You Know Your 23 Weeks Pregnant when:

• You can rest your cup of tea comfortably on your bump
• Everybody around you tells you off for lifting anything heavier than a bag of sugar!
• Your inny belly button starts to push out into an outy - eugh!
• Your tummy becomes accessible to everyone rubbing and patting it even complete strangers
• The repetition of your expected birth date, if you are having a boy or girl and if it's your first child or not gets slightly irritating

• One Born Every Minute becomes top of your playback list and you need a box of tissues every time a baby is born
• You crap yourself and wonder 'what the hell are you thinking????' every time a woman starts getting contractions on One Born Every Minute!
• Bra's start getting tighter and if your really lucky you need to buy the next cup size - yippee!!!
• Bending over to pick something up gets less graceful as you now have to spread your legs to bend and avoid squashing bump.
• You go for a wee 20 times + a day.
• When you do wee its a dribble and very disappointing.
• Your mind starts going into overdrive over what you need to buy and the preparations you need to make - nesting will soon begin!
• One day life is perfect and you have all the energy in the world and the next day you just want to stay in bed and sleep all day.

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• The movements of the baby are in a regular pattern and you can't help but smile and rub your tummy throughout the day knowing your keeping your little one safe and happy inside you.

22 Weeks and Counting

Yes this is me at only 22 weeks pregnant! I am feeling huge and in this heat that we are having at the moment I am struggling. Baby girl seems happy though kicking away in my tummy and its such a lovely feeling. My partner can sometimes feel her now too, I can't wait to actually see her moving away in there as I used to with my boy, a foot sticking out here and there! I keep updated week by week on her progress usually by taking a look on Bounty or Babycentre or both!

The nursery is painted and just needs the carpet laying down and then I can start sorting out all my baby items from when I had my boy which are stored in the attic. We have most of the important things like the Moses basket, cot, feeding equipment, blankets, mobile etc but will need to buy a new buggy and changing unit. Also depending on what neutral clothes I have we have to go baby girl clothes shopping!

Next on my list is to pick up my maternity form otherwise know as a Mat B1 form around about now to hand in to my employer with the dates I need to start my maternity. As I have a physical job and a 3 year old at home, I am finding this pregnancy a lot more tiring than the last one so have decided to start my maternity a bit earlier at 32 weeks. I started maternity last time at 36 weeks and gave birth a few days later so want a bit of a rest and some time to get properly prepared, i.e nesting haha!

Another appointment in my diary is to go and have my anti D injection which I also had with my boy. This is due to me being a Rhesus negative blood type and I need to have the injection just in case the baby is a positive blood group. Basically if the baby is a positive and any of her blood gets into my system then my body will treat it as a foreign invader and will start making antibodies to destroy her blood. The anti D injection will destroy any blood from the baby before my body can make antibodies. This helps protect any future pregnancies as my body won't have built up the antibodies to fight them if they also turn out to be a positive blood group. For further information please take a look at nhs.co.uk.
You need to have this injection between 28 and 30 weeks of your pregnancy.

End of school year

Well we are at that time of year where the school term comes to an end and our children break up for 6 weeks. This is the first time for my boy but he only goes to nursery 9 to 11am each day so its not as big an impact, I know he will miss going to school and seeing his friends though.

My boy had his school report and class photo's last week, I was so proud to read in his report that he is confident and eager to learn. He has always been, in my opinion, quick to pick things up and we have tried hard in play to get his little brain working with puzzles, memory cards, building train tracks, counting etc which he enjoys. His confidence is important to me as i feel I was shy in school and would like him to be more outgoing than I was in my school years. My boy has a couple of close friends in school already that he is always going on about which makes me giggle and seems to be quite popular so I feel satisfied that he will be ok when he goes full time.

I am looking forward in a way to my boy going off to full time school as I know he is ready for it, even though he will be one of the youngest in his class. It has been difficult the past couple of years working full time and juggling child care. We have managed to keep childcare for him in the family with his 2 grandparents helping us out and me and my partner working opposite shifts, we could not afford nursery care for him and prefer to keep it in the family. He has a good bond with his grandparents which I feel is due to him spending a lot of quality time with them.

I am sure I am not alone when I whine about having to get up at half six just to get everything ready and my boy dropped off to his nan's before I go to work for 8am, its such a rush and we all know too well if a 3 year old doesn't want to be rushed you have a fight on your hands. I never expected all the guilt you feel at leaving them when they want to spend the day with you and rushing them when they just want to be home watching tv when they first get up. Unfortunately though bills have to be paid and if you want to provide your family with the best you can then you have to work, it also sets a good example to them.

At least with going to school full time I don't have to worry about these issues any more with my boy, instead I am just going to start all over again when I have to go back to work with my second child. am I bonkers or what????!!!

We are blessed.

We are so excited to announce that our scan went well and our baby appears happy and healthy.

Even though this is our second child so we have experienced this all before its still just as amazing the second time around.The detail you see on the anomaly scan from the little heart beating away to the tiny hands and feet. The raw emotion you feel for the little baby growing inside you and the enormous overwhelming urge to protect the your little one no matter what. Its all there when you see him/her moving around inside you on the screen and is like a tidal wave rushing over you.

After the initial screening we were asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby and were thrilled to hear that this baby looked like a little girl. In the room at the time the main concern was that the baby was healthy and so I didn't feel as emotional about the sex. In my mind I didn't care as long as the baby was healthy. 

We got outside into the car park and started ringing round to tell the family with me ringing my mom first. When I told her I was having a girl my mom screamed with excitement and kept saying over and over how thrilled she was. It was at that moment I realised it was actually what I longed to hear - we were having a little girl and our family was complete - I burst into tears of happiness and my partner put his arms around me.

Second Scan Excitement!

My partner and I are expecting our second child which is a 20 weeks old foetus as I write this post. Tomorrow we attend our second scan otherwise know as an anomaly scan which will reassure us that the baby is doing well - hopefully. There may also be the opportunity to discover the sex of the baby, we as a couple do want to know the sex of the baby if we can, though we actually have no preference. Everybody I meet tend to have different opinions on this and many of my friends are surprised that I would want to know and not save it as a surprise.

The reason we want to know is because we have bags of boys clothes in our attic which being the organised mother (I try) I want to sort out before the baby is born. We also have a nursery that we would like to finish which we don't want to be just neutral based. I also do not want to receive gifts that are all yellow lol! These may seem very material reasons but they are our reasons and we stand by them.

My main concern of course is that the baby is healthy, if we can not determine the sex then I will either have to have a surprise or pay for a 3rd scan. Whatever the outcome I will be back on my blog tomorrow to share, happy days - wish me luck x x

A little bit about me!

Hi there, I thought I should introduce myself.

I am a 35 year old mother of one with another on the way - I must be mad! My first boy is almost 4 and is beginning full time school this year, my second child will be due a couple of months after the first starts school so I am very pleased with the timing. My long suffering partner of 10 years is my rock and a fab dad. We are both hard working and have to work our hours around each other to cover child care so do not get a lot of quality time, my diary is the messiest you will ever come across trying to work round our jobs, family and events but we wouldn't change it for the world :-)

I have started this blog so I have something to keep me occupied for now in the evenings and in a few months time to keep me entertained during the sleepless nights ahead. I also want to record and share my thoughts, feelings and amusements over the next few months so I have something to look back on in a few years time.