Thursday 24 May 2012

Three More Full Moons - 28 Weeks 1 Day

12 Weeks to go – aaarrrrggghhhh!!!!! Slow down…no speed up…no slow down…oh, I don’t know what I want. Magic wand maybe to wave and make me all organised and ready:

  • Callum’s room to be decorated
  • New bed bought for Callum
  • Finishing touches to nursery
  • The usual bits and bobs bought in preparation for the big day – you know the sort of stuffy, sexy yummy mummy granny knickers, maternity pads, breast pads, tummy tuck appointment booked…
  • Car seat cover washed
  • Pushchair cover washed
  • Old, unwanted baby clothes sold or shipped off somewhere

The list is longer but my mind is absent!

Then once I’m all prepared I could wave the wand again and our newborn would be here…!

I’m making small steps in getting things prepared but when trying not to spend too much money and with having little time (when I have the energy) to spend on getting things prepared, I don’t feel like I’m making big enough steps! But that’s me – I like to be ready and organised months in advanced. It was lucky I was like that when pregnant with Callum because, despite him arriving a month early, I already had hospital bags packed, nursery decorated and was pretty much ready to go. I’d like to be in the same place this time but suspect it might not be so easy this time!!

One thing I have done is booked myself on a tour of Salisbury Hospital Maternity Unit for 12 June. Just need to get someone to look after Callum when I go. I spoke to one of the midwives there and she was lovely and very helpful. I’m already warming to the hospital. I’m sure once I’ve been to see it and made my final decision over hospital I’ll feel a bit more relaxed.

Have had a couple of rather painful, what I assume to be, Braxton Hicks recently. Once when on the loo myself (sorry reader, you get all the pleasant details!) which actually stopped me from going because the pain was too great. The other was after wiping Callum’s bum (the glamorous life of a parent!) and from bending over. The pain this time lasted over 5 minutes and in both cases my bump was so hard! The pain goes right across the top of my bump and really catches my breath. Having done a bit of research and after speaking to others, this is quite normal, although most people don’t experience pain with BHs but if it happens again I will mention it to my MW at the next appointment or before.

I’m on swelling ankle/foot watch now! Especially as the weather has finally brightened/warmed up this week! Last time I remember looking down at my feet and not recognising them! Stuart couldn’t see what was different about them and I couldn’t put my finger on it, they just didn’t look like my feet! As soon as Callum was born…well perhaps not as soon but later the next day…I realised my feet had returned to normal and they had in fact been swollen. They had swelled properly and obviously a couple of odd times before then just for the night but usually went down again by the next morning. I can tell the swelling is coming this time because when I cross my ankles or rest my ankle on the edge of a chair or something, the indent made remains for ages after.

I’m still not liking looking at myself in the mirror – I just don’t think I make an attractive pregnant lady and definitely can’t see any “blooming” in the pregnant sense and radiance??? *cough…splutter*. Oh, and rather unpleasantly, for the first time in my life, I had sore thighs from them rubbing together yesterday after walking back from the park in the sun! Ouch! So now I see a big tummed, big bummed duck with super thighs, with a spotty, podgy face and frizzy hair!

So…yeah…only 12 weeks to go – onwards and outwards I suppose!

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Family Trip to Isle of Wight

Being as we are growing our family this year and having just bought a house, we are forgoing any kind of ‘proper’ holiday this year (*sob*). So when a friend of mine let me know Travel Lodge were having a sale earlier in the year, I booked a couple of nights at the one on the Isle of Wight. I’d never been before and Stuart had fond memories of going with his mum & brother when he was younger so we had recently discussed going ourselves as a family.

I managed to book Sunday 13 and Monday 14 May at the hotel and I booked the 10am Red Funnel ferry from Southampton giving us plenty of day there on the Sunday without having to get up at too ungodly an hour and then likewise for the ferry home, for the cheaper tickets and to give us as much day there as possible, I booked the 17.30 on the way back. The hotel room came to £20 for 2 nights for a family room meaning it cost us more for the breakfast (which was extra!) which, considering Callum was free and we had a £1 discount, wasn’t cheap!

Now all we needed was the weather! Surely not a problem in May – to at least be fairly mild in temperature!!

As May arrived it looked set to follow in April’s footsteps as a complete washout but thankfully on the Sunday we went, the sun was out and it looked to be a lovely day! I’d checked the weather forecast and, unfortunately, the Sunday looked like it was going to be the best and only good sunny day so we had thought it best to use that day to go straight to Blackgang Chine. Blackgang Chine, for anyone who doesn’t know or hasn’t been, is a theme park style attraction but for younger children. There aren’t many actual rides – just a couple of water slides (where you sit on a dingy) and a rollercoaster that was broken when we were there – it is more about stuff to see and walk around. There was a dinosaur world with rather tired looking dinosaurs but Callum wasn’t bothered and kids were allowed to climb up them (as Stuart said, Health & Safety hasn’t quite made it to Isle of Wight yet, and is all the better for it!), there was Frontier Land with cowboys & indians, a pirate ship play area with water cannons to shoot at each other, what 3 year old little boy wouldn’t love it??!!

It was perfect for Callum and, I assume because of the time of year, not too busy so no queues for anything. As an added bonus, because Callum was under 4, he was free. Making it a very reasonable day trip at £10.50 for each adult. I’ve paid more to go to a farm which had a lot less to do so I thought this was pretty good.

We were there for about 4.5 – 5 hours which was plenty of time to take our time going round the whole park and we were all pretty knackered by the end of it – particularly with my OAP style hips and back at the moment!!!

Stuart having been there before, it was interesting to hear how the park had changed a little since he was younger due to about a third of it disappearing into the sea from erosion but the bits he remembered loving when he was little were still there if a little different or in a new location.

