The Waiting Game

15 weeks

 21 weeks 

25 weeks

 30 weeks

39 weeks

So, as you may know if you follow me on Twitter, Saturday was my due date. Our baby is now officially LATE (and therefore takes after his/her father) and we are getting extremely impatient. Everyone I know who has had babies has had them early so I fully expected to follow that pattern but I should have known better - life rarely works out how you expect does it??

I feel like I've been just waiting for the last few weeks. I've hardly left the house for the last week or two as I'm just too massive and uncomfortable to get in and out of the truck and walking anywhere is a no-no since baby's head engaged in my pelvis, bringing the SPD back with a vengeance. We went for a curry on Thursday (which was absolutely amazing by the way - definitely a last supper to remember!) and since then I've pretty much been hanging around the house waiting for early labour signs. I've been doing my hypnotherapy every day, my hospital bag is (finally!) packed and the truck has been cleaned out and filled with pillows for the hospital, snacks and drinks for the labour and chocolates for the midwives. We've even perfected the art of getting the car seat in and out - no mean feat!

I can't concentrate on reading, I can't find anything I want to watch on TV and I'm too grumpy to want to see anyone. I had been so looking forward to maternity leave, I had so many fun things planned but I've not been able to do any of them for various reasons and I hadn't banked on being this antsy and fed up with myself! Last week we were both so excited, expecting the imminent arrival of our long awaited bundle at the weekend. But since the due date has been and gone we've become frustrated and fed up. Patience has never been my strong suit and coupled with the extreme discomfort of late pregnancy I expect I've been a bit of a nightmare lately!

So I'll continue my daily hypnotherapy, bounce on my birthing ball, dose up on evening primrose oil and raspberry leaf and sniff my clary sage oil in a valiant attempt to evict the belly-dweller. I may even suggest another curry night tonight (any excuse)

Please send all your very best 'have a baby' vibes my way - I need all the help I can get!!

Friday Round Up

driving buddy - breakfast take 2 - autumn walk

sausage casserole - baby savings - giant tuna melt

who needs dog toys? - pregnant nails are good nails - big breakfast and an optimistic dog

instagram - madeupoflittlethings

Another week gone, just two weeks until my due date ... eek! I've really been feeling it this week, I'm ready to not be pregnant any more and really, really hoping to not go overdue

This week I've been batch cooking and freezing meals as planned, so far we have a bolognese, cottage pie filling, chicken cacciatore and sausage casserole in stock. It's given me chance to get to know the Aga a bit better - what to cook where and for how long etc. It's also brilliant to have constant heat, no pre heating required! On the downside, it's far too easy to pop a toastie on the simmering plate for lunch ... my cheese intake has gone through the roof! Matt even made his first roast dinner this week - a roast chicken which was the juiciest I've ever eaten and came with all the trimmings. I was most impressed

As well as its amazing cooking abilities the Aga provides a constant, comforting warmth to the kitchen and beyond, meaning that we are getting very little done these days. Sitting in the soporific cocoon of the kitchen results in such a sleepy feeling that we end up in an almost trance like state! 

Earlier in the week I treated my poor swollen feet to a deluxe pedicure which has made me feel a lot better about my poor neglected trotters. I haven't been able to reach them properly for months! I also had ear candling done whilst I was at the salon, something I'd been meaning to do for ages. The therapist massaged my face whilst the candles were burning which was lovely but I really haven't been able to relax enough to enjoy any beauty treatments whilst I've been pregnant - I just can't get comfortable enough. I'm really looking forward to treating myself to a massage and wrap once the baby is born and settled in with us

On Friday I took my best friend Liz out for a birthday tea at a new Italian restaurant in a nearby town. The food was amazing! I had deep fried goats cheese salad to start, followed by a fillet steak with peppercorn sauce and Liz had scallops wrapped in parma ham followed by lobster ravioli. The baby had a chocolate ice cream sundae for pudding :)

Today I'm going to be washing baby clothes in readiness for our imminent arrival. The cot we ordered in July has been delayed until November which has really annoyed me, so the supplier (Mamas and Papas - steer clear of them!) are sending us a free Moses basket and stand so that we have somewhere for the baby to sleep until then. I need to order some bedding for it but apart from that we're pretty much done with baby shopping. We don't have many clothes yet as we want to wait until we know whether we have a boy or a girl before buying more - at the minute we've just got a lot of white clothes! I have emptied The Change Drawer from our old house and have nearly finished counting and banking all the coins - we're nearly up to £500 already! This has all gone into a savings account for the baby so we can go shopping mad when he or she arrives :)

This week I'm planning to finish reading my 'birth preparation' books, do lots of natal hypnotherapy and FINISH PACKING THE BLOODY HOSPITAL BAG! It's still not done - I think I've been putting it off because it makes things feel a bit too real but there's no sense in that - things are real!

Finally, if you don't follow Amy's blog, pop on over and have a peep today. She and her husband welcomed their gorgeous baby boy into the world this week after a horribly difficult time - I've been following her (extremely stylish) pregnancy and have been so excited to see their little bundle. I'm so happy for them :)

Have a great week everyone!

Friday Round Up

a 'get well' cake from one of matts customers - little kitbit - where do we live??

jessie 'helping' - dog walk - bed hog

a cosy corner - flutterby - giant baby bump

instagram - madeupoflittlethings

Predictably late, as usual :) But these posts will always be Friday Round Ups in my head, whatever day they get published

So it's the end of our first couple of weeks in our new house and I have to say, it's not been quite as stressful as I expected. Yes, most of our stuff is still packed away in boxes. Yes I am sick of having to be in the house nearly every day to look after tradesmen, make tea, take deliveries etc. But there have been plenty of pretty wonderful bits too

We've been up early every morning and got into the habit of having breakfast together every day which we're both loving. In the past, Matt has been up early, brought me a cup of tea in bed and raced off to work after a quick bowl of cereal. But work has taken a back seat to home this week and we've spent each morning sitting together at our kitchen table, drinking tea and eating toast or croissants or porridge with the news on in the background and the hazy sun streaming in through the French doors. It's a simple thing but it's made me really happy

It would be easy to let the state of the house get me down but to be honest, I'm not in any position to do anything about it so I've had to accept the way things are and take a 'just get on with it' approach. There are no carpets, unpainted walls, none of the doors shut and we only have one sink - in the kitchen - so brushing my teeth next to the breakfast dishes has become part of my daily routine. With less than three weeks to go until the baby is due, I'm frankly bloody huge and just can't cope with painting or anything more than basic household chores so decorating etc is just going to have to wait

Despite its shortcomings I'm falling a bit more in love with the house every day. Obviously there is still LOADS to do before it resembles a normal living space but I can see the huge potential and the space here is unbelievable, even though we're only using a couple of rooms at the minute. The Aga is responsible for making the place feel really warm, homely and comfortable and when you're in the kitchen you can almost forget that the ceiling is still unpainted, some of the cupboards don't have shelves or doors yet and there are no curtains!

