Wow what a whirlwind the last 10 days have been! We have a cute, little, gorgeous newborn son at home with us and in general life is good but our first 10 days has been slightly dominated by his weight and feeding…
newborn baby fingers! Baby S’s weight and breastfeeding issues
S struggled to latch in hospital, and when we brought him home on day 2 we all had the worst night’s sleep… He wouldn’t latch, wouldn’t sleep and screamed a lot!
Breastfeeding support came out day 3 or 4 and helped with his latch and my positioning. This, combined with my milk coming in all helped and we finally started feeding ok but we were playing catch up…
By day 4 he had lost 10% of his weight, by day 6 he was back up to -6%, but by day 8 he was back to -10% and today (day 10) he’s still at -10%. I took him to a breastfeeding support clinic this afternoon and basically I need to pump a bit more, give him another expressed bottle feed and we’ll see where he’s at on Sunday!
I know his latch still isn’t 100%, he still gets frustrated at times when he’s trying. On the plus side he’s taken to bottles well which can always be a battle when you’re breastfeeding!
Routine and moods
Obviously newborns are renowned for not having a routine, but we’ve had some good days and nights where he’ll sleep for 2-3 hours, feed, settle back down easily for a sleep. But then we’ve had other days where he’s cluster feeding and will only sleep on a human being!
Despite the feeding ‘issues’ he’s quite content, just this morning I took him out to the garden and he was looking around taking everything in, no tears or screams!
Me – mummy
I’m feeling ok, just tired as you’d expect from a mum to a newborn! His feeding plan and the terrible rainy weather have given me the perfect excuse not to leave the house (apart from last week’s vote and today’s BF group!) which was one of the things I wanted to do more of with baby 2... Just chill out! Been watching lots of cr&p TV and films!
My bump has pretty much disappeared (see… Some of my breastfeeding efforts must be working!) and I’m pretty much back to my pre-baby weight of 8lb.
Toddler W – big brother!
You might remember that I was a bit worried about how toddler W would take to his younger brother and we prepared him for it as much as we could, well we needn’t have worried!
Thankfully we had decided to leave him with the childminder on my work days (m-th) and I think this has given him the attention he needs, and the chance to burn off all his energy. Then, when he comes home he comes running in asking for ‘baby kiss’… It’s the cutest thing!
baby kisses!
As my OH and his family have also been helping out a lot with W, I do feel like I’m neglecting him a bit but I think it’s too be expected and it won’t last long…
One thing I’ve found really weird is how big and heavy W now seems! I don’t know if S’s birth co-incided with a growth spurt for W or if it’s just cos I’m holding S so much but honestly… W seems huge!! Did you find this with your first born?!
My OH
After our first crazy night at home, I decided that S and I would sleep in the living room so that my OH could sleep well most nights. This means he then had the energy to help out with everything from playing with W, feeding me, housework etc…. He’s been a star!
So there we have it, it’s been a funny first week or so dominated by feeding and expressing… But we survived! We’re now a family of four and at the centre right now is a tiny baby with long legs, long feet, lots of dark hair… Who looks a bit like his older brother did at this age… Who makes cute little noises and funny movements in a light sleep… Who has melted all of our hearts ❤️
Ok so this is a week late… I started drafting it but then went into labour! Thought I’d still publish it so that the full story is blogged… But no bump photo to go with it! 😦
I don’t know why but I never thought I’d get to a week overdue… Everyone tells you that your second usually comes early. It’s a weird feeling going overdue… I’m bored but too tired to do anything, now been off for 4 weeks already! I also think my anxieties seem to go up… I just want him out and to know he’s ok!!
Since the last update I’ve spent about 12 hours in hospital… Every appointment seems to cause us new drama!
Thursday (40+2) – went to the consultant clinic. I had to wait over an hour and a half before they even did my BP/urine check… And the WIFI was broken so I couldn’t even watch the Wales vs England football game!
So it wasn’t any surprise that my BP was through the roof (160/110) by the time I got in there! Cue getting sent straight upstairs to the assessment unit and a fair chance that I’d get induced that night..
But by the time I was settled in there my BP was ok and after waiting a few hours to see the doctor, she asked my thoughts on induction and I said I’d rather try a sweep which is what they did. 6 hours after arriving and I was home!
