Shelvibaby!

I've not updated here in an AGE! I keep mentioning things in my main littlemissalien journal and not logging on here. Hmmm... I need to sort it all out, but busy, busy, busy (and I keep writing 'busty' lol!)!

Anyway, I must do an entry about Jamie's first birthday and other stuff. Must get around to it, but not now, as I've been awake since 6am with a migraine (subsiding now, but I'm still in a darkened room with sunglasses on, lol! No driving for me today, methinks!). In the meantime I will link you to my Flickr where there are literally a thousand pictures.

It's taken a while, but I finally have some 1 minute clips to show off! However, they are only up to 8 weeks old for now. More to come soon, and hopefully some tastefully edited stuff from after his birth (ie. no naked baby shots and no nipple/breastfeeding shots!).


^^^ He was quite talkative here. I still go all mushy over how he coos in response to me saying hello to him. He's been very vocal from a young age, as you can see! I think he's 7/8 weeks old here if I remember rightly. It was taken 2 days after my last entry, which would make him 8 weeks on the dot here.


^^^ Another from 8 weeks, again being talkative. It's all shakey at the beginning because I started the camera whilst away from him, because whenever he saw the camera he went quiet, lol! Right at the very end here he gives a big beaming smile - this was when he first began smiling on a regular basis - prior to that he was always concentrating on stuff too hard to smile and was very serious!


^^^ Playing with Daddy here, on the same day as the last one. As you can see, he likes to be upright and from around 8 weeks liked to push himself up with his feet so he was 'standing'. This is now his absolute favourite activity - if he cries, stand him up. Guaranteed to work every time, lol!


^^^ Stevi learns the hard way not to play with babies too vigorously after feeding them. Jamie cries partly because I laughed loudly and at that time he hated loud and sudden noises (especially laughter) and also hated having his mouth wiped. He's much better with these things now, probably because he has the motor control to look around and see where the noise is coming from and that there's no immediate danger. However, he still pukes if played with too vigorously (and just pukes generally) and last night puked all over Stevi's hair. I wish I'd caught that on camera, lol!

Stay tuned for pictures entry next (well, a link to pics, there's over 300, lol!) but for now Jamie has woken up so I'm off!

dreamer5565 is For The Win, as she successfully predicted where my camera was. It has now been located and returned to its rightful location, with piccies due to be downloaded asap!

Jamie is due to be meeting his Uncle Michael and Auntie Sue today - Mike is my Dad's best friend 4 eva. They've been mates since they first did their apprenticeship at BT together when they were 17. Mike has long since jumped ship to be a consultant, but my Dad remains a corporate slave. They're coming up from Poole. Really I should go down there because Mike's son Chris will probably want to see Jamie at some point, and more importantly, I have two Great Aunts down there - my Nan's younger sisters - who are 93 and 89 respectively and thus can't really travel to see Jamie. Anyway I intend to take pics, as there aren't enough of me and Jamie and I plan on looing cute!

I hope he has a good day today - yesterday was just so hot that even though he spent the day in nothing but a nappy, he was so totally overwhelmed he just cried and cried. He got cute again when the temperature dropped in the evening. But I spent 90 solid minutes of the afternoon just holding his hands so he would sleep (because I couldn't wrap him and he kept flinging his arms around and waking himself up) and didn't get to eat breakfast until 9:30pm. Hence being awake at this hour (after his 5am feed) so I can have some time to myself (and continue eating)!

In other news, my maternity allowance is FINALLY coming through on Thursday, backdated to April, when I claimed it. Therefore I will be getting just over £1800 paid to me, and £500 a month subsequently, until January, when I shall start working for Stevi. It's just a shame I'm £1000 in the red on my current account really (pregnancy & motherhood = expensive!). Still, Stevi owes me a few hundred as well, on top of my monthly £75 worth of child benefit, so things are looking surprisingly rosy financially at the moment. I shall be setting up a cash mini ISA, overpaying my credit cards whilst they are still 0% interest and buying nursing bras for me and cloth nappies for Jamie. I'll also be taking him to my chiropracter for a check up. I opened his CTF account and claimed my maternity payment from HSA on Friday, so the only thing left to sort is the Tax Credits and we're all set - yay! Funny how organised I am when it comes to fiscal matters, eh?

