Little Update

Hi.
Tomorrow I will be be  25 weeks pregnant.

In the last few weeks the little bean has really blossomed (read blown up -like a beach ball in my belly).
She moves and kicks and pokes and bares down on my bladder. I have tried to have a calm, rational discussion with her about sharing space and compromising, but nothing doing. She wants to stretch out and she will.

I can also actually see her moving now, which is pretty cool, but she doesn't do it on demand, so Mr C has not had the good fortune to witness the little miracle as of yet.

My heartburn is as bad as ever and, more likely that not, my fault. Coffee is really not my friend any more.
I occasionally get cabbage patch doll feet, but then I just lie down with my feet up and the swelling goes down.

I go to yoga on Tuesdays with InJoy Yoga at Beanie's Cafe, where, surprise surprise, I talk too much! *sorry ladies* I am working on the problem. It probably irritates me more than you, since it's an impulse I struggle to control. I am benefiting from the exercise but my back (right side) has been sore lately and is so unfun! I think the pain is more related to the increased baby size and lack of muscle tone/strength rather than from the increased activity.

I have taken up a few other little activities offered through the Depression Alliance. I made a coaster in the mosaic class this week. it was fun and creative, so why not!

The Vertbaudet stuff arrived and while the clothes and towel were pretty, the store is decidedly over-priced and we won't be buying from them again. The change bag is super tiny - cute, but tiny, so the search continues for an appropriate baby change bag. (I am secretly tempted to just use a backpack, as I currently do.)

We've bought a few more baby things. I am somewhat tempted to do a video to show all the stuff we've got so far. Let me know what you think. Might be fun.

Ooh, and we opened the pram and carry cot boxes. The Babyzen stuff is just as it appears... Totally Amazing. The manuals were sealed in their own bags so we used the YouTube videos for opening and closing instructions (worked a treat) and they are really easy to use. The pram and carry cot are sturdy (I was afraid they wouldn't be) light-weight and the prams is smoother than any of the other prams I have tried. I did three-point turns in our teeny tiny lounge and I was amazed.

FYI - Kiddicare is having an added extra sale type of thing where the pram (white) which was £400 when we bought it, is now 15% less (so £340). Don't worry, we didn't let the £60 slip away from us. I know it may sound a bit cheeky, but the pram was still sealed in the box, so we took it back to the shop and they gave us a voucher for the difference. (We had called their call centre who said there was nothing they could do. According to the people in store, they could not understand why they could not help us.)

On the beauty front, my nails are looking long and fabulous (thank you baby!), so I am letting them grow as long as possible (I will have to cut them when baby comes so I am enjoying it while I can). I am going through my nail polish now and testing them out to see what to get rid of. The Rimmel 60 second polish lasted me a whole week with a top coat and I was super happy with it and want to get more shades, but I want to get rid of all the others that don't cut it as well.

I have also bought a few bits from Boots - some sharpie style eyeliners that I have yet to try, some eye shadow from Soap & Glory and the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in 001, which I LOVE! Mr C is not sold on the colour but I am in love with it. It feels and looks lovely. It should be considering what I went through to get it. I went to Boots and bought it. I got on the tram and looked at it. It had been used - how gross! so I turned around and went back. They had none in stock and tried to sell me other stuff. Don't you hate it when salesmen do that. So I rummaged through the drawer at the bottom and found one unused tester - just one. Problem solved (it took almost an hour to do this and it is way too hot in that shop.)

Last little thing. I have become obsessed with the Bits and Clips YouTube channel. she is good friends with one of my favourites, SprinkleofGlitter. I watch Marie endlessly.

Nothing else to share, I think.

See ya later.

Baby Show Haul

Last week Mr C and I went to the Baby Show at the Excel Centre to start our epic shopping journey into parenthood.

As a FTM (First Time Mum), I feel wholeheartedly unprepared for the experience, which is ridiculous since I am actually rather good with babies and kids, and labour holds neither mystery nor terror for me as it does many others in the same boat.

Oh, and did I mention that at 23wks, I now look like I swallowed a boat?