Friday I thought I’d try all the old wives tales… Went for a lovely curry at Chai street, drank some raspberry leaf tea (bit late I know) and started bouncing on the exercise ball!
asty thali at chai street cardiff
Over the weekend I started to have cramps/period pain-like symptoms but spread over hours.
On Sunday I had a 930 hospital appointment just to check my BP and have a second sweep. The midwife put me on the monitor (no idea why – my BP was fine) and measured Bean with her tape measure and wasn’t happy with his size so wanted me to see the doctor in the assessment unit.
Cue a 4 hour wait!!! I love the NHS and I was trying really hard not to but couldn’t help but feel frustrated and pissed off sat in a waiting room for so long while my OH and toddler W celebrated Father’s Day without me!
I guess it was worth the weight… I got ANOTHER scan and not only was the sonographer totally happy with his size (and said we might be looking at an 8lb-er) but actually took ages over it as she said he was the most photogenic scan she’d done at this late stage! (I think it’s cos I’m very slim). She could also see some vernix on him which was an indication that he still had a few days of cooking to do in there!
Top tip: if you have any form of hospital appointment, even if you think you’re just popping in… Take books/mags/phone charger!!
Monday I had the laziest day apart from having to nip out to replace a front tyre…. Never had such speedy service after telling them I was 6 days overdue 😂
Tuesday morning I had my third and final stretch and sweep. As with the previous two, I was 2-3 cms dilated (normal for a second baby) and the cervix was still quite high up. I had the odd cramp throughout the day… And they ramped up late afternoon/early evening and I went into labour that night… Finally!
A couple of weekends ago, I made some lovely memories with W, half thinking it might be our last weekend pre-baby. (It wasn’t!)
On the Friday morning we headed to Cardiff Bay, and as it was half term my sister (a teacher) was able to join us…
As we were there nice and early (9? 10?) it was lovely and quiet, felt like we had the place to ourselves in the sunny weather…
As soon as we got there W found an abandoned balloon, which created lots of fun for him chasing it and losing it (it didn’t have a stick/string) so was a challenge to keep hold of 😉
We walked towards the play area on the Cardiff Bay barrage….
W enjoyed trying to climb over the fence at the Captain Scott memorial (PS when did they put a fence around this?! And why?!)
We stopped for a coffee at the very cool ‘Coffi co’ which has an outdoor seating area which is pretty much enclosed and full of benches and deckchairs. This was lovely…. Sis and I got to catch up over a nice coffee in the sun while W could safely play with his cars and transport them from one deckchair to the other… This is the life!
As it was taking us ages to walk anywhere with me being heavily pregnant, and W trying to carry his balloon, we gave up on the plan to walk down the barrage and took him to the little play area behind the Norwegian Church instead.
We had fun playing with him, but the funniest bit was when he hid behind a bin. Sis thought he was playing hide and seek but I knew…. He was having a poo!
(He’s not potty/toilet trained yet but for a while now he leaves the room/hides if we’re out when he needs a poo!)
On the way back meandering through the bay, he took lots of opportunities to climb up onto the railings (one of his fave sayings at the mo is ‘climbing trees’ whenever he’s climbing up/across something… No idea where he’s picked up that saying from!)
He was as chuffed as always to see some ‘quack quacks’ on the water’s edge, so much so that he fed them all of his crisps bless him!
Then it was lunchtime, and we decided to try Bill’s as I’d heard it was child-friendly… As it was sunny we sat outside and luckily there was a water feature nearby that he could play in while we waited for the food. He was mostly well-behaved, ate some of his macaroni cheese and our sweet potato fries (must make these at home for him!) and enjoyed playing with the crayons/colouring in book they lent him 🙂
Then it was most definitely home/nap time (we won’t write about the tantrum he had ;))
That night, my OH was out at the cricket (sis and I watched ‘train wreck’.. V good!) so Saturday morning I gave his delicate head a lie-in and took W to a wildlife day at Forest farm.
We were a teeny bit early for the event and so were busy throwing stones into the pond….
…then the event organisers (inc RSPB and Cardiff council park rangers) came to do some pond dipping (at which point I was worried that W had scared everything away with his stone throwing!!)
This was cool, we saw lots of tadpoles which W called ‘fishies’ (I don’t think he understood the concept of them being baby frogs!) and watched a couple of those tadpoles get killed by insects!