Right, back to bed for a few hours. Except that Jamie has decided to use this time to become super cute and is practicing 'talking' in his crib in the dark - bless! These days he shouts to get attention and to let us know if he's excited or dislikes something. In fact he just shouted to alert me that he'd kicked all his covers off and 'crawled' up the bed (alarmingly he is pretty much crawling already, albeit at a snail's pace and without pushing up with his arms - it's like a commando-style belly-crawl). He talks most of all to his Nanna, who is thrilled that she gets special treatment. However he rarely smiles at her, lol! He saves smiles for me, Stevi and his Grandda. He also communicates by sticking out his tongue at us, so we do it back and thus results several minutes of tongue poking and 'talking'. I shall post pics of the tongue stuff and try and take some video of the noises he makes, although god knows when we'll get a chance to edit it and get it online!

I just logged into my Flickr account and found a comment from a prolifer on one of my pics (a prochoice macro). They'd said "See what choice you support" and posted a link to a graphic prolife site (aren't they all) which effectively says "You are a monster for even thinking of supporting women's choice!"

I was tempted to reply, but remembered the adage, "Don't feed the trolls!" So I thought I'd post it here to vent.

"I saw your comment to one of my images. I wonder if you'd bothered to look through my other pictures as you would have seen I am new mum to an adorable little boy who I would not be without. 1000 times a day I am glad I had him but I am also glad to live in a society where women can choose. Whilst it was his right to be born, it was also my right to choose to have him, I do not have the right to take away another woman's choice."

And that's all I have to say about that. I have no interest in starting a Flickr flamefest, but I'm glad to have got that off my chest.

And now off to sort Jamie's night feed out.

Hey hey! I really must update more often, it's going sooo quickly! Anyway, I thought I'd write a little about Jamie's first month of life, complete with some pics.

( Cut to save friends' pages! )

That's all I can think of for now, but I intend to write more frequently now we have got settled into a routine.

However I'm REALLY annoyed that I've completely lost my camera as it had some pics on there I've not downloaded yet and they're REALLY important ones. It's somewhere in the house, I know it. If anyone reading this is in any way psychically inclined and has any 'vibes' to suggest where I might want to look then I'd be very grateful, lol! I'm that desperate. And if you're successful then I will send you confectionary of your choice, hehe!

After all this time being convinced we would never allow Jamie to be nicknamed 'Jim' in any way, shape or form, the inevitable has happened.

My Dad has referred to him as both 'Jimbo' and 'Jimbob', as has Stevi and his workmates (who aren't really mates, more like monkeys).

And Stevi came up with a new one last night which has already stuck hard and fast.

'JimJam'.

Yes. 'JimJam'.

And here I was thinking that my still referring to him as 'Kebab' or 'Kebaby' (and derivatives such as 'Jamie-babs') was bad.

All hail JimJam! :D

Please don't think I'm getting at anyone, but I found it very interesting that those of you who left comments to my last entry referred to the birth as 'difficult' because I didn't (and don't) consider it difficult in the slightest! I actually thought the birth experience was really positive and already we both look back at it fondly.

I think bearing in mind I was prepared for there to be huge complications, and I really only had 1 - the hemorrhage (tearing wasn't really a complication as healthy women tear - in fact my Mum tore worse with me) - that I got the best experience possible and I don't think it would deter me from having more children in the future if that's the way things work out for us.

Yes the complications and to some extent, the aftercare, were less than ideal, but the birth itself was great! 7 hours, only gas and air and TENS and only a second degree tear which is already virtually healed.

I just wanted to clear that up, in case my birth story sounded like I was not happy with my experience. It was wonderful, amazing and more than I could have possibly expected. It was a very special experience that both Stevi and I will treasure forever, because as the birth of our first child, and the birth of Jamie, it is something we will never experience again. And although it will probably be really weird to those of you who don't have children, it's actually something that I hope to be able to do again (both pregnancy and childbirth), and I will look forward to it should we decide to have more children.

And now I've cleared that up I am going to bed, as Stevi has just used the baby monitor in our bedroom to request me to come to bed, please. I get the feeling that whilst this isn't the intended purpose of baby monitors, many couples probably do use them to have conversations!

Haha, I just heard Jamie on the monitor sounding like he was clucking like a chicken or rooster - I half expected to hear 'cock-a-doodle-doo'! He is a one-man farmyard whilst asleep, lol!

Oooh, I'm hideously late in posting this, but I'm sure as you read it you'll understand why I've been a bit of a hermit for the past few weeks!

James Andrew G_______l was born at 39+1 weeks at 9:19pm on Monday 25th June 2007, weighing 7lbs 4.5oz.