Look. I'll show you...

Big Mama

 Since we don't really know what we're getting ourself in for, we decided to make a shopping list, Cheerin-style.

Mr C is a very logical fellow, and I am rather fond of logic myself. I am also unable to trust my brain at the moment. As such, our little list (this was my idea, just so you know) turned into a spreadsheet, which included all the items we may need to buy and their price point from various common household retailers.

I did not go overboard with this as we simply wanted to arm ourselves with a comparative price guide for the Baby Show. We have been to similar shows before, here and in South Africa (The Rand Show - oh the memories) and we are well aware that many stand holders will claim that their product is being sold at a hefty discount for the show, only to discover that most of it is utter bullshit.

We think we did rather well and so we took pictures.

Here's a good one.

Cool Stuff

We did get just a few little freebies, but not many.
Here is a list of our haul:
Baby carrier - MaByLand Trek - £30
Sangenic Hygiene nappy bin - £10.00
Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature new born starter set - £15.00
Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles - £13.00
Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Electric Breast Pump - £52.77
Chilli Peeps multi-purpose teats - £10.00
Milton dummy steriliser + 50 mini steri tabs - £7.00
13 Funky Giraffe Bibs - £20.00
Baby grooming kit - £12.00
Fluffy duck toy - £5.00

We also recently bought our pram and carry cot from Kiddicare.
Behold the Babyzen Recaro Pram:

Amazing, don't you think?

We did not buy a microwave steriliser at the show because we got it cheaper at Kiddicare.
This Friday, we went to Kiddicare and bought the few little things we wanted that were on promo and therefore cheaper than the show - a mobile, the steriliser, and few other little bits.

We have not bought a baby bag. they are ridiculously over-priced and besides, we went onto this lovely little website called Vertbaudet. They sent us a catalogue with some rather cute baby things.  They are quite expensive, but with your first shop, you get £15 off your order of £20 or more plus a free changing bag which is very sweet looking and ... I'll take a picture when I get it and show you. To get this deal, we bought a hooded towel  and a set of babygrows. The total after discount was a whopping £11.99!

So it's all good and we're doing well. 

Baby is doing well too and that's all for now. 

The 20 Week Scan

Yesterday, at 16:30, we had our 20 week scan.
Do not have a scan as the last patient on a Friday afternoon at the Croydon University Hospital.
It was quite a let down and disappointing experience, to be honest, and I have rather mixed feelings about the whole thing.

So far, most antenatal things have been rather nice, but this time, we felt rushed (It didn't help that we actually rushed to get there and just made it with no time to spare - they wouldn't even let me go use the loo before we started), and because the baby wasn't lying in the most workable position, they just gave up.

The sonographer just skipped over the baby, did measurements and called them out to her helper. She didn't really linger for any length of time on anything so we couldn't get a good look. We only got a glimpse of baby's feet and didn't even manage to see hands when she said "There are the hands. They are okay."

We had been looking forward to this pregnancy milestone for AGES and it was supposed to have been quite special for us, and especially for Mr C who saw this as his birthday present event (we were planning to know baby gender).

Baby's legs were crossed in front of the area that would have determined gender, so we didn't get to know for sure.

The only upside is that they rescheduled the scan, so we will get another chance in 2 weeks.
Also, due to familial pregnancy issues, we have another scan next Friday at St George's Hospital. Hopefully, that will go better. The scan is on the 14th so Mr C won't be able to come, so I will try to reschedule for the previous day as he already has that day off. We will see how we get on.

Either way, Mr C will chat to the bosses and see if he can get time off for the redo scan.

Today, we were planning to do the first bit of baby shopping, but the weather was so dismal that we opted to stay home instead and work on a shopping spreadsheet. I watched Louise's Baby Glitter room tour just to see if there was anything to add that I'd missed. It's was rather helpful. I love watching Sprinkle of Glitter videos. I think it's become my favourite favourite!!

Hopefully, tomorrow will be more cooperative and I can get at least one little symbolic thing for baby. We are half-way through pregnancy, after all.