We then had a walk around the meadow looking at all the ‘yellow flowers’ and ‘daisies’
It was a lovely little event and I’d definitely take him again. From here we drove a couple of minutes up the road to see ‘quack quacks’ and kingfishers at the old Glamorgan canal but by then he was grouchy so we headed home.
It was nice to have some quality time with him. Since then I’ve had less energy as bump has grown, and the weather has been more naff!
He’ll always me my special, first-born, gorgeous, adventurous, fun-loving son. I love you W! Xxx
Today’s my due date… And no sign of baby bean! It’s a strange feeling, I was always half expecting to be induced by now, and everyone kept saying your second usually comes early… Yet nothing!
40 weeks pregnant Symptoms/health
Over the weekend I started having a few cramps here and there but nothing serious! The last couple of days I’ve felt exhausted… Not sure of that is a sign of my body getting ready?! *Clutching at straws!* I’m so exhausted I’m wondering how on earth I will find the energy for labour but it must be my body resting before the big event!
I’ve got a consultant appointment Thursday, if my blood pressure is high I suspect they might keep me in and induce me that night.
Just today I’ve booked to see the community midwife tomorrow… I’m hoping she might be able to see whether I’m dilated at all. (Whereas I’m not sure I would ordinarily get to see a midwife on Thursday in hospital)
What I’ve been up to
Since the last update I’ve had a lovely time… W was with the childminder for his usual days (mon-thurs) so:
Wednesday – can’t remember!
Thursday I had a fab mum-to-be massage at Ener-Chi in Radyr which my sister had treated me to, really nice! And I followed it up with lunch in a nice local cafe (orchards )
Friday my aunt came to visit and to help out with W in my heavily pregnant state… We had lots of house and garden fun including painting! She babysat while he napped so I could meet an old friend for lunch at the lovely Fino lounge
Saturday – I took W over to my friend’s for a playdate in the morning, and we watched the football in the afternoon (go Wales!) My OH finally put together our Snuzpod (co-sleeping cot) 🙂
Sunday – had started feeling exhausted by this point but dragged myself out to chase meerkats (prairie dogs!) at Warren mill farm again (W’s favourite activity) followed by Wagamamas in Cardiff bay 🙂
Yesterday – apart from getting the car serviced and doing a food shop, I managed to chill out a bit! While the car was in the garage, I found a lovely cafe that’s not long opened – Caffi cwtch – I plan to take baby there 🙂
Today – as it was D-day my friend suggested meeting for lunch and a browse around our lovely local garden centre, Pugh’s. It was a lovely few hours and a welcome distraction despite my exhaustion!
It’s been nice having a bit of ‘me time’ knowing that I might not have it again for a while!
And now here I am….
Feelings/fears
I still don’t feel ready… But I’m not sure if I ever will. I’m hoping he makes an appearance this weekend… Father’s Day would be nice!
I think they let you go 2 weeks over before inducing/sweeping you… 2 weeks seems like a very long time. If he’s not here by the weekend I think I’ll be trying all the methods to try and get him out 🙂
I was reading my old blog posts earlier from when I was expecting W. I was worried about labour, but also whether I’d bond with baby and know what to do. This time around I’m worried about labour, but also whether he’s ok. I’m guessing it’s because this pregnancy has come with a lot more stress, but also as it’s our second, we know what’s at stake!
I’ll keep you posted on developments – wish me luck! Xx
With just over a week to go til the EU referendum I’m so worried about some of the stuff spouted by the ‘leave’ campaign that I feel compelled to write about it….
#mbloggersremain
I’m voting ‘remain’ but I’m not particularly pro-remain just so anti-the-leave campaign for the reasons below that are used by them and their supporters….
‘I’m worried about immigration. I’m voting leave so that we can control our borders, build an Australian-style points system etc etc’
I’m generally pro-immigration. I see a NHS that wouldn’t survive without immigration because we don’t train enough doctors and nurses. I work for a company that has a French CEO, in a marketing department where at least 10% are ‘immigrants’ (3x Irish, 1xGreek, 1xCypriot, 1xGerman).. All were the best people for those roles. I live in a city (Cardiff) that was at its most prosperous when immigrants (many Somalians) were working on our docks… The biggest docks in the world at the time!
Still, I get it that some people worry about losing our Britishness or whatever…
But here’s what I’m really confused about. Most of our immigrants come from outside of the EU whether they be Pakistani doctors, Australian bar staff or South American footballers… And we already have control over that… It’s nothing to do with the EU!?? So that points system, we have the power to do that already!