( A VERY long birth story, please feel free to ignore if you're squeamish or have no interest in reading it/are too unwell to read loads. )

For those of you who haven't already seen the pictures, they are all here. However, there are still loads to add, as we take more photos every day at the moment!

Hopefully I'll update again soon!

(Crossposted to littlemissalien)

Just a quick update to say I've updated with my current situation in the last two entries in my littlemissalien account.

I plan on updating in full in here before Sunday night, but who knows what will happen? Jamie is really on the way! Eeep!

On the Sunday when I was 30+2 (22nd April - gosh that's ages ago!) we decided to pop down to see some family friends of mine in Weston-Super-Mare. Stevi had met Francine (Mum's best friend) and David before, but not their daughter, Jodie (and he has yet to meet their son, Mark). Mum and Fran met when I first went to nursery school at age 3 and became friends with Mark who was a few months older than me. They moved to the end of our road and thus we were in and out of each other's houses for the next 10 years before they moved to W-S-M. David is an excellent photographer - portraits and weddings mainly and I even did some modelling for him when I was 5, for a children's catalogue for rich families in the UAE!

Anyway, Jodie followed in David's footsteps and has also become an excellent photographer, so she has opened her own studio! We decided to go down to support her for the opening weekend. It was amazing! The studio was gorgeous and much nicer than the London one where I had a makeover photoshoot (which I won) in 2004. Stevi took his camera with an idea to get some shots to make them a short promo video to put on their website, and as they had never photographed a pregnant lady before they asked if I would do some test shots for them - which of course I immediately said "YES" to!



The rest can be found starting here. Just click the "Next Picture" link at the top to look through them all (or until you get bored - there's about 20 pics).

Anyway, whilst we were there Fran said she wanted to buy us a present for Jamie, but something that would last us, especially for future babies, and offered to get us a crib! I wasn't going to bother with that initially - I had considered a moses basket, and then a cotbed, but as we're not moving immediately a crib is perfect as it will save us space for a few months. The one that she found is this one which I thought was wonderful, but she found it from Tescos online, so it was much cheaper, but without a mattress. So what we decided is that I would try and find it WITH the mattress for a lower price. We shall see what the best we can get is. Anyway, it's totally wonderful of her to get this and we were thrilled!

After that it was time to pack up and make our way home, trying to keep up behind Mum and Dad in Dad's car. Our poor little Smart has been suffering recently and needs a service desperately. We stopped off at some services and it drank a load of oil which helped a bit, but it definitely needs sorting out! The whole way there and back we listened to some of our favourite classical compilation CDs and I think it is safe to say Jamie reacts very strongly to classical music - especially violins. I really hope that this means he likes the violin as it is one instrument I've always wanted to play (besides the piano) which is impossible for me with my joint and strength issues. If he is really into music I will be so happy, and I think I'll just about burst if he ever plays an instrument - especially the violin! We always have a variety of music on at home and in the car, both Stevi and I and my parents, so I know he'll always be exposed to music - ie. my parents listen to classical to Joe Cocker to The Beatles to David Gray to Amy Winehouse. My Mum wants Mutya Buena's new album, Stevi wants to download Beyoncé's latest single, I want Nelly Furtado's album and have just copied Nina Simone's greatest hits to my MP3 player, and my Dad is waiting on me to copy my Greenday CDs for him. There's always music here. When my sister is around there is also RnB and HipHop thrown into the mix - talk about diversity! Music is something we all love though - Mum and Dad were both in choirs as youngsters and my sister and I are trained vocalists (both at Grade 7 level) as well as playing the clarinet and guitar respectively. If Jamie wants to learn piano though I might just have to learn alongside him! Now that I know why my fingers hurt so much when I tried to learn as a child (leading me to quit) I'm sure I'd find some way of overcoming it now - even if it meant buying an expensive electronic keyboard where I could make the keys a lot lighter (and thus easier to strike). It's funny how the arrival of a new person makes you want to carry on or even go back to achieve personal goals. I think the whole process of bringing a new person into the world is a very humbling, but also inspiring one. :)

First thing on Monday morning it was in to see the midwife for my 28 week appointment - they hadn't been able to fit me in sooner due to the bank holidays. I got my MAT1B form for maternity allowance (YAY Monies!) and was also given a form to get my bloods taken (boo!) at some point before next seeing the consultant (at 32+6). Jamie, for the first time ever, was in a breech position - uh-oh! But the midwife said not to worry as I'd got another 2 and a half months to go, all going well. Mum was less positive, but I pointed out that 10 weeks was a long time for a baby, especially as Jamie seems to do daily somersaults in there! I knew he was breech anyway as when we'd had the music on the day before he'd pushed his head out so much that I could feel the hard round shape of his skull, and a little extra bump that was quite possibly his ear! I always get so excited when I feel bits of him and know exactly what they are!

