looonng appointment, going through the maternity notes book and answering several questions…I thought all my midwife appointments would be  that length! She decided to let the phlebotomist (jeez I can barely say the word, never mind spell it!)  at the hospital take my blood when I went for the 12 week scan, as I explained my veins weren’t very co-operative and I had an aversion to blood tests. My ‘aversion’ stems from when I had an operation in my early twenties. The anaesthetist couldn’t get a vein to put me to sleep so I was constantly having a needle inserted, in the end they put me out with the gas as I became hysterical. Then they were successful eventually… I woke up with several needle marks all over my hands, arms and back of wrists. It’s not really the needle that bothers me, it’s the process of finding a viable vein that I find extremely creepy!

Scans
So we had seen our little miracle at 10 and 11 and a half weeks but I still couldn’t wait for the all important 12 week scan. I went for the blood tests first and sat very unhappily waiting for my turn with the phlebotomist. What a surprise and relief when after checking both arms he got blood very easily. After almost shedding a couple of fear tears, I expected him to say he needed to try the other arm but nope he’d done his job perfectly and extracted some of my blood for the purposes required! He told me my ‘best arm’ for future tests and off we went to wait for our scan. 

When we went in I perched on the bed I was both excited and anxious, even though bubba had appeared ok in the two previous scans I was still paranoid! This was short lived when the grainy image appeared. Our little bubs looked chilled laying, back and raising its hand to its mouth. The sonographer told us that everything appeared to be normal at this stage, what a relief.

We were overjoyed and left with scan photos for us and grandparents.

Our little bubs at 12+4