Charlie is here and 14 weeks old!

Now the idea was to continue with the pregnancy blog once bambino had arrived, but somehow it was all too manic and knackering to start with then I forgot as life has got progressively more organised and easy. But I would like to contribute reasonably regularly in order to keep a record of Charlie's early life and my feeling, thoughts etc.

So, Charlie is 14 weeks old - or was on Monday and is just the most incredible, gorgeous, cute baby boy ever - and I am sure that sentiment is espoused by all mothers, but I canot quite believe how true it is.

Every week sees new developmental stages and progress and now Charlie has found his thumb and loves sucking that and his entire hand if possible. He has also recently discovered squeaking which is most amusing - very high pitched and intensely loud at times. Sometimes he sits in his bouncy chair just babbling, blowing raspberries and squeaking. He has made great progress with tummy time and is happier for longer on his tummy and can lift his head 90 degrees and is starting to bear weight on his arms. The best thing is that he is laughing almost every day now which is totally adorable - I thought the smiles were gorgeous but the laughs are even better.

He follows Nick and me around with his eyes ad smiles when you wave at him saying "Hello Charlie". He loves body play - lots of "If you're happy and you know it..." actions etc. He is much more active now - moving his legs up high and pushing back with them to move his entire body. It looks like he will roll soon.

We call him poppet, Charlie Farley, Charlie Chalk, Cheeky Charlie - and poopy pants in an explosive moment!

We've been swimming twice and he has liked it - laughing the first time we went.

He weighs about 16lb and is very tall. He is out of a lot of 3-6 month stuff although some of the 6-9 months stuff is rather long about the leg!

He is grabbing toys and putting then in his mouth. A particular favourite is hoopy loopy elephant and the rattle and the playgym which has provided endless hours of entertainment.

Sleepwise we have been very lucky as from about 7 weeks Charlie slept through from 7-6ish with the nightfeed and he still does this - occassionally making it to 7:30 which is a dream! Daytime sleeping is more of a problem at the moment with the morning sleep a guarantee then anything after that seems completely random. He has been very distressed in the middle of the day too leading to screaming bouts of 30 mins plus before he exhaust himself. I am comforting him throughout this and holding him but it still continues so am not sure what to do. Hopefully it is just a phase. He ends up sleeping on me if I cannot get him to settle in his cot which is not a great habit to get into.

Labour in progress!

It is 23:10 on 6 Jan 2007 and contractions started earlier today at 2am. I was not sure whether these initial contractions were real or not as I had had a 3 hour session of regular contractions the previous night, resulting in little sleep and a big sense of disappointment as the pain went for nothing. But despite the ups and downs of today the pain is proving worthwhile as these contractions are real and are opening the cervix. We went to St Georges at 5pm to get checked out as there had been a slow down in foetal movement and I was worried especially after having been in labout for over 12 hours. The hospital were great and checked the baby on the scanning equipment and also did a VE which showed my cervix to be effaced and 2cm dilated. Although 2 cm is still a long way off the fact that it was effaced is a great sign and means it can hopefully just keep dilating now.

Contractions appear to have slowed temporarily now, but have been as regular as every 3 mins lasting for about 1 min. The hospital recommend going back in when they are more like every 2 mins so I have more waiting around here to go.

I am pretty tired now having not really slept for 2 nights and about to go into the 3rd sleepless night. I hope I have enough strength to push the baby out and will try and rest again after this blog - although that is easier said than done as the pain can be pretty excruciating at times. Some contractions are worse than others, literally taking my breathe away, but some are bearable. I am trying to remain calm as I could see how easy it would be to lose control of the situation and succumb to the pain. At some point this may happen anyway but I would rather delay this as much as possible to give me and the baby the best chance of as natural a labour as possible.

The pain so far has been sharp and at the front lower abdomen and is now also occuring in the lower back area. This was a little different to what I was imagining as I thought it would be mor of an ache occuring all over the uterus, but I think this may come with stage 2 when the uterus tries to push the baby out.

Contractions have had phases of regularity but then slip into irregular phases as well with intensity changing throughout. The midwives say this is just early labour and that once it is more established the contractions will become more regular and the intensity will continue to increase.

It is necessary to think of the contractions one at a time otherwise the whole process is too daunting for words. I honestly cannot even begin to think that this process will lead to the birth of a baby - which I know sounds ridiculous, but I am just concentrating on one contraction at a time and trying to get through this process.

Right - I will close now and try to get a little rest if not sleep and the next time I blog I will hopefully be able to introduce our lovely baby.

Last blog of 2006

So here I am on the 31 December 2006 and 41 weeks pregnant. Our little bump is obviously too content inside to come out.

It's an unusual New Year's Eve as Nick and I sit here quietly reading and watching DVDs, not going out to see friends as usual. Still a couple of nights ago I didn't get to sleep until 6am so not sure I feel like that much of a party animal anyway! Our Christmas was of a similar vein, very relaxed and easy-going with lots of good food cooked largely by Nick, a few pressies, nice walks every day and some films on DVD. It was great to have another Xmas by ourselves and we really appreciated the time together. Who knows when that will happen again.