The next week or so was kind of uneventful. My sister went back to uni, but was unusually nice to us all before leaving (normally she gets some kind of 'I'm independent!' strop on). I sorted my maternity allowance out, but they said there would be at least a 4 week wait, fair enough really. I also got my bloods taken successfully, without excessive bruising, because the phlebotomist actually listened to me and used the old fashioned syringe method with a much thinner needle - yay! So I was all set for my next consultant's appointment. Stevi decided he wanted me to take a belly pic of his belly, to demonstrate his 'sympathetic pregnancy' - crazy guy! He also had 2 weddings back-to-back, one in Kent on the Friday followed by one in Wales(!) the next day! Needless to say, he was knackered! Mum had her birthday on the Saturday, so Dad took her out for a meal. My sister also popped back from uni to see her and give her her pressies (including a cute teddy bear). Stevi and I got Mum a bird table and some wild bird seed, as she's wanted a bird table for years and Dad promised to make her one. Unfortunately whilst he is still such a corporate slave for BT the best he's been able to manage is an old patio slab balanced on top of a large overturned flowerpot! Needless to say, our modest, but 'proper' bird table (with roof to keep the super-huge pigeons out) went down a storm - YAY! I love getting people things that they really want and will really please them!

Anyway, I shall leave it there for now. Thankfully I'm nearly caught up now, but it was around the point I'm leaving this at that the third trimester tiredness really began to kick in, hence me being so quiet and not updating.

OMG!!! Jamie is due in exactly 1 month!!!

Proper updates asap, I promise!

So I left things at coming up to 28 weeks. I think this was around the time I really noticed I had a real 'bump', and began feeling even cuter. So on the Saturday of the Easter Bank Holiday I got dressed up in my maternity combats and other cuteness and got my sis to take a pic:



Unfortunately it's a little blurred, for reasons unknown, apart from my sister being too impatient to get back to the internet to wait for the shutter to do it's thang properly. I was quite excited, however, to have achieved the great feat of painting my toenails with sparkly pink polish (Warning! Contains pic of my feet!). Anyway, we went out and about to town - Stevi was filming a wedding - and I took the opportunity to buy him an Easter Egg from Thorntons, who were icing them with names for free. Sensing the level of confusion that would occur if I told them to ice 'Stevi' onto the egg (most people cannot grasp it - he's either Steve or Stevie if he's lucky) I asked them to ice 'Daddy' on it instead. The following day it got a big laugh, and the Easter Eggs my Mum got for everyone from Hotel Chocolat (*drool*) went down a storm - especially my dairy free one, yippee!

Much of the Bank Holiday weekend was spent nesting and rearranging my room and stuff, as we've decided to stay with my parents a while longer and are looking into buying a flat rather than wasting money on renting. My parents are very supportive of this as they stayed with their parents whilst saving and buying their flat, and didn't move in together until after they got back from their honeymoon! Of course, things change and Stevi and I living together is necessary for Jamie (not to mention us!), but things are going well so my folks are happy for us to camp out a while longer if it means we'll own our own property. :D Cool parents! This means the pressure is off a little bit, and we can relax about my care and just get the last things straight without stressing about moving etc.

( Stupid Genetic Counsellor Appointment - EXTREMELY long rant ahead! )

The following day was Stevi's birthday. He turned 28, and fretted about being even closer to 30. He doesn't react well to birthday cards or gifts (deep family trauma thing going on there), so I just made him a chocolate cake with mocha icing - much more his style. Of course, we wouldn't let the occaision pass unmarked, so we did do a bit of photo-taking and made him blow out a single candle - except it was one of those magic ones that keeps relighting, because me and Mum are wicked like that!

( Stevi's birthday piccies )

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful - Stevi filmed another wedding on the Friday, and also made me a picture in MS Word, for me to come upstairs to the computer and find, bless him! That weekend I also reached 30 weeks (on either Friday or Sunday if you go by my conception or due dates respectively), but I'll save that stuff for the next entry, as this one is now super-long!

It's been ages since I last updated, and I'm now getting comments along the lines of "Hello? Are you alive?" so I thought I really should update. 6 weeks really is too long between updates!