Most of the EU immigrants (just 5% of our population by the way) work here and pay into our economy since the recent change that they can’t claim benefits without working here first.
Which then leaves illegal immigrants and refugees. Personally I think every country should be obliged to take in refugees who are fleeing war (especially when we are the ones bombing them!) but the UK takes a very small number so I don’t think this is a game-changer for deciding on what to vote.
Illegal immigrants and controlling our borders… Personally I think we’d do better at this staying in the EU sharing resources and police intelligence, unless we were to invest heavily in this area.
So what is it about immigrants that you want to escape… Is it their ‘drain on NHS and schools‘? This brings me to my next point…
‘We can invest the money saved into the NHS (education, arts, defence, security etc)’
The Vote leave campaign have been told numerous times not to use the ‘we would save £350m a week’ message as its untrue and numerous studies show that the money that comes in more than makes up for the money going out.
So how much do we spend on the EU? Just 2% of our overall budget! So if you’re worried about the other 98%…. The NHS, education, pensions, benefits, defence etc then vote based on that in the general election!
The NHS is not on its’ arse because it’s over-run by immigrants, it’s on its’ arse because Britain voted for the Tories and their cost-cutting plan instead of the more left-wing parties who invest in public services.
Net migration is about 300k a year… Do you really think that a 0.4% increase in population (70 million) can stretch public services to breaking point?!
One of the things that has wound me up most about the ‘vote leave’ campaign is that they have NO PLAN!!! Who will run the country with David Cameron having to step down as he promised he would…. Boris Johnson? Ian Duncan Smith? George Osborne? I’m sure they would have different ideas on how to spend the ‘money saved’ but nowhere have I seen what those different scenarios would look like!
Or are you hoping Nigel Farage would be in charge? Well he’s not even an MP so it’s impossible! So despite being an MEP who’s encouraging us all to leave, he will have NO POWER to make any decisions on what happens if we do leave!!
So, so far we have a leave campaign that:
Has no proper plan of what happens after
Promises the earth on what money could be invested in… Despite the lack of plan and relatively small amount of money that won’t stretch very far
Promises things that can already be done in the UK and aren’t EU responsibility (immigration from outside the EU)
There are 2 other claims I hear that also piss me off….
‘We’ll no longer be controlled by a group of unelected people’
Ummm we vote for MEP’s that represent our needs in the European Union. (Nigel Farage is one of them!) They vote for the leader/commissioner…. Ok the European Comission above the EU seems to be a bit like our House of Lords but let’s sort our own mess out before worrying about the EC??
The EU is all democratic in the same way our British MPs represent everyone from rural mid Wales to affluent parts of the South East and deprived inner cities.
So from now on just take an interest in the European elections and vote!
And don’t forget that we already have control over some of they key things that matter… The taxes we pay, pensions and benefits, the NHS and education system…
‘Let’s make Britain Great again’
Britain was at its ‘greatest’ when it invaded half the world. I don’t think we’re planning to do that again (she hopes!)
We were also ‘great’ when we were manufacturing everything… But now we live in a globalised world where it’s cheaper for us to get our steel imported from China than to make it ourselves, we import lamb from New Zealand cheaper than we pay our British farmers for it.
So how are we going to be ‘Great’ again? Stop importing everything? Re-open all the coal mines? Sounds unrealistic to me, we’re always going to need to import and in doing so I’d rather have the negotiation power of 28 nations behind me rather than one little island!
I’m left decided that I’m voting ‘remain’ next week…
The vote leave campaign is non-sensical, poorly thought out and has given me no assurance that we will be better off outside the EU… There is no plan!!
I’m not a gambler… our economy is doing well, we live in peace… I don’t want to rock the boat
I think there are many ways we’d be worse off outside the EU eg what if the 2 million British pensioners living in Spain have to move back? They will put a bigger strain on our NHS than any threat of immigration growth.
Coming from mid Wales originally, my home county (Ceredigion) and the South Wales valleys are classed as some of the poorest parts of Europe and have benefitted hugely from EU funding and projects. Again, in the absence of any plan, I haven’t seen any assurances that Wales would get any additional money from the UK govt to make up for the £20Billion shortfall that’s already been allocated to Wales from the EU by 2020.