Here are some photos from our day:

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Stuart about to get eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex in Dinosaur World

IMAG2976On board one of the two pirate ships

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Callum & Stuart enjoying the super whizzy slides that made up the Snakes in Snakes & Ladders

IMAG3022 Getting wet! What a shame pregnant ladies can’t ride Winking smile

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Exhausted!

We headed to the hotel after the park which, apart from an empty bottle of cider or ale left down the side of Callum’s bed, was sufficient for our needs. No thrills but none needed! We dumped our stuff then headed into Newport town to get some dinner. We found an Italian/Mediterranean restaurant called Olivio’s where we had a lovely meal.

On the Monday the weather was a bit colder and more miserable. We drove round a few places and stopped off at Alum Chine to check out the Needles. The Needles Park was tired to say the least and is in desperate need a of a bit of TLC but we braved the treacherous looking chair lift down to the beach. We survived! The cliffs are famous for the layers of different rocks causing the cliffs and sand to be multicoloured with yellows, oranges, reds and blacks. I understand they used to let people buy bottles and fill them up with their own collection of multicoloured sand but they either don’t do that any more (they have ready made bottles in the gift shop) or weren’t doing it on the day we were there – perhaps it’s a seasonal thing.

We didn’t hang around with the weather being a bit meh, I’m sure it is a nicer experience if the whether is better.

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For the rest of the day we just drove around the coast of the island (well I did while the boys slept!) and then gave in to the rotten weather and took Callum to soft play back in Newport! We ended the day with another lovely meal at the Bargemans Rest at Newport Quay.

Tuesday was home day but with the ferry not until 17.30 that evening we wanted something to do for the rest of the day. Again, the weather was a bit changeable but Isle of Wight is a bit lacking in indoor entertainment so we went to the Owl & Monkey Haven which is on the outskirts of Newport. Its quite a new attraction, less than a couple of years old I think, so it was clean and had a nice play area but not really much to see and we were done in less than 2 hours. Although £8.50 for adults and £6.95 for kids (3- 14) didn’t seem too expensive first off, for only a couple of hours where all Callum really wanted to do was play in the play area it was a bit disappointing really. We didn’t want to pay out for another attraction that day but with the weather like it was we weren’t fussed about hunting out free entertainment for the remainder of our stay either so after lunch we got an earlier ferry home!

Overall, I think we all had a nice time but it is definitely a fair weather destination. I would like to go back but think that even if the weather had have been nicer, a few days is enough or, being as its so close to us, even a day trip!

Saturday 12 May 2012

Pregnancy Puts Years on Your Body! 26 Weeks, 3 Days

I feel like an 80 year old! What has happened to me?

I mowed the front & back lawn & repotted a couple of plants today and can now hardly walk. Once I sit down, I need a hoist to get me up again and then standing straight from a sitting position takes a litre of oil on the joints!

Add that to the scatter brain and lack of memory! The moaning (like now!) and my lack of patience reminds me of those grannies on the bus or at the bus stop…watch out for “back in my day…” and “the youth of today….” comments!

I’m sure I’ve noticed another few grey hairs sneaking in. Hell, I’ve even dyed my hair purple today! (don’t worry its Plum not purple rinse…yet!)

I’m not going to even mention my bladder and bowel movements…oh, oops, I just have! Well, I’ll spare you from the details…

I’ve bleeding gums! (not sure that’s an symptom of old age but thought I’d throw it in there!)

Now…if I could get those meals on wheels and the home help now please, that’d be grand!

Can you believe I’ve still got another 14 weeks to go (maybe)….but then…shit! I’ve only got another 14 weeks to go! Ahhhhhhhhhh! Panic!!!!!!

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Who’s That Funny Girl in That Mirror There? 25 Weeks

I’m really not liking my pregnant body at the moment! I know I should and I’m trying to but I look in the mirror, particularly at me naked, and I’m almost repulsed by what I see. That sounds strong I know but its my first and natural reaction.

I’m by no means svelte and I have lots of bumps in places I’d rather not have places – some are down to pregnancy but mostly they are down to my diet and lack of exercise (she says as she shovels another spoonful of Nutella into her gob!) but this isn’t just a vanity thing! I know, with a bit of hard work, I can fix that after baby!

Its that I don’t recognise my own body – its not me.

I don’t mind ‘so much’ when I’m clothed, although I don’t like looking at my bumpy self, but naked….shiver! My tummy looks funny, my bellybutton looks odd…I just look…wrong!

I have no issues at looking at anyone else naked or other naked bumps, in fact, I often think a pregnant naked lady is beautiful – so why don’t I like it on me?

I remember when my feet first started to swell when I was pregnant with Callum. No one else could notice the difference, they weren’t hugely swollen, but I looked down at my feet and they weren’t my feet. I gasped and said “These aren’t my feet – my feet look funny, they don’t look like my own”. Its weird! This is similar – I look at my body and its not my body!

Thankfully, the next day after giving birth, I looked at my feet and the swelling had already gone down and I recognised my feet again – it was then that I knew I wasn’t going mad (too late for that!) as now they looked perfectly fine again – in fact they looked like my feet but skinnier!

I was the same with my pregnant bump last time too, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. I had hoped that when Stuart bought me a photo shoot gift experience for my Birthday at about 6.5-7 months pregnant, that it would help me to change my view on my body and get me used to seeing myself in a different light. I am so pleased I got the photos done and definitely want to have some bump photos taken this time too. I can look at them and appreciate them as photos of a pregnant woman but when I think of them as me I still feel uncomfortable looking at them and don’t recognise them as my body.

There’s no solution to it I suppose – apart from to stop looking at myself in the mirror!