Well, there have been a few things going on, but nothing major. As you will remember, last entry I had a cold and was suffering nosebleeds. That began to clear up so all was well for myself and Stevi to go to the Big Secret Event we had arranged - a Gender and 4D Ultrasound Scan!

( Are we having a Jamie or a Josie? There are pics too! )

The next day we were off to Milton Keynes, to the huge ASDA and IKEA there. We ended up spending £50 on baby clothes between the four of us (me, Stevi, Mum and Dad), but again we got some great deals. We've bought stuff in ages up to 12 months because they were season-appropriate and cheap etc. So Jamie even has his first pair of jeans (combat-style ones) and dungarees now (all beautifully lined with soft material to cushion his knees, and no harsh seams - go ASDA!), and his first pair of 'big boy' pyjamas (9-12 months)! I was careful not to go for a blue overload, so he has some stuff in neutral colours like beiges and browns (although it is boy stuff), greens and oranges, and of course, red, because Stevi loves red. In fact, I got him a little red hoodie top to go with his jeans, as it was so soft and lovely! I will have to take pics of all the various outfits we've got him. Mum picked out a lovely yellow sleepsuit with ducks on and duck feet! So cute! And I got some Winnie-the-Pooh babygros, because I love Winnie and Tigger so much! We also got plain stuff like vests and socks and scratch mits etc. He already has a few 'starter sets', so I think he's pretty sorted already! Obviously we still pick up bits here and there, but most of the newborn stuff is now covered.

After some food, we wandered over to IKEA, where Stevi was impressed by just how cheap everything was, whilst still being lovely and modern. We will definately be furnishing our flat with 90% IKEA stuff (the bed is coming from Argos). We wanted to have a look at a particular cot, but whilst it had 2 matress heights, it didn't have a drop side, and I'd really prefer that, especially as he gets bigger. So we didn't get that. But they have a lovely range of extendable beds for toddlers - you start off with the bed really small, then you keep adjusting it as they grow until it's a full-sized child's bed! And they were really cheap but solid too. We'll definately get one, maybe even in advance and Mum and Dad will store it in the garage or shed!

After this, I got a chest infection, which developed into another cold. So I was pretty much out of action for the next 2 weeks. Hence I have no 26 week belly picture, as I was waaay too ill to pose for anything! I did however take a 27 week one, showing off my new Miss Piggy PJs that Mum got me - they say "I don't get out of bed for less than £1million". I wish it were true! I have to get out of bed for free quite often now so that I don't wet the bed at night, hehe!

Anyway, here I am at 27 weeks:



I'm going to wrap this entry up now, and post stuff from 28 weeks up to now in another couple of entries (I have loads to update on and too many pics for 1 entry!). Hope to get these done asap!

Uh... yeah, so if you didn't get my tenuous 'Producers' link above, we did indeed see Kebaby's face yesterday morning!

We got to the hospital on time, and I think we were actually the first appointment, as no-one else was there and we got in within minutes (unlike our usual waiting time of over an hour)! The consultant went over some things with us, such as why she hasn't made some referrals for me yet (the hospital temporarily lost my notes), and the results of my previously mentioned Echocardiogram, and Kebaby's Echo too.

So, Kebaby's Echo was fine, normal, healthy etc. The paediatrician said he'd be happy to check Kebaby once s/he is born though, how lovely of him! My Echo too, was fine, no change from last time. This means my aorta is fine and is not weakened at all, so I should be ok still to try for a vaginal delivery; and I can ignore what the Midwife said on Monday causing me to rant so much last night. Yay! She also confirmed what I said to her registrar last time - that they DON'T do cervical checks after 24 weeks as there's no point doing cerclage by that point as the baby is viable. Stupid registrar, saying they don't start checking until 24 weeks - I can't believe I knew better than her! I obviously pay more attention, lol!

The consultant had a lovely student midwife check me over - she had a feel for what position Kebaby was in and then put the doppler close to where Kebaby's heart was, and we got to hear the heartbeat as clear as anything! Much clearer than when the regular midwife does it, because she just plonks it anywhere. Kebaby actually elbowed or punched the doppler at one point today, so we got a loud squelchy bump as well as the heartbeat, and then we could hear light bumps and taps as Kebaby continued to squirm around, bless!

Then the consultant wanted to check Kebaby's face, as she hadn't managed to last time. Once again Kebaby didn't seem too willing to oblige, but when the consultant took a slightly softer approach, Kebaby stayed still for us all to get a good look.