I feel like I’ve benefited from improved workers rights (hours worked, holiday rights etc) and maternity rights that were all improved under the EU. With the right-wing Tories/UKIP in charge I fear that these rights would be eroded over time
What do you think? What will you be voting? I would genuinely love to hear from you 🙂
39 weeks pregnant
So last week I was supposed to spend the week with W as the childminder was on holiday. But as per my last update I was busy getting my blood pressure (BP) checked every other day…
Health
Thursday I had another scan and consultant appointment and good news, this time I had a laid-back doctor who didn’t think my BP was an issue and the growth curves were looking fine.
So good news as they don’t want to see me again til past my due date now… And hopefully Bean might be here by then!
I was quite surprised, I assumed on Thursday that they’d be booking me in to induce me, as happened last time. I know that could still happen, but there’s a greater chance I will go into labour naturally at home or whatever which is a weird feeling!
Preparation and nesting
I STILL don’t feel ready for his arrival!! I feel a bit in denial, still haven’t done much (any!?) labour preparation, no breathing exercises etc!
Instead I’ve been very busy nesting, which I’m enjoying… Lots of sorting out, throwing out, creating space, re-arranging etc!
Any other updates?
I’m feeling ok apart from not sleeping well due to the heat (and bump!)
I’ve gone over the 2 stone weight gain mark now!
My lovely sister bought me a voucher for a maternity massage which I’m hoping I can use tomorrow
Had a lovely weekend with W which I’ll blog about soon
Had a lovely day yesterday lunching and shopping with besties and a 4 week old baby 😍
So that’s it for now… A short and sweet update, the next few days promise more nesting and resting… No signs that Bean will be here any time soon but watch this space!
With just over a week to go I’ve finally finished packing my hospital bags. Now last time around I packed a lot of stuff, got taken in and induced early (without my bags) so I didn’t really end up using much that I’d packed… I also didn’t shower there so didn’t use any of the toiletries!
My top essentials for labour last time were:
Drinking straws (makes it so much easier to drink, whatever position you’re in!)
Lavender oil on a hankie… Smelling this kept me relaxed
Face sprays/mists
This time around I’ve packed a bit lighter and assumed an overnight stay. I’ve also split the bags into one for mum, one for baby. (Last time I tried labour and post-labour)
hospital bags packed!Let’s start with mummy’s bag… The good old faithful Cath Kidston that a bestie bought me 🙂
I’ve packed:
A bag of energy snacks (brunch bars), 2 bottles of lucozade, 2 bottles of water
Drinking straws
A bag of toiletries….
toiletries for my hospital bagThe right-hand side is for labour:
Elemis lavender toner spray and Body Shop vitamin E face mist… Both blissful!
Lavender oil and a hanky to sniff it from (helps me relax)
Plain massage oil – doubt I will use it but just in case I demand a back rub from my OH!
Sanctuary foot and leg gel – another blissful treat for aching legs and cankles!
Lip balm for the gas-and-air dry mouth/lips
On the left-hand side is stuff I might use post-labour:
Shampoo, conditioner and shower gel – just small samples I’ve gotten free with stuff
Deodorant
Face cream
BB foundation (the thing I’m most unlikely to use but you never know!)
Just realised I need to pack my toothpaste and toothbrush too! And a hairbrush!
Also in mummy’s bag the not-very-glamorous but essential:
Pants
Nursing Bra
Sanitary towels
Breast pads
Clothes to go home in – lounging bottoms and a t-shirt!
Paracetamol – a friend gave me this tip last time around, they can come in handy post-labour as you could literally be waiting hours for your prescription to come through!
But on the more exciting side I’ve packed a brand new nighty and pyjamas that I bought in the M&S sale for a total of £15… Lovely bird print, been saving them to wear for the big event or just after as I was in totally scruffy old stuff last time!
M&S maternity bird print nighty and pyjamasNow for baby’s bag. This is a brand new bag we were given by toTs by Smartrike, I’ll do a proper review once we start using it properly but in the meantime I must tell you I’m really impressed with it… High quality/finish and bags of space!
baby’s hospital bag by tots by smartrikeInside I’ve packed:
A selection of newborn clothes – couple of vests, couple of sleepsuits, couple of outfits… Should cover all weather eventualities! The sleepsuits were worn by W as a baby, the other items are brand new and featured in our recent haul post if you fancy a closer look!
first clothes for our newborn
Then we have:
About 8 nappies – we are kindly sent a big pack of Asda’s new nappies to try out – their nappies sound upgraded since we last used them when W was a baby – they now have newborn nappies with ‘Dreamskin’ technology which helps keep their skin moisturised and temperature regulated which sound great
Wet wipes – A travel pack of water wipes – we were also sent these to try which I’m really looking forward to trying, should be less faff than water and cotton wool!