I'm definitely slowing up now as walking gets increasingly hard work and I seem to get out of breath walking up hills. I am getting out for a walk most days otherwise I would go mad. But I am also making sure I nap as much as I need in case the big event comes upon me and I need all the energy I can muster.

I have been having some period pains over the last 2 weeks which is a good sign that the cervix is softening and sometimes I can feel something bashing against my cervix which I hope is the baby's head. I have a sweep tomorrow where the midwife tries to manually detatch the membranes from my cervix in an attempt to start labour. Sometimes this works but it is normally more successful if you would have gone into labour anyway in the following 24-48 hours. But will be good to get checked up again by a midwife to see how my blood pressure is as it has been over a week since the last appointment.

Moodwise I seem to be a bit more up and down in the last week, partly due to lack of sleep but also due to the fact of going past the due date. I think it is psychological and any feelings of anxiousness that I had been keeping abated may have come out to the fore a couple of times.

Next blog will be in 2007 when our baby will also be born and I may well not post until after this amazing event. Life will certainly not be the same and I am really looking forward to a new year of discovering parenthood.

Less than a week to go

5 days until Christmas Day and my due date and no signs of action so far. I have eaten pineapple, liquorice and am now trying some raspberry tea. I have has some period pains low down but nothing like a contraction - or what I imagine a contraction to be like. The baby is moving around quite a bit still so there is obviously still some room in there although it feels very tightly packed to me.

It definitely feels lower down now and walking is more uncomfortable as it seems that I can feel the head bouncing on my cervix at every step. At my antenatal appointment last week the head was 3/5 down so maybe it has moved down further. I will find out on Saturday at the next appointment.

My blood pressure was up last week to as high as 146/80 but this just seems to have been a temporary aberation as it returned to a more normal level at the end of the appointment and on measuring it this week it was down to 122/70 which is fine. I was a bit worried last week but I think my BP must have been up after a bit of a busy weekend with family over for Xmas etc.

I have been sleeping much better of late with the last 3 nights being much more normal and no 3 hour periods of the night lying wide awake. I have also been trying to nap every day to keep up my strength and I definitely feel a lot better for doing that.

Socially I have been have a lovely time meeting up with the NCT girls and Steph from the NHS classes and Vicki down the road. The six of us from NCT all seem to get on really well and I think it will be a good group of people to know especially when the babies come along. We went out with the men as well on Sunday and had a nice long lunch.

The reality of a baby arriving soon astonishingly still does not seem real to me. I cannot quite believe my brain can't deal with this, but I can get as far as thinking of the labour process but not as far as having a baby and bringing it home and looking after it. It is perhaps too big a concept to think about until it happens.

Looking forward to the weekend and it will be good to spend a few days with Nick being off work as well for Xmas before the baby arrives - if it does wait to come out a little. We have no major plans apart from vegging here, a few walks, lunches out and some DVDs!

start of week 38 - nearly there!

Well, it's just under 3 weeks to go until the due date and this has only just prompted me to think about the whole giving birth aspect of all this. Up until now I don't think I have seriously thought about it too much. I have been thinking about the baby growing inside me and the pregnancy in general but now the idea of labour itself it becoming increasingly pressing. It seems almost unreal to think that labour will start sometime soon and I will maybe be here alone and have to call Nick to let him know. Then the idea of holding our baby is another world away entirely and I really can't begin to imagine how this will feel. Very intrigued as to what sex the baby is and what it will look like. I think the whole experience is going to be overwhelmingly emotional.

I am feeling tired a lot due to not sleeping well most nights now. I wake up regularly at 3-4am and am very awake, almost such that I feel I could get up and start the day. My brain is very active and there always seems to be a lot to think about at that time of night! I read for an hour or so then just get back to sleep before the alarm goes off. Occassionally managing to get a nap of 1 hour in during the day and am resting for half the day and doing various things round the house the the rest of the day. My hands are swollen now and I had to take my rings of a couple of weeks ago. My watch is really tight on my wrist and my finger joints hurt when I clench my fist. Last antenatal appointment was fine though and blood pressure, baby heart beat, etc all perfect.

Have had almost everything delivered now and feel pretty ready for the arrival. I have packed my hospital bag which is big and I have probably still forgotten stuff.

Antenatal classes have finished. Both the NHS and NCT ones were very good, and I hope the NCT one in particular will lead to a good network of women going through the same experiences at the same time. The 5 other couples ont he course could not have been nicer and I think we all get on well. It will be interesting to see how we keep in touch over the next few months. I will met up with Steph from the NHS class next week as well.

This coming weekend is our Xmas weekend with M&D, James and Mandy and Janet coming to stay so I have got turkey and the full works set up to go. This is the first time we will have done this and I'm really looking forward to it.

A wierd 35th week

Phew - another week gone and 1 more week at work. I am obviously tired, but have just started to have to first feelings of getting a bit fed up with all this being pregnant stuff. When I go to bed and am just dying for a good night's sleep I cannot get comfortable as I have something sticking in my ribs on both sides. I ahve to keep going to the loo. I am constantly tired. I have back ache and have had pelvis aches. I really want to get out for