The dogs are almost settled in - Jessie particularly has taken quite a while to feel at home. She's been better since our new tenants moved into our old house on Tuesday and we're not going there every day to finish off work on it. She used to sit in the van and wait for us to get in and come back to the other house, as if she was frightened we might forget her! 

Speaking of animals, we found a nest of kittens under our shed when we moved it from the old house! There were four babies, three scattered and one little cutie just curled into a ball and waited to be rescued. Much as I would have loved to keep him we just have far too much else keeping us busy at the moment so I took him to a local rescue centre where I've been assured he can stay until his forever owners come along 

Matt's feeling better after his recent hospital stay, he popped back for a scan on Thursday and we went to York in the afternoon for lunch and a brief wander around the shops to look at baby things. We had lunch at Bettys (Eggs Benedict for me and Yorkshire Sausages for him, with copious amounts of Tea Room Blend tea - heaven!) and spent a small fortune in Fudge Kitchen as per usual. When we got home we were greeted by Wilson on the drive - we'd left the French doors open in the kitchen and he'd wandered out and been sitting on the drive waiting for our return! Jessie was splashed out on her bed, as we expected :)

Yesterday I went to the Aga shop in Lincoln to purchase some pans and came away with two pans and £240 lighter - gulp! Today we went into town to visit the birthing unit where we'll soon be welcoming our baby boy/girl into the world. You'd think it would be exciting and reassuring but no, it was neither. We came away feeling slightly terrified and had to console ourselves with fish and chips

This week I'll be batch cooking and freezing meals so that we'll get chance to eat well during our first few weeks as new parents, as well as packing The Hospital Bag - it's been a work in progress for weeks but I really need to finish it this week. I'll be attempting to colour my hair, treating myself to a deluxe pedicure and ordering last minute baby bits, including bedding before the cot arrives on Friday. We're truly on Baby Countdown now!

Have a great week everyone! 

A Little Catch Up

pregnancy craving part 1 - pregnancy craving part 2 - crisp september morning

empty work inbox - packing hell - giant spider

paint porn - kitchen floor - planning, list making, world conquering

instagram - madeupoflittlethings

Well, I haven't written for a while. Has it really been a month? It's certainly not through lack of things to blog about, more lack of time to sit down and put fingers to laptop!

There's been so much going on lately. I finished work for my maternity leave on 13th September (woo hoo!) so was frantically busy in the run up to that. Mainly because I'd had to cut my working hours on doctor's advice to try to manage my SPD, which was worsening by the day, but also because the huge multi national plc I work for hadn't got their act together enough to appoint someone to cover my maternity leave. So I spent the last few weeks dividing up my role and distributing it amongst the people I felt were most suitable for each part. All of whom already have full time roles and no desire to take on more work. Add to that the fact that I couldn't drive to their locations to carry out face to face training, meaning non stop conference calls, and you can imagine how it quickly became quite stressful

In addition to trying to finish up at work, I have been preparing for our move, which happened this weekend! It's been a long old slog to get here and to be totally honest, the house is still nowhere near ready. But given that our new tenants move into our old house on 1st October and we have work to do to that too, we just had to set a date and stick to it. The new house is still mostly unpainted inside (partly unplastered too!) has no carpets, curtains or heating and until yesterday no toilet/bathroom/kitchen facilities. Living there is as depressing a prospect as I can think of, especially given that I'm 8 months pregnant and extremely uncomfortable most of the time anyway, even in a house which is warm and comfortable! The plumber will be here all week (we hope) to try to make it bearable and we have called in electric heaters in case of emergency! Luckily the Aga keeps the place absolutely roasting so unless we have a big freeze we should be ok. My filofax is bursting at the seams with appointments for the safety checks for the old house, carpet measurements and alarm installation for the new house, phone line/broadband/Sky installation etc etc ... not to mention midwife and GP appointments ...

The final nail in the coffin was spending last Monday night on the phone to NHS Direct, watching Matt writhe around in agony and finally rushing him to A&E in the early hours to find that he had kidney stones. A pain (so I'm told) which is as near as a man will experience to childbirth and which saw him in hospital, hooked up to a drip and regular morphine until Thursday when I was finally allowed to bring him home. Watching your partner who is never ill and never takes painkillers, completely insensible with pain and begging for morphine is quite frightening. He's been working 24/7 for such a long time now to try to get the house done and ready for us whilst running his business - I barely see him at all - it was inevitable that something had to give. When I did finally get him home he went straight round to the new house to check the delivery of bathroom furniture was all correct and undamaged, rang work to give instructions for the next day, then got home and hoovered the living room (for about the third time in his life - WHAT??) Men eh?? A law unto themselves!!

So although it looked for while like we were going to postpone the move, it ended up being full steam ahead. I had loads of packing still left to do, my lovely parents and best friend were here on Saturday and Matt and his brother were here yesterday, all moving stuff as quick as I could pack it! My parents cleaned up a couple of rooms at the new house that we can use for storage and somewhere to sleep and by last night we were all moved in. I'd been looking forward to this moment for years but I had no idea it was going to be like this - heavily pregnant and with a stinking cold, no bathroom, no heating, and with a still-very-poorly man who refuses to steady the pace

It all sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, doesn't it ??