Cotton wool just in case!
Little samples of nappy cream
A blanket (crocheted by my aunt!)
some of baby’s hospital bag essentials
And I think that’s it!
My hospital notes are currently living on top of the bags so we remember those too
Must remember my phone charger, also the TENS machine if I’m not already using it as we’re en route
If I end up being induced again I’ll take another bag packed with books, magazines, my iPad and lots of snacks!
Anything I’ve missed? What was in your hospital bags?!
2 weeks to go til due date and I still feel utterly unprepared!…..
38 weeks pregnant
So last week didn’t quite go to plan, as I said in my last update… W should have been with the childminder and I was planning a week of nesting and resting…
Alas by Wednesday morning W wasn’t well so spent the rest of the week at home with me… We think it’s his last couple of teeth coming through, it came with cold-like symptoms, earache and sleepless nights….
So of course I caught another cold off him and I’m feeling utterly exhausted and top of this…
Health
As I said in the 37 week update we needed to go back in to hospital last week to check the abdomen percentile trend…
So we had yet another scan on Thursday but actually they didn’t seem to check/measure that at all, just checked fluid etc.
Instead, new health drama… My blood pressure was high (150-something/95) and so the consultant wanted it checked the next day (I went to the GP and got W checked over too!) it was still high so I went up to the assessment unit that afternoon…. Then had to get it checked at the unit Saturday morning and yesterday (Bank Holiday Monday) morning. It was a bit lower yesterday (129/89) so don’t need to go up again til Thursday…
The same thing happened to me in my last pregnancy and I ended up being induced in the end… So I’m kinda expecting the same will happen this time around which I’m fine with. With 2 weeks to go bean isn’t showing any signs of coming out soon, kicking away nicely.
As I said, in other health news I now have a cold/cough (which is doing my pelvic floor no good!!) and in terms of aches and pains, my left leg (calf/ankle especially) is sore and I might try to get it massaged soon as that’s another thing keeping me awake!
Nesting and shopping
So in other news, I did manage to get a lot of washing and sorting done!
Being stuck in the house with an ill toddler, I did a bit of online shopping including:
photo frames for W’s newborn photos… Only took 2 years!!
Sling bookshelves and some toy storage for W’s stuff
A sheepskin and angelcare bath support for baby bean.
We still have a fair bit to do including picking up the car seat and putting the Snuzpod together!
Preparing for labour
I still feel utterly unprepared in this area! We’ve managed to watch one ‘one born every minute’ so far and I’ve slowly started reading Ina May Gaskin’s ‘spiritual midwifery’ but still haven’t managed to finish packing the hospital bags!
Let’s see what this week will bring with a toddler in tow and blood pressure checks!
With only two weeks to go til baby bean is he to arrive, I can’t wait to see how 2 year old toddler W will react to his arrival! He’s given us plenty of sleepless nights over the last few weeks so seems to be preparing us for it all!
His behaviour’s been great lately but I’m fully expecting some jealousy-driven tantrums when baby is here! Here’s some things we’ve been doing and planning, to prepare him for baby’s arrival…
He’s good at caring for his baby doll (only flung him into the bin once!!) and pushing him around…. Hopefully when the real baby is here, his toy doll might join in with family baths/nappy changing etc… We’ll see. It’s certainly been handy at trying to explain what’s in mummy’s tummy…
our baby boy doll from b&m
2 – bonding time with bump
As soon as I started showing, I got in the habit of telling W that it was a baby. So quite often now he’ll ‘kiss baby’, say ‘hello baby’ or ask where baby is hiding (always trying to pull my top up to see him!) the best time is when I read his bedtime stories and he’s cwtched right in to me and Bean.
3 – teaching him through books
We bought Pirate pete’s big brother book, and ‘there’s a house inside my mummy’ they’ve been ok but not overly useful, maybe better for slightly older kids…
The content in the pirate Pete book is perfect but W just gets distracted by the button which makes a baby giggling sound! Whereas the content in the other is a bit confusing for him I think… Eg kitchen in mummy’s tummy etc. Either way they prompt us to interact with bump and talk about baby.
