We don't watch TV in this house so I didn't know about the new Cadbury advert with the kids and the eyebrows and the squeaky balloon. But I sure Lily has a secret TV room behind her bookcase because she is suddenly very animated around the brows, exactly like these kids. It's not often we have to tell her off, she's a good kid, but when I go upstairs to bed to find her under the duvet playing her DS at 9 'o' clock on a school night it's definitely time to open a can of woop ass. Except I find myself trying to remain serious and stifle my laughter as she gives me the eyebrows. I'm not very successful and we both end up giggling and I leave her untold off and laughing all the way to the dream bank. And she and the eyebrows win. Every time.

Babymobile

I've decided that I want our baby to have a £400 pram. The decision was pretty much made for me as there is a surplus of ugly, breakable prams out there. Ideally I'd like a Bugaboo Bee but they're around £750 which is crazy so I've opted for the Quinny Buzz. The stroller part can be used as a buggy until the baby walks and we will use the Dreami carrycot to make it a pram for the first 6 months and also as a moses basket while she is sleeping in our room. As I scored us a brand new Mamas & Papas carseat for free and my parents are paying for half the pram I think it's good value.

They come in a variety of colours, the red/pink is just face-melting and sickly but the yellow/brown is pretty cool and the black is slick. Obviously the baby doesn't give a toss which colour her wheels are so I'll end up going for whichever I can find cheapest!
Although the black does have a certain baby batmobile-ness about it..


It's not all expensive news in babyland though. We've found a rather gorgeous cot in Ikea for a bargainous £67:


Although there is tonnes of matching furniture there is no matching chest of drawers which I neeeed as all the baby clothes are currently sitting in Lidl bags, which although Highly Fashionable, just aren't a permanent option.

Now all I need to do is clear the 57534537 bags of crap out of the nursery and paint the walls and put up a blind and find a chest of drawers and zzzzzzzzzzzz.

26 Weeks

I keep thinking and saying that I am 27 weeks pregnant but I just rechecked the due date calculator and I'm actually 26 weeks. It's going to slow!
After all the sickness and craziness of the first trimester things are just about as normal as they can be. I have a large bump, lots of kicks and I get short of breath. The lack of unpleasant pregnancy symptoms must be karma. The worst thing is losing my balance all the time, oh and not being able to reach my toes. I asked Tom to paint my toenails the other night, with red nailpolish, it looked like someone had tried to chew off the ends of my feet. I think I'll just go au naturel, same for my leg hair soon I think, I'm finding it too much of a stretch and I'm pretty sure everyone finds Chewbacca legs sexy.

Babysaurus

This weekend Tom and I took Lils to see Dinosaurs Alive! at the IMAX. Despite the £8 per person for a 45 minute film and initial worries about exactly what kind of dinosaurs these were when we saw it was 'starring Michael Douglas' it was pretty awesome and we all loved it.
Now, we've been struggling for baby names ever since we learned that we're having a girl and don't really like anything. It may just be my pregnancy brain but when the squeaky voiced intern in the movie was recalling how he discovered the Effigia dinosaur my brain did a little click and has been hanging onto the name as a serious contender for Baby. No, not the name of the paleontologist, which I have forgotten but the name of the dinosaur, Effigia.

It's kind of cute right.. right? The Latin translations of Effigia are ghost, effigy, idol, ideal and future, it doesn't really matter that it was also a six foot long toothless crocodylian archosaur. I also love the idea of her name being shortened to Effie and quickly shot down Tom's protestations that kids would pick on her and call her F.E College which I didn't understand straight away and it's unlikely that schoolchildren would know what an F.E College was and less likely to think it's an insult.
For now the name is a strong contender, we have around 16 weeks to decide and 30 days after Baby is born before we have to register her name. But no more dinosaur names... for now.

23 Weeks...

I'm over half way there and nearly into the third trimester. Some days I look pregnant and other days not, today I look pregnant and I'm totally convinced it's all baby and not last nights Pizza Hut at all, oh noo...
I'm feeling lots of movement, it's strongest when I'm lying on my back in bed in the morning and when I'm cross legged at the computer. Tom can feel it too which makes me so happy in an I-can't-even-begin-to-articulate-why kinda way.
We had the scan at 20 weeks where I found out that hell isn't fictional at all and actually exists in Birmingham Women's Hospital where I've had previous good experiences but the 357447 wait and 35733573 different appointments along with a fed up Lily just wasn't cool. We did however discover that I have zero intuition and we are actually having a little girl! The shock has worn off a little now and I'm having a meltdown trying to think of a name. Tom doesn't want any 'cast offs' ie; names which were in the running when I was due with Lily and the only one I like so far is Dusty, I love it in fact but I don't want her to grow up hating me for it.