Friday Round Up

starting my maternity leave countdown - new favourite cup - a very weird egg

paint porn - 30 week baby bump - my babies

not as good as i remember them - a cuddlebug - matt takes cups of tea to the site on his mini dumper

instagram - madeupoflittlethings

Another week gone, just three left in my Maternity Leave Countdown! I don't want to seem like a slacker but I am really looking forward to it. Not working will mean one less thing to worry about because frankly, I've got enough on my plate at the minute

I've made the decision to stop driving a couple of weeks ago - after a trip to a meeting in Derby I was in total agony with my pelvis and still am, so it seems it's time to admit defeat on that score. I'll still pop to the shop and into town to visit my family now and then but my days of four hours in the car are well and truly over

I've also reduced my working hours by half, meaning that I work until 1pm and spend the afternoons laid on my bed with my giant pillow making good use of my Netflix subscription (all viewing suggestions welcome!) I've re-watched Downton Abbey and Gavin & Stacey and am now working my way through Secret Diary of a Call Girl. My bed is the only place I can get comfortable so I'm spending an awful lot of time there lately but it's my favourite place to be so it's no hardship really

The biggest news this week is that we are moving in 3-5 weeks! Despite the fact that the new house is nowhere near ready and doesn't have so much as a toilet yet, we are under pressure to get ourselves in before the baby arrives. We've timed it to coincide with my maternity leave which will mean that I don't have to worry about setting up my office and unpacking all my work stuff etc. A 'To Let' sign went up a couple of weeks ago and we have found some lovely tenants, a mature couple who are relocating from Kent and fell in love with the place as soon as they walked through the door. They were so keen and so happy to have found their new home, it was heart warming to see! They came round for a cup of tea last weekend and we sorted out the final details - deposits, moving dates, utilities etc and we're all set. They want to be in by 1st October so we've not got long to get things sorted and work on the new house has become a bit frantic! 

So we've begun a frenzied attack on finishing the house. My parents and best friend Liz are helping me with painting and Matt continues building work with the brickies. We've got so much left to do, the only way to tackle it is in bite sized chunks. As long as we have a kitchen, bedroom and bathroom that are completely finished, I'll be happy. The rest will just be a work in progress and will be finished when it's finished. I'd rather have it all perfect before we move in but as Matt pointed out, we're so far behind schedule already that if we don't move before the baby is born we probably never will!

So as well as making lists of baby stuff we need and ordering away like mad, I'm also in the process of picking paint colours, choosing bathroom furniture, changing our address, arranging safety checks and catering for the hordes of people who descend on us every weekend. I'm so lucky to have such helpful family and friends, there's really no way we could do this without them. My parents, particularly, are so giving of their time, especially as they are so busy themselves - both working full time and moving into their own dream house in two weeks time!!

The baby is getting bigger now and I'm struggling to eat a full meal without feeling stuffed as it's taking up so much space! I've got a real sweet tooth at the minute and it's hard to balance out the sweet stuff with the healthy stuff. All I want to eat is chocolate and cake! The baby suffers from regular hiccups, which feel like little throbs in my lower abdomen. Baby is positioned head down and likes to wedge his/her feet under my lower right ribs which is mighty uncomfortable. Nearly all the movement I feel is on my right side so I'm guessing it must be facing that way. We had our 28 week midwife appointment  a few weeks ago and got to hear the baby's heartbeat again - people seem to get really excited about this but I'm not sure why. I'm in no doubt that all's well in there judging by all the movement, it's like having a one man band in my tummy! 

This weekend I'll be making mass lunches for the workers and perhaps attempting to do a bit more painting if I'm feeling brave. I've had a good couple of days with my SPD - I think my reduced working hours have helped - and it's hard to know whether to take advantage and crack on with some painting or just be glad that it's eased up a bit 

If any of you are pregnant and suffering or if you know someone who is, The Pelvic Partnership have a great website, full of advice and information 

Have a great weekend!

Goodnight Mama Hen

On Sunday I was at the new house painting windows with my parents when I got a call from Matt, who was at the quarry. 'Get your dad to run you home quickly - there's a loose dog in the garden and it's killing the chickens'

My stomach dropped and I raced down the stairs and into my dads car. We drove around the village looking for the dog but to no avail. We went home and found that five out of six of our chickens were ok. I put them away so we could continue looking for the dog. But the missing chicken was our favourite - Mama Hen

Remember her? I've mentioned her a few times before. She was a little black bantam - the prettiest bantam you've ever seen. She was like a little round puffball with a beautiful green sheen to her feathers and the biggest, darkest eyes I've ever seen on a chicken. She was a friendly little thing too and made a really unique little clucking noise - we could have picked her out from a hundred chickens if we were blindfolded. She used to tilt her head to one side, gaze up at you with her dark eyes and cluck sweetly away. I perfected clucking back at her and we used to have little chats by the back door

It sounds silly to be so sentimental about a chicken and in all honesty she was the only one we had any real affection for - you couldn't help it because she was just so sweet. She was eternally broody and always used to get picked on by the other hens but she really didn't care, she was just a happy little thing

All that was left of her was a pile of black feathers by the coop. A neighbour had called Matt to say they'd seen a terrier running out of our garden with a chicken in its mouth, I really hope she had a quick end. We managed to find the dogs owner eventually. She was an older lady who has only had the dog for three weeks, it is a rescue dog. It was hard to be angry, she was genuinely upset and the incident put her off keeping the dog 

These things happen of course and it wasn't really the lady's fault, the dog had escaped from her garden through the hedge despite the fact she'd spent the whole morning barricading her in. But it doesn't stop us from being incredibly sad that we've lost our little favourite 

Sleep well Mama Hen

Feeding Dogs ... The Natural Way

I'm a big believer in natural feeding. Before dogs were domesticated, they hunted and scavenged in packs. They ate animal carcasses, so their diet was made up of meat, offal, bones and partially digested vegetable matter from the digestive systems of the animals they caught 

source - wikipedia

To my mind, it makes perfect sense to feed my dogs a diet which is as close to this as possible. This is why I feed my dogs using BARF principles - that's Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, not up-chuck :)

When dogs were first domesticated they were fed scraps, leftovers from whatever their owners ate. For convenience, this developed into tinned dog food bulked out with filler food such as mixer or biscuits. At some point in the past we got lazy and some bright spark decided that dog food could be condensed into little dry balls of kibble

Ever wondered why kibble never goes off? Because it's stuffed full of chemicals and preservatives, that's why. Ever wondered at the unnatural coloured pieces that some dry food contains? It's full of colouring. What for? Colours are of no earthly use to dogs, it's just chemicals after all. Dry food contains grains, wheat and fillers, refined sugars, salt and chemical flavourings. Many other, far nastier ingredients have been found in commercial pet foods - I'm not going to go into detail here but I will leave info below if you would like to research yourself

Would you eat processed food every day? Do you think it would be good for you, that you'd thrive and be a picture of health? Research suggests that a natural diet is healthier for dogs and when you think about the ingredients of commercial pet foods it's not hard to see why

So what do I feed my dogs?

