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!