I just wish I'd been able to get a picture - Kebaby is GORGEOUS! I know all Mum's say that, but seriously, I'd be the first to say "LOL, ugly baby!" or "OMG! I'm having a troll!" and I really couldn't! Kebaby looked like Stevi does when he's sleeping - s/he has his face shape, and my mouth-shape. I couldn't get over how truly pretty Kebaby looked, even on an ultrasound! Shit, I'm probably hugely biased, but Stevi was a gorgeous baby (moreso than me), and a very cute little boy, so I'm hoping Kebaby goes the same route! I always thought we'd make pretty babies, and I am even more confident now, lol! I just hope Kebaby inherits his/her Daddy's beautiful blue eyes and red hair now!

As the consultant was shutting things down, Stevi joked that now all we needed to see was what was between the baby's legs. And the cow dropped a bombshell - "Oh," she said, "I could have had a look if you'd asked me a minute ago. I could have told you today as there's no-one with me!"

kmll,./,og45r564 re3dwsr4f5t - That's me banging my head on the keyboard in frustration!

For what it's worth, she said she didn't see anything at the 20 week anomaly scan when she checked the femoral length. Her exact words were "Nothing sprang out at me." Which made me want to LOL there and then. So maybe Kebaby is a Josie? Stevi still reckons Kebaby could be a Jamie and just take after his Daddy (implying he has microscopic/no genitals, lol). Whatever Kebaby is, s/he is beautiful, and apparently 100% healthy, so I'm thrilled anyway!

Finally, the consultant said she didn't need to see me again until 32 weeks. She said she was "so happy" that everything was going "so well" for me and that she wanted me to have as much of a normal pregnancy experience as possible, so that I can enjoy it like other new Mums. So she doesn't want to "over medicalise" or "hospitalise" me, and told me to go and enjoy the next 8 weeks. If I need to see her in that time, or would like some advice, or the midwife would like advice, then she's happy to oblige, but otherwise she thinks I'm going to be just fine. FINALLY! Someone with some confidence in the situation! I guess last night's rant wasn't entirely necessary, but at least it was cathartic.

So, the only thing bugging me now is nosebleeds. I've had two quite major ones (for me) in the past 24 hours. I know this is because I've had a cold and have been sneezing and blowing my nose a lot, but now whenever I sneeze I get a gush of blood down my chin and have even dripped on the floor (my poor rug, thankfully it was only a few quid in Ikea)! I've never had anything like this before, and am using up far too many tissues, but never mind. Hopefully it will pass once my cold does. I'm not getting dizzy or anything, so I'm fine, but I've never been a nose-bleeder, so this is very weird and new for me!

So generally everything is hunky dory! Apart from my last entry not showing up on my friends page - wtf was that about?! Did anyone see it? Will you even see this one, or will it too be lost in the ether?

Long time no update! To be honest I've not felt that up to it by the time I get home from appointments/shopping/work etc. I'm mostly ready to flop on my bed and chill out! I'll have to start taking the laptop with me when I can.

( Echocardiogram )

( Consultant's appointment )

So that was that! On the Friday Mum went out to Dorothy Perkins and came back with some great maternity combats for me. She got them in a 12, but they are a little bit loose at the moment and the belt doesn't have enough holes, but I'm sure they'll be great in a few more weeks, especially once the H&M ones I have already get too tight! She also bought me a non-maternity top, but I'm still quite small so it fits fine and doesn't leave me with vast expanses of belly hanging out everywhere, although I wonder if I'll even care about my belly hanging out by the time it's June (and most likely very hot) and I'm nearly ready to pop! Mum and Dad went down to Weston-Super-Mare for the weekend where their friends' daughter, Jo, is opening a makeover/portrait studio. They helped with decorating the studio and stuff, but still found time to buy me a pack of 7 babygros with cute sayings on them! This means I've got quite a few baby clothes now, none of which we've paid for!