I don't stick to a rigidly BARF diet but I do stick to the BARF principles for their main diet. They also have leftovers of our meals, nothing gets wasted in this house. Their daily diet consists of one meal per day, in the evening, made up of raw meat and a vegetable mix which I make myself

I buy their meat from the butcher, it's basically all the offcuts minced up. I feel better knowing that it's actually fit for human consumption (not that you'd want to try it!) I weigh it out, bag it up and freeze into daily portions. I have a huge freezer in the garage which purely houses the dogs meat and bones. They have bones several times per week - raw, never cooked. Cooked bones splinter and are extremely dangerous. They have raw, whole eggs a couple of times a week and tinned pilchards at least once

As a rule the vegetable mix consists of greens, carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, ginger, garlic and linseeds. Plus any other veg I've got lying around, usually green beans (which they love!) all blended up in the food processor

I didn't discover natural feeding until Jessie was five months old. She was a nightmare to feed, she refused to eat kibble unless it was well disguised with cooked mince/gravy/pilchards in tomato sauce .... unrecognisable basically. I was determined not to make silly mistakes that would make this worse - I refused to hand feed her and I removed her bowl after 10 minutes, whether she'd eaten or not. I wasn't going to pander to her, I reasoned that she'd eat when she was hungry. But when she got to five months old and she refused food for a week, I was desperate. She was supposed to be a growing puppy but she was skin and bone. I'd been researching alternatives and happened across the BARF diet. It made perfect sense to me so I decided to give it a go. I can't tell you how amazing it was to see how my puppy attacked and enjoyed her food once I stopped trying to force her to eat kibble. I started off gently with a pack of raw beef mince and moved on to offal and bones, starting with chicken wings and moving on to chicken carcasses and lamb ribs. She was a different dog! She started to fill out, her coat gleamed, her teeth were white and - look away if you're squeamish - she produced one small, firm poo per day rather than the three or four large smelly ones I'd become used to!

When I met Matt he was horrified when he found out what Jessie ate. He found me in the kitchen one day hacking up a beast heart into freezable portions and must have thought he'd found himself a right loon! When he told people what I fed my dog they came out with all kinds of rubbish - 'the bones will puncture the dogs lungs', 'the dog will be bloodthirsty and prone to biting' !! What a load of crap! He was soon converted when he started taking Jessie to work with him and people started commenting instead on how happy, healthy and shiny she was

We went on to get Wilson, who was munching on his first chicken wings at just eight weeks old and loved his raw diet. When I worked the dogs and spent a lot of time amongst knowledgable dog people, I was asked constantly what I fed my dogs. They were lean, muscled, shiny and fit. Even our vet has commented on their condition - I take that as a huge compliment!

Feeding your pets is a very personal thing, it's very much the choice of the owner and I'm not trying to tell anyone what to feed their dog (or cat - the same principles apply to them) But you may not be aware that there's any alternative to commercial pet food - I certainly wasn't - and maybe you'll be as fascinated as I was

I'm not going to provide any links for fear of appearing biased - obviously this is a controversial topic and there are many differing views out there. But Google is your friend! If you search terms such as 'barf diet science' and 'commercial pet food industry' you'll be on the right track

So, Where Were You ...??

... when Wee Baby Cambridge was born?

I was sitting in my home office, laptop open, contracts strewn around the place and BlackBerry on silent whilst I was glued to Sky News on my iPad. Same scenario for Monday and Tuesday

I'm a huge Royalist. I hadn't realised until Wills & Kate got engaged and my previous curiosity turned into all out fangirling. I suddenly felt the urge to know ALL about the Royal Family. I bought a commemorative mug. I bought the Diana biography in order to gain an insight into the Royal Household and even a book written by the Queens cousin, one of the Queens 'ladies-in-waiting'. I was excited for the Jubilee and bought another mug. I watch everything on TV that has any mention of the Royal Family, especially if there are horses involved. I've followed Zara Phillips career obsessively and I'm almost as excited about her pregnancy as I was about Kates.

Almost.

I've followed Kates pregnancy closely, scrutinised every picture to detect her growing bump (if you can call it that) and counted down the days to her due date. Last week was spent checking the news every hour and when the news came on Monday morning that she was in the early stages of labour I almost wet myself with excitement (literally - pregnancy does that to you)

So Monday and Tuesday were spent watching Sky News and checking the Clarence House Twitter feed for updates whilst tweeting Eleanor, Becca, Charlotte and Alice to try to keep the excitement in check. Watching the Royal couple leave the Lindo Wing with Prince George on Tuesday afternoon and talk to the frankly staggering amount of waiting press was the highlight of my month. And as you can imagine - I've ordered another mug.

And now it's all over. And Sky News really ought to back off because explaining to viewers that the Royal couple want 'some private time to bond with their new arrival' whilst you are camped out on the grass verge outside the Middletons house is a bit of a joke really

Enough now. They've been more than generous. Let's leave them in peace

26 Weeks

That's right - 26 weeks (and 3 days) pregnant, which means I'm now officially in the third trimester! The baby is about 38cm long. So there's not long to go now and I've started to stock up on essential baby kit in earnest. It's basically an excuse to do A LOT of online shopping, so there's no complaints from me :)

The sickness is under control with minimal medication but my SPD has got a lot worse over the last week and it's been getting me down a bit. I had really looked forward to pregnancy and imagined myself being serene and calm, wafting about the place in something floaty and ethereal, probably from Monsoon. But the reality is very different and mainly consists of regular, undignified physio, wearing a belt around my hips which is basically a very tight band of thick elastic and wincing with pain any time I move. The baby doesn't like the belt, it pummels it mercilessly and squirms against it. To be fair, the poor thing is probably being squeezed! 

On the subject of baby movement, there's plenty of it and it's NOTHING like how I imagined. I expected little kicks and flutters and that's what I got at first but now the baby's bigger it can really pack a punch. It's surprising how violent it feels! Perhaps it's trying to escape?? I read somewhere that it should be awake for around 6 hours per day but I think it must have jet lag - it's awake and rolling around pretty much all the time. When it changes position (usually at night when I'm laid on my side) it's really quite bizarre. You can see it all from the outside too which is really weird. I called Matt over earlier to feel it squirming and it did what felt like a forward roll under his hand, causing him to recoil with a look of horror!