4 – giving him a present from baby
A few people have suggested buying him a present from baby. So far I’ve only bought him this gorgeous ‘big brother elephant’ but we might to think of something a bit bigger and/or more interactive as he’s not overly bothered with soft toys.
best big brother elephant
5 – asking him to help out
W likes keeping busy, and helping out with chores… So we plan to get him as involved as we can once baby’s here eg fetching nappies, helping to change him etc… We’ll see how it goes!
6 – keeping him in his usual routine
For the first month at least, W will still go to the childminder 4 days a week. Controversial maybe but we thought long and hard about it… Baby will (hopefully!) be on my boobs a lot during the day, and I will be shattered so I can imagine W getting very bored and frustrated! He’ll have more fun over at the childminder’s and once I know what kind of baby we have then I can start reducing the childcare time down to 1 or 2 days a week.
We’ll have to make sure that the 3 days he’s not with the childminder that he gets plenty of love and attention 😍
Of course I’ll keep you posted on how it actually goes….. Can you think of anything else we could do to prepare him? I’d love to hear your experiences….
A week ago I was enjoying my last few days in work, feeling like I could carry on for a few more weeks but I stuck to finishing on Thursday….
Lucky I did as I felt exhausted straight after…. Maternity insomnia has kicked in, and I think a lot of that is because I feel totally unprepared, physically and mentally!
After finishing work Thursday…
dressed up for the photoshoot
– Friday, W and I had a photoshoot, I wanted some nice photos of him hugging bump but he wasn’t really interested on the day!! Hopefully she got some nice pics of us anyway 😁
– Saturday, a day of nesting, got W’s baby clothes down from the loft etc
– Sunday – a lovely spa day which was a Christmas present from my other half for me, his mum and sister. It came at the right time as I was so tired! I had a prenatal body massage, facial and pedicure… Bliss!
spa day selfie
-yesterday felt like the first proper day of maternity leave. We’ve left W with the childminder so hopefully I can do lots of nesting and resting! Yesterday I did some sorting/re-arranging, 4 loads of washing and started packing hospital bags. Oh and last night we watched our first One Born this time around… So I’m starting to get a bit more prepared!
Health
Apart from the usual tiredness and achiness I’ve felt pretty good since the last update and had some nice days out.
We had a 36 week scan on Thursday. Everything seemed fine but the doctor was worried that the abdomen percentile had dropped from about 90% to about 50% since the last scan. So we’re back in this Thursday for another scan… I’ve lost count of how many scans we’ve had, must be about 8 by now… Can’t complain, feels like we’re getting a private level of service (apart from all the hanging around waiting ;))
Yesterday I finally had my whooping cough jab. Despite all the hospital appointments, nobody told me about this vaccine… It’s the stuff your midwife would normally tell you.
At last week’s scan baby had a full mop of head, was still very much a boy and was weighing 5lb 8oz… Oh and he’s now head down which is great!
I’ve just weighed myself and I’m close to 10 stone now, so I’ve put on nearly 2 stone which is similar to my first pregnancy.
Bought/borrowed/given
Since the last update where I’d bought the Snuzpod, I took the plunge and bought the Sleepyhead (was on offer on the NCT shop) to go with it…. This baby will get some sleep 😎
So that’s two things bought off my newborn wishlist (probably the only things we’ll buy off it!)
My team in work spoiled me to a lovely afternoon tea in Pettigrew tea rooms in my last week… It was such a nice treat that I wasn’t expecting anything else but on my last day they surprised me with lots of gorgeous goodies after doing a collection around the office…. Thank you all! Xx
lovely gifts from colleagues
Baby bean has also been given two lovely hand-made crochet blankets (one from a neighbour, one from my auntie) and his first comforter made by my lovely colleague and fellow blogger TwinklinPixi 🙂
crochet gifts The week ahead
I still have lots of nesting, sorting, re-arranging to do this week… Also a list of things to do like getting the car cleaned etc. I must remember to pick up the car seat that we’re borrowing too!
I need to get all the nesting done this week as I have W next week as the childminder is on hols so I won’t get much done next week and I’ll probably be shattered!
Apart from that, I hope to watch lots of One Born, read birth stories and practice breathing/relaxation for labour etc #eek
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