Last week I got my diploma certificate through and was very thrilled to discover not only had I passed, that I had passed with Merit, the equivalent of a high 2.1! I'm extremely pleased about this, as it will make applications for my doctorate a bit easier. I also did double shifts at work which meant I earned more monies, and as it's cash in hand, my wallet is bulging nicely now. I must put it aside in my 'Kebaby fund', because it's not clever to walk around with over £100 in your wallet at any one time. Basically I do my regular shifts, but I'm also happy to take on the shifts of anyone who is ill or needs to swap dates etc. The great thing about my job is I just sit at the front desk and let clients in and out, and call the counsellors to let them know their clients are in the waiting room. The rest of the time I can do what I like, providing I don't disturb anyone. So usually I bring Stevi's laptop along and play computer games with the sound muted, or work on his website coding etc. Tonight I'm writing this whilst supping Lucozade (I have a cold) and eating Kettle Chips. But alas! No internet connection, as the receptionists aren't allowed to use the office computers that are on the network because they hold really sensitive info about people. Anyway, I quite like getting paid to play games or blog or work on Angels stuff! If only the pay was a little better (as with all jobs), but it is a charidee, and I take on extra shifts, so I'm cool with it.

On Friday I hit 24 weeks, so YAY for viability!

( Last weekend )

( Midwife stuff and a major rant )

Anyway, happier things! After the midwife's appointment, Stevi and I decided to shoot over to Babies R Us to have a look at travel systems etc. After I'd let Stevi run around getting excited over all the Star Wars toys (and indulged him by having a light sabre battle with him in one of the aisles), we went and had a look at the travel system we had our eye on, and we're now certain we're going to get it! It's a pushchair which the carseat can attach to, but it also has an insert to convert it into a pram for when Kebaby is tiny. The carseat itself is cool - the base stays in the car and we just detach the seat quickly and easily. The pushchair will last Kebaby right the way through to nursery age, and the carseat will last for 12-15 months - EXCELLENT! It's really lightweight too and I found it really easy to maneouvre up and down off the stand it was on (which was about the same height as a deep kerb). So we'll be getting that soon, yay! We've still not looked at cotbeds yet, purely because we don't have anywhere to put it right now! We've got a wardrobe and chest/changing unit sorted though - my sister's old ones, which are still in stunning condition considering they're about 15 years old!

Other than that, things are going well and there's not much else to report, other than that I have an absolutely terrible cold and have been feeling quite sorry for myself for a few days. Nevermind, I'll get over it soon enough! We're seeing the consultant tomorrow morning, so I hope it's actually her and she can scan me and Kebaby again!

I promise to update more, I just feel like I never have time now, which is weird, because I'm barely doing anything! Anyway, I'll leave you with a 24 week picture (it was taken at 24 weeks and 3 days though, because I just couldn't seem to get a good picture on any other days!), wearing the cute new top I bought at the weekend:


24 Weeks
Originally uploaded by LittleMissAlien.

22 Weeks!
Originally uploaded by LittleMissAlien.

It's a bit late this time around, but this was taken on Saturday (22+1) before we went out to buy Stevi some suits. This is the red maternity top and cute hat my Mum got me last week, yay!

I think this is possibly my first time wearing full maternity gear, although I've been wearing the maternity jeans for about 6 weeks or so now - they're lovely and comfy!

Anyway, I felt dead cute so I insisted Stevi took a piccy and then at the shopping centre another preggo looking less cute (and larger and more tired, poor lady) gave me evils, hehe! Probably because I looked so smug all day.

Stevi kept calling me "Yummy Mummy" and giving me lots of public affection (he does the public affection anyway, but even moreso when I'm in cute maternity gear), SQUEE!

Anyway, after shopping we ended up going up to Scotland to get some of Stevi's stuff from his Mum's place, and I got to see all the cute cardies and shawl that she's knitted for Kebaby. She was concerned about all the colours and whether the buttons should go on the 'boy side' or 'girl side' but I said to her the baby isn't going to care as long as it's warm and comfy, and I've never heard anyone making a huge fuss about "OMG!!!!11!!one!!1!!!!eleventy!!!1!!!111! CROSS-DRESSING BABIEZ!!!" (well, apart from in snarked posts on prego_drama) She was yet another one who commented on how small my bump was, but Kebaby seems happy enough, so I guess s/he has enough space (for now). Maybe we will have a smallish baby? I dunno, my Mum was huge with me and I was tiny (5lb4oz) and tiny with my sister and didn't show until 7 months (sis was 7lb7oz). Stevi was 7lb11oz, so maybe Kebaby will be average-sized but I carry well? Hmmm... it's all just speculation at this point.

Kebaby (Josie/Jamie as s/he is coming to be known) is very active now, and last night on the 6 hour journey from Falkirk to St Albans we discovered s/he reacts to Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine, especially if I am humming/singing along (because Kebaby can hear my voice better than anything at the moment). This is excellent, as Stevi and I both love that piece, and I even have a CD with me singing it as part of a choir (I used to sing soprano and sung the really high parts in that piece), so we want to get Josie/Jamie really familiar with it so we can hum/sing it to him/her when s/he is here.