I'm feeling a lot calmer overall but still have little unexpected bouts of rage. I don't see them coming and even I'm surprised at what comes out of my mouth sometimes! Plus I dissolve into tears quite easily still, I've been in bits about Wee Baby Cambridge :)

I'm eating pretty much normally now, the sudden hunger attacks of the first trimester are a distant memory and I'm managing to eat some more healthy foods, rather than the chips I seemed to crave on a daily basis. I'm not getting any exercise as I'm trying to keep my pelvis stable and I'm under strict instructions to rest but I'm not too worried about that. As soon as the baby's here and my body is back to normal I can play catch up as my physio is opening a new gym later this year, purely focussing on exercise to manage existing conditions, which will be perfect timing for me

I'm still doing my natal hypnotherapy, although I don't know how much use it is as I fall asleep every time I listen to it - the woman's voice is so soothing!

It's strange to think that we won't see the baby again until it's born as we've had both our NHS scans, as well as the private Downs Syndrome screening at 13 weeks. I'd been planning to have another private scan at around 30 weeks but I'm not so sure I want to now - they tend to be 4D scans and they freak me out a little bit! You can also get a DVD of your baby moving around inside which I would love - I'd really like to know which bit of the baby is prodding me all the time!

Despite having so much to moan about, I must say I'm loving my bump! I've been forced to wear slightly more feminine clothes than I would usually wear (I used to live in boyfriend jeans and hoodies) to accommodate my expanding tum - dresses are just way more comfortable at the minute and comfort is everything. I invested in a pair of Mama Spanx fairly early on so I don't look too lumpy and bumpy in my favourite fitted Isabella Oliver dresses - I find it's best to go for ruched, fitted clothes that accentuate the bump rather than trying to hide it. Apart from when I'm at home, then I'm happy to wear huge baggy T shirt dresses as I don't have to worry about just looking porky! Although I lost weight in the first few months due to the sickness, I've put on 6.9kg in total (just over a stone) and it's not all bump I'm afraid - although I'm told my bump is 'very neat' I know I've put on weight all over - my thighs are enormous (even my maternity jeans have become snug) and not being able to exercise is not helping. But if growing a baby isn't a good excuse I don't know what is!

I have eight weeks until my maternity leave starts and I'm already counting down the days! Speaking of which, I'm off to cross off 23rd July right now ...

Friday Round Up

flaked out in the heat - hot dog - does ice cream count as fluids??

new housekeepers cupboard all finished (and half installed) - yums - cute sign outside church

sunday afternoon in the garden with the family - bliss - getting plenty of rest

instagram - madeupoflittlethings

I don't want to brag or anything. But I've had a FABULOUS week! I had a week of annual leave to use up before my maternity leave starts in September and, having heard that we were due a heatwave, I surprised myself by being organised enough to book this week off work. And I'm mighty glad I did!

Pregnancy is pretty knackering and the heat really doesn't help matters so I've done a bit of sunbathing but not as much as I would have liked to, I just can't bear the heat. So on my days at home I've bobbed in and out of the house, resting in the shade between short bouts of sitting in the sun. But I've enjoyed it so much! Sitting in the garden with the dogs, sipping a cold drink and reading a book, watching the chickens amble about the garden and listening to the birds in the trees - it's just been heavenly. You know that feeling of not being in a rush, not mentally planning what you are going to do next and for the rest of the day because you don't have anything pressing to do except relax? I can't really remember the last time I had that feeling - probably the last time we went abroad, which was Goa in 2010 - far too long ago!

I've had a couple of days out of the house, I had a midwife appointment on Tuesday so as we were in town we went and did some carpet and sofa shopping for the new house as well. Wednesday was my sister's birthday so I took her and my nephew out for lunch and a quick amble around the shops. And yesterday we crossed the Humber Bridge to Hull to visit a couple of retail parks where there were lots of shops in one place, to save me from more walking than necessary. We managed to find two perfect armchairs for the new kitchen and a gorgeous sofa for our 'cinema room'. It's U shaped and it's all different bright colours which I really wasn't keen on, being a fan of neutrals. But when Matt pointed out that the room would have to be painted in a very dark colour, including the ceiling to prevent glare on the TV screen it suddenly made sense and I agreed he was probably right. Even if it does look like a clown has patched it together!

The biggest purchase we made was ... wait for it ... a solid oak cot bed and mattress for the baby! We spent ages dithering over it and then Matt went and made the decision himself, including picking a mattress, whilst I popped to the Ladies. I was most impressed! With the cot and pushchair ordered I'm starting to feel a little more organised. Despite making endless lists I haven't really bought much yet so I need to get cracking. It also brought home how expensive baby stuff is, I really do need to start buying the big items otherwise I'll bankrupt myself come October!

After our shopping expedition I'm resting today, I'm a bit achey and sore. The SPD is still an unwelcome guest but it's manageable now, I just need to remember not to do too much. Rest is the best thing and let's face it, who wants to do much else in this weather??

This weekend we'll be having barbecues and sitting in the garden a lot, as well as keeping up with our nightly ritual of watching the Tour de France highlights. I'm already dreading going back to work on Monday but I'm officially on maternity leave countdown now - just eight more weeks of work for me!

What have you been up to this week?

Recent Reads

Since being pregnant my pace of life has slowed right down, I've been needing to rest more, especially in the early days. Spend more time with my feet up and going to bed early has meant that I've rediscovered my Kindle and with it, my love of reading

I've always been an avid reader. As a child I spent most of my time in my bedroom with a book and even when seen around the house, I would usually have a book in my hand. I can thank my mum for this - although she wasn't a huge reader herself she enrolled me in the local library pretty much from birth and used to take me there for story time and to borrow books for us to read together at home. As I got a bit older I would borrow seven books per week and read them all before returning the next Saturday, hungry for more. I have strong memories of being on family holidays - reading a book, long car journeys - reading a book, eating lunch - reading a book, being dragged round the shops on a Saturday - reading a book ... you get the picture

Since I met Matt I've probably read less than I ever have because I'm kept so busy. His pace of life was something of a revelation to me and it took me a while to learn to keep up, meaning that reading fell by the wayside. Plus, last year I had a run of really bad books - you know when you start a book and don't make it to the end? I was starting to think I'd lost my passion for reading - not a good omen for a budding novelist - but it turns out they were just bad books!