For Tom....

Have a Merry Shatner Xmas :D

20 Weeks

I'm halfway there! Hurrah!
I'm still not looking particularly pregnant and at long last my energy is returning so I'm not feeling very pregnant either. The little one has been moving around lots, s/he doesn't like the hoover and kicks up a fuss, perhaps it's a signal to stop hoovering.. All cleaning and housework in fact.. hmm.

We have the 20 week scan tomorrow at the Women's Hospital where we hopefully discover the flavour of the baby, I hope it won't be awkward and turn it's back on us, I need to know, I won't sleep tonight. Well I will, because nothing really gets in the way of my sleep but I'm excited!

This picture is almost TMI but I like it, even though it makes me feel like I should have a bigger bump and my baby is chubby and floating around in holiday brochure blue water. I also like that it shows the bladder for the tiny, sleep disturbing little afterthought it really is.

We've moved house, into a real house with a garden and a front door and everything. There is a room which can be a tiny little nursery which I'm slowly filling with all the baby stuff I've bought or been given so far. Lily has a big room and loves the house although I do think she misses her private balcony. Kiki has started sleeping in her bed which is sweet but it scares Lily and I know when my parents find out they'll shout at me because they don't think cats should even be allowed upstairs let alone snuggling under the duvet, but I'll distract them with the giant bag of mostly coffee-themed presents I accidentally bought them.

OK Kiki!

Kiki was lying in a position I've never seen him in before, laid flat on his back like a person. Maybe after a year living with us he's now comfortable enough to bare his belly. He even stayed like that while Lily was jumping over him like a maniac. I like to think that it was too comfortable for him to move rather than he's had too much cat chow and the effort would have been both too much and embarrassing for him.










Aaaaanyway... Still pregnant :)

Bumps in the Night

18 weeks

I've been having some definite abuse from the fetus (foetus?) this week, kicks and punches and rolling over. I still don't really have much of a bump but that's ok, perhaps this time I won't get absolutely huge like I did with Lily and will have a celebrity style small and neat bump... I can dream.

I was last sick on wednesday and have been fine since, a little bit of queasiness but nothing to cry about. I have been having the worst headaches ever though, of course I started to worry that it was pre-enclampsia but apparently that doesn't occur until after 20 weeks, but I still worry. It's probably that I don't drink enough water, I try to but I'm useless with remembering. I've also been incredibly tired, napping and such with no energy to get anything done. We're supposed to be moving house soon - how?!

The next scan and ante-natal is on the 8th December, it's at the woman's hospital this time. I hope the sonographer-from-hell doesn't still work there, the dragon that made my 13wk scan with Lily horrible by glaring at me for crying and biting my head off when I asked if she could tell the sex. I don't understand why someone who clearly hates other people would want to spend all day working with emotional pregnant women. Maybe she normally scans peoples kidneys and the like and was called in against her will. I'm hoping I won't have to have more blood taken at this ante-natal appointment, it's horrific the amount they take, although mine does gush when they stick the pin in me so it's usually over pretty quickly, the last vampire even told me my blood was nice and frothy - like I'd been drinking the bathwater! I had to take her word for it as I just can't look.


There doesn't seem to be much of a bump going on in the picture above, the baby still seems pretty inside the body. Apparently the baby weighs 7oz now and is getting fatter and growing hair. I wonder if this will be a hairy baby, Lils was and, old wives tale or not, I had such bad heartburn.

The Saddest Lion

Since this pregnancy seems to make me an emotional mess most of the time I've stopped fighting the crying and actively seek out things which will make me blub.

Like Christian the Lion.



Christian the Lion -


I'm actually in tears now, it's the bit where he pauses as he's coming down the hill and his jaw seems to drop when he recognises the two men, it gets me every time and I've watched this, and other soppy variations, lots.

I'm beginning to think I have way too much time on my hands.