But we also discovered that s/he reacts to Greenday as well. What a cool little baby we have! I can't wait to be able to put him/her in a bouncer, put music on and watch him/her 'dance' to music! :)

Tonight I discovered Mum and Dad had been to IKEA in Milton Keynes yesterday and had to resist the urge to buy pretty much the whole baby section! They've found a lovely little cot that we'll probably end up getting - as we were going to get a moses basket, because most cots are huge, but this one isn't. We won't need a moses basket anyway, as there will be a carry cot on the travel system which is more or less the same and Mum and Dad are going to get a travel cot to keep at theirs for when we stay. They did buy a changing mat with inflatable sides though, so that Jamie/Josie won't be able to roll too much, which is lovely! It has been stored with the few items of clothing we have so far, Leanne's old Beanie Babies and the memory foam cushion Mum gave us for breastfeeding. No doubt we'll be over in IKEA getting pretty much everything we need when we get the house sorted, because Stevi was marvelling at the cheapness of it all. :)

Anyway, that's pretty much it for now. I'm working on Wednesday night at Relate, we've got another consultant's appointment on Thursday morning, so we'll probably see the consultant some time on Thursday afternoon, and I'm working again on Friday night (yay monies!). I've been feeling a little dead recently, but am having a good patch at the moment, yay!

So, all the way over to Harefield hospital in Middlesex today for Kebaby's heart scan. It took a while to find the right department, wandering through decidedly shabby corridoors to a small, dark and eerily empty pediatric department with lots of fairy lights and murals on the walls.

The ultrasound technician was a little overzealous with the wand and really dug it in to my tummy, causing Kebaby to squirm away as quickly as possible and kick at the probe. "That's a very active baby you have there," she said, digging the probe in further and harder still. "It's not usually," says I through gritted teeth as Kebaby squirmed and kicked at the probe even more, "It's normally lazy and tends to sleep through scans." Finally the consultant came in and pointed out she had the bit on screen that was needed and to stop digging around. Then they had a good look at all four chambers of Kebaby's heart and the blood flow pattern, asked me a few questions about my heart condition and had a listen to Kebaby's heartbeat (which sounded very squelchy, lol).

Anyway, Kebaby's heart is fine, nothing major to worry about and nothing minor showing up at all. If anything minor develops in the future the consultant reckons it will be purely coincidental, as my heart condition is not the same as my Dad's (although both of us have problems with our atriums, he has an irregular heartbeat and fibrulation, I have a murmur), so there's no reason to suspect Kebaby will inherit the same problem as me.

So that's all a huuuuuge relief, and Stevi and I decided to go to the cinema to see Hot Fuzz to celebrate. So we had a really lovely night out - the film was EXCELLENT (definately going in our DVD collection) and I got to eat a great big portion of nachos with chillies and cheese - yummy!

Whew! Well, it's been a busy few days!

( 20 Week Scan! )

( Physiotherapy! )

( We've decided on names!!! )

Apart from all that, I went for lunch and shopping today with my Mum and sister (who is back from uni on a flying visit) and Mum very kindly bought me two maternity tops and a very cute hat! I will wear them as soon as possible, because I look dead cute in them. :)

I'm going to bed soon as I'm knackered and have to get up early to shave my legs and be over at Watford General for a 10:45am appointment. Multimap seems to think it will only take us 25 minutes to get there - hahahahaha! No. I'm anticipating double that.

But anyway, part of the reason I'm loving my sleep so much at the moment is because Stev bought me this body pillow the other day for only £15! (The chap selling them discounted it for us, yay!) The UK website doesn't seem to advertise it, but that's the one I've got. Basically it's a full-body cushtie, and it's DEVINE! It supports my bump so well! The ones sold in Mothercare etc are made like traditional beanbags so they're all lumpy and go flat, not to mention costing around £40! So it's great, and because of how it looks, it has now been nicknamed 'The Penis' by my Mum (who was quickly converted to its greatness) and myself.

I just wanted to gloat before going off to bed to cuddle up to it (I go in the middle, between it and Stevi - yay!).

OMG! Visible bumpage!

And yay, Hello Kitty PJs!

20 Weeks - front
Originally uploaded by LittleMissAlien.

20 Weeks - side
Originally uploaded by LittleMissAlien.