Anyway, here are a few of the books I've really enjoyed recently and which have rekindled (geddit?) my love of reading

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I read this after seeing people raving it about it on Twitter and it didn't disappoint. Extremely clever and gripping, I loved it from start to finish

Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes 
After reading Elizabeths debut, Into The Darkest Corner and being so impressed by it that I was moved to write my first (and only) Amazon review, I'd been looking forward to the release of this novel for a long time. This author makes crime novels accessible and appealing because of her interesting and engaging characters and has opened up a whole new genre to me 

Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O'Porter
A long awaited debut - I love Dawn O'Porters documentaries and her writing style is exactly as I expected - engaging and funny but with a real message in the background

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
If you loved The Time Travellers Wife you might love this too. Even more unusual and intriguing, I loved every character in this book

Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
A slightly more fluffy novel as you would expect but surprisingly addictive. A perfect summer read

What have you been reading recently? Have you any recommendations for me?

Friday Round Up

my gorgeous nephew finley joe in his wedding attire - new babymobile - weirdly long egg

a bird pooed on my hospital bag list! - 22 week baby bump - i sense a theme emerging

utility room with joists and insulation, ready for roof tiles - garden full of clover - detailed brickwork

instagram - madeupoflittlethings

The weeks continue to zoom by and I grow ever more pregnant - 23 weeks now :) I'm planning to do a little pregnancy update next week as I'm feeling a lot better and I'm not so worried about making pregnancy sound horrendous and putting people off!

Last week my step brother got married and we got to spend a lovely day with my family. We rarely get together, my step brother is in the armed forces and lives down south so we don't get to see much of him as a rule. It was a lovely day, his bride looked beautiful and it made me wish we all lived a bit closer together. And didn't my nephew look adorable in his smart attire?

I mostly worked from home this week, except for my usual trip to Derby on Thursday. I started the week in terrible pain with my pelvis but after some physio on Monday the pain started to ease and now (touch wood etc) I feel the best I've felt in a while. I'm lucky that my physio is very sympathetic and fits an emergency appointment in for me whenever I need it, as well as reducing his fee - I think he's expecting to see a lot more of me over the coming months!

The weather has been extremely odd, we've gone from pouring rain to bright sunshine in just a couple of days. The chickens spend the wet days hiding out under one of the vehicles on the drive and the hotter days spread out sunbathing on the grass. It's amazing how flat they can make themselves, they look like they've been run over! We'll be losing the three Buffs this week, they've become a bit of a pain so we're giving them away. They're extremely scruffy and make a right mess of the shed and I'm in no fit state to clean up after them at the minute! We'll miss their big eggs but the little bantam eggs are so tasty and they're much easier to keep - we could always get a few more little hens if our egg supply runs low. And the Buffs are bullies so it will be nice for the little bantys to have a happier life again

Friday was a miserable rainy day so we spent the night hibernating at home with the bears, although we had planned to go out for dinner. I find it hard to motivate myself to get ready and go out when it's grey and dreary. Yesterday I had lunch with my sister and nephew Finley Joe and last night we went to a friend's birthday barbecue which was great fun. They are tenant farmers and live in a beautiful old rambling country manor house where the last three generations of his family have lived. The place has such a lovely family history and welcoming atmosphere, we love it there. We spent the evening on the terrace, eating, drinking (not me) and watching the sun go down over the Wolds with good company - what more could you ask for? I wore a new Isabella Oliver maxi dress and had my bump rubbed :) 

I did a little bit of painting at the new house today, which is coming on a treat. The utility room is built and ready for its roof, the staircase is almost ready and it will only be a matter of weeks before we are ready to move. We've decided to let the house we live in now when we move, so I'm hoping we can stay in it until the last possible minute and get the new house as finished as possible. I know we could live in it unfinished if we had to but I'd rather get as much done as we can before we move 

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Mundane Midweek

I'm blogging about my Thursday again. Not because it's been any more interesting than the last few but because I like this link up (thanks Charlotte) and the last few Wednesdays I've been working from home (well, playing Candy Crush and drinking tea, anyway) which defeats the object somewhat

So yesterday I woke up at 7am, planning to wash my hair before work as I'd been too tired to do it the night before. Turned out I was too tired to do it in the morning too so I enlisted the help of some Klorane dry shampoo (excellent stuff, all you Batisters out there!) and fashioned a ponytail. I jumped - no that's a lie. I manoeuvred myself into my car (no mean feat with SPD!) and set off for Derby with my heated seat on full blast and Maximo Park on the stereo, singing along and wondering if the baby was enjoying it. I realised very soon that I was almost out of fuel and, being the daredevil I am (read LAZY) decided to wait until I got to Derby to fuel up, so I could use Sainsburys rather than motorway services and get some nectar points! 

I reached my usual Starbucks stop and got my usual chai latte with soy and a shot of espresso - god it's delicious. I got to the office a bit early, parked up, realised I was starving and turned around to go to MacDonalds for breakfast. I only had one meeting booked in but I knew it was going to be a long one, it was with a supplier I haven't seen for a year and the two Directors are absolutely lovely, really chatty guys. I was right - the meeting lasted two hours and twenty minutes and I estimate only twenty minutes was spent talking business, including printing and signing of contracts!

I worked for a couple of hours, had a long chat with the receptionist and left at 3pm, starving again. I popped to the nearest Boots to stock up on a few bits - mostly travel sized toiletries for my hospital washbag come October - eek! I fuelled my car and got soaked in the process, needing a Star Bar to cheer myself up (note to self - if it's raining, use one of the pumps in the middle of the forecourt, not Number 1 which is right on the edge and has no protection from ridiculous driving rain) Then it was back in the car, heated seat on again and a nice drive home, stopping on the way for a nap when my eyes refused to stay open. I blame the baby

When I got home Matt was waiting for me and we swapped seats so he could drive us to Louth to pick up our new babymobile, which had been for an engine remap. It's gorgeous and I love it! He spent an hour chatting to his mate, which meant I was starving AGAIN and demanded to be taken somewhere for tea - it was 8.30pm by this point. We found an Indian restaurant and made pigs of ourselves with poppadums and a pickle tray, onion bhajis for me and prawn puree for him, then lamb bhuna, chicken makhani, pilau rice and a garlic naan

Me, worried - 'Do you think we should have got Bombay potatoes??'
Matt - 'Erm ... I think we'll be ok'

It was 10.20pm by the time we got home so I left Matt to feed the dogs while I pretty much collapsed straight into bed, full, happy and tired. Is there a better feeling?

Friday Round Up

 chickens pop in for a snack - utility room underway - forgot i left the bath running ... again

a cheer up gift from my lovely dad & stepmum - baby littlethings @ 20wks - my new favourite shopping site

tired boys after a hard days work - matt's first father's day - giant lavender almost flowering

instagram - madeupoflittlethings

A couple of days late, I know. But better late than never etc etc

It's been a pretty up and down sort of week really. The pregnancy symptoms persist, getting weirder and more irritating by the day. I've had some groin pain for the last couple of weeks, which I just put down to normal pregnancy pelvic changes etc. Pregnancy hormones trigger the release of relaxin, a chemical that forces your ligaments to, well, relax to make space for the growing baby. And I've had issues with my back and pelvis for years so this was nothing I shouldn't have expected I suppose. But I woke up on Monday morning feeling like I'd been kicked in the crotch (lovely) and by the end of the day I felt as though one of those giant wrecking ball things had hit me square in the fanjo. It was eye watering and I got stuck in my car at the country store, having to flag down a passing stranger to haul me out. By the next morning I was barely able to walk and a trip to the doctors revealed that I am suffering from SPD - one of the less glamorous side effects of pregnancy which basically causes your pelvis to give up and go home until the birth. My GP was less than inspiring - 'there's no treatment and it will get worse throughout your pregnancy'. I cried all the way home and for most of the rest of the day. 20 more weeks of this?? Why am I so bloody unlucky?? 

I booked an appointment with my slightly more sympathetic private physio, whom I saw on Wednesday morning. Luckily he is a miracle worker and after some extremely effective (albeit extremely undignified) manipulation, I left his office almost walking properly, not waddling and wincing. With further physio, some exercises and the use of a mighty attractive belt to keep the pelvic bones from separating too far, he is confident he can keep me comfortable until the birth. Which is great and a huge relief. Now all I've got to worry about is how on earth I'm going to squeeze the little bugger out when I've been told to 'act as if my knees are glued together'

Wednesday afternoon was a big cheer up - our 20 week scan. Watching the baby wriggling about on the screen reminded me that there's a good reason for all this - it's not a life sentence, just a few more months and at the end we'll have a son or daughter to show for it. A little bit of me and Matt, a tiny person that's going to change our lives forever. The baby was quite co operative at first but soon decided it had had enough of being gawked at and turned away from the ultrasound so that the sonographer couldn't measure its head. We went for a walk to try to encourage the little monkey to turn around and it soon did - she got the measurement she wanted and we got a good look at the baby's face, watching it open and close its little mouth! We also got a perfect view of the bottom of its tiny little feet - legs crossed at the ankle and feet placed neatly together - it looked so snug and comfortable, it's almost a shame it has to come out!

I've been feeling baby kicks and rolls all week and it's very weird - nothing like I expected. It can make me feel a bit queasy actually! He/she's most active when I sit still, especially when I go to bed. Knowing how it feels now, I can't imagine how it must feel near the end when the baby is fully grown. At the moment it's only about six inches long :)  

It's been a very pregnancy/baby focussed week I suppose. This weekend Matt will be away racing, my sister and I will be taking my Dad out for lunch and I've got a few little jobs to do in town. Nothing exciting but I'm tired, it feels like it's been a wearing week and I'm looking forward to relaxing a bit. Last weekend was really busy too - I was at the new house painting all day on Saturday and we were at a christening on Sunday, so I feel like I'm overdue a bit of a rest. I'll catch up on Escape To The Country and do my natal hypnotherapy 

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

Mundane Midweek

I enjoyed this tag last week so here it is again! Head over to Charlotte's Web to link to more

So Thursday brought another trip to my office in Derby. I used to work from home most Mondays and Fridays but this has stretched to cover the rest of the week since I've been pregnant - feeling crap most of the time has made me want to curl up at home more than usual - but I've noticed that I'm a lot happier for having a day out of the house. This hasn't escaped Matt's attention either and he's been offering to take the dogs to work far more than usual in the hope of getting me out for the day, knowing I come home more cheerful! Working from home, whilst a godsend in many ways, can make you very isolated. I don't mind this in the main, I've always been quite a solitary person and never get lonely. But I work for a very large company and sometimes it's easy to forget about the wider group that I'm actually working for and get caught up in my own little world of home office. Also, spending so much time in the house makes you grumpy, even if you don't notice it at the time

So I hauled myself out of bed, made tea and toast, got myself ready for work (maternity pencil skirt, opaques and a new Isabella Oliver top, which I love) and off I went at 8am, looking forward to my Starbucks stop. I allow myself a Starbucks once a week as I've been limiting my caffeine since finding myself 'with child' and I don't mind telling you that a Chai Latte with soy and a shot of espresso is the highlight of my week. It's also a good way to break up the two hour journey and do some people watching whilst in the queue

My boss was visiting me yesterday and was already there when I arrived (rats!) which meant he had to sit in on my 11am meeting in silence (awkward) before we had our 'catch up'. The catch up mainly involved him telling me that he still hadn't started recruiting for my maternity cover - worrying as I start maternity leave in exactly three months and there's an awful lot of information to hand over. We also talked about whether I would like to keep my company car whilst on leave. Maternity pay is pretty piss poor and the company car tax plus fuel costs, normal PAYE and NI wouldn't leave a lot. We'd been planning to buy a 'babymobile' anyway so I suppose we'll have to do it sooner rather than later. Another expense we could do without but we should be used to that by now!

So I worked the rest of the day away and managed to get my inbox down to under 100 for the first time since February. It's amazing how having ones boss in the room makes one more productive :)

Heading home, the atrocious weather continued (I mean really - opaques in mid June?! I was glad of them though!) and I got stuck in traffic

About 40 minutes from home I started to feel distinctly ill in an 'oh my god - what did I eat??' sort of way. I spent the last part of the journey suffering from horrendous stomach cramps and trying not to hit any bumps in the road before I managed to get home, abandon my car on the drive and rush to the bathroom. Where I spent most of the rest of the night. Which meant I missed the cat programme I'd been looking forward to. But luckily I have the Sky app on my phone so I was able to record it from the bathroom! Isn't technology marvellous?!

Matt was out all night, setting up the track for his next race on Sunday. When he got home at 10.30pm we went to bed and looked at babymobiles on ebay until we fell asleep

How's that for mundane? :)

Mundane Midweek

I'm following the lead of one of my most favourite blogger pals today and sharing a peek into my mundane work-a-day life. If you want to read Charlotte's blog post and join in, you need to visit Charlotte's Web (and join via GFC whilst you're there - she doesn't need the extra followers but I'm sure you'll love her blog. Especially if you like cats)

Anyway, today I rolled out of bed at 8am, drank an impressive cup of tea courtesy of Matt and waved he and the dogs off to work. As I headed back upstairs I heard him wail 'oh NO!' and my heart skipped a beat. That tone is usually reserved for monumental atrocities such as 'oh NO! Someone's broken into my van and I left my briefcase in it!' Today, luckily (or not) it was followed by 'Jessie's got a bit of poo hanging out of her bum! I can't stomach it first thing in the morning!' I swiftly reminded him that he'd be able to stomach it far better than his pregnant partner, who is suffering from 24 hour nausea and that soon shut him up

I spent about 20 minutes doing my make up - you know sometimes you just really enjoy getting ready? Or is that just me? Then I dressed in my new ASOS maternity leggings (super comfy - I may never go back to normal clothes) a vest and a wafty tunic, tied my hair up and headed off to my office in Derby. I put my iPod on shuffle and had a good old singalong to 'Fire' by Kasabian, then I stopped for a Starbucks chai latte with soy and a shot of espresso, which saw off my lingering headache from yesterday a treat

I had a meeting with a new contact from a supplier who was supposed to be coming in to present a proposal which would convince me to re-sign our contract, which ends in a couple of months. He brought his boss along for good measure. Here's how that went;

Me - 'So, what do you have for me?'
Him - 'Well, you'll be pleased to hear that we have discussed the matter with our commercial team and we can offer you a saving of 10% per annum'
Me - '£90k over two years then. Great. How are you going to do that?'
Him - 'Pardon?'
Me - 'Where will that £45k per annum come from?'
Him - 'Ah well, it will come from a number of areas'
Me - 'I see. But where exactly?'
Him - The savings will come from a number of areas across the piece'
Me -  'I can't go to my FD and say 'Supplier X will save us £45k p/a for two years from a number of areas'. I'll look like an idiot. I need more information, a full proposal, not just a finger in the air'
Him - 'Ah, um, ok'

This man is 30 years in his job, ladies and gentlemen and this is a HUGE company we're talking about.  I shouldn't be surprised at their incompetence as I've dealt with them for the last seven years but still. Wow.

Anyway, I trotted off to get some lunch, a yummy Caesar salad from the Golden Arches, popped into Boots for some shampoo (L'Oreal Colour Riche - a new favourite) and fuelled my car. I trotted back to the office, caught up on some calls and emails, had my car valeted and came to an abrupt halt at 3pm when my laptop battery went flat and I realised that I hadn't brought my charger with me. Brilliant. I left in a huff and went straight to the first services on the way home - I needed more Caesar salad and some Belgian chocolate covered peanuts. On the way home I had a catch up with my ex-boss, who told me all about his new job and made me a bit jealous

I stopped at the country store on the way home to buy corn for the chickens and when I got home I found that my new Apple USB Superdrive had been delivered. It's just a disk drive for my Macbook Pro but doesn't it sound fancy? Like a superhero. Which it bloody ought to be considering how much it cost. And only Apple could get away with selling a £2k laptop with no disk drive. So now I'm importing my pregnancy Hypnotherapy CDs to iTunes so I can put them on my iPod and hypnotise myself every night. I'll let you know how that goes

Matt is on his way home with the dogs, he's going to cut the grass tonight while I cook tea (chicken breast stuffed with garlic & herb Philadelphia and wrapped in bacon, with home made potato wedges and peas) Then I'll walk the dogs, have a shower and wash my hair and we'll watch the TT coverage on ITV4 and moan about how we should have gone and we MUST go next year and we MUST get it all booked soon

And that's about it. I hope you're still awake! 

If you decide to take part in Mundane Midweek, please leave a link in the comments below so I can read about your day. There's something about reading about someone's normal day that intrigues and fascinates me. It feeds my nosiness and I like that :)

Friday Round Up

beautiful morning walk - jessie's guilty face after being caught on the sofa - long awaited blossom

new skincare arsenal for my dried up old face - wilson helps with painting - bathtime treat

barbecue for us and biscuits for the dogs - new fruity candle - friday night munchies

instagram - madeupoflittlethings

Wasn't last weekend gorgeous? And a sunny bank holiday Monday, I'm not sure I've ever seen one of those before! Sadly I spent it indoors, painting architrave at the new house - though I made sure I sited my work station in the sun room with the bi-fold doors thrown wide open. I managed to get out with the dogs on Saturday and enjoyed a lovely morning walk with them, I got a bit carried away and stayed out for ages, poor things were exhausted!

Tuesday was spent with my dad and sister, taking our usual trip to Windermere for my mum's birthday visit. It was lovely weather but disappointingly, some yob had attempted to carve great chunks out of my mum's memorial bench, which rather pissed us off as you can imagine! Regardless, we had a lovely day filled with food and banter as always, I love our Windermere trips

My pregnancy rage seems to have calmed down a bit this week, unfortunately it's been replaced by emotion at the other end of the spectrum. Matt came home on Thursday night to find me crying in the kitchen

Him      'Oh God, what's wrong? Are you OK? Rach??'
Me        *sob* 'I've just seen a sad dog on the telly!'
Him      'Oh no. Why was it sad? No don't tell me. What were you watching? You shouldn't be watching sad dogs on the telly'
Me        *gulp*gasp* 'It was ... it was .... an advert!'

Yes people, that's right. The Pedigree Chum advert had me inconsolable for a good 15 minutes. I can't remember when I last sobbed like that! 

I'm continuing the fight against my dry skin, I've discovered Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate and it's made a huge difference, I'm really impressed with it. It's not cheap but you only need a couple of drops per night so I expect it will last for ages. I also invested in a couple of fruity candles to welcome the Spring to the house, I'm finding myself strangely addicted to lemons lately. Lemon sherbets, lemon ice lollies, lemonade ... and now a lemon candle! 

My morning sickness has been back with a vengeance for the last couple of days so I'm having a relaxing day at home today, curled up on the sofa with the dogs, watching Escape To The Country and drinking hot chocolate. We're going out for dinner with my sister and brother in law tonight and Matt is racing tomorrow so I'll be heading into town to do some visiting and search out some 'drapey' tops to disguise my expanding tum :)

Have a lovely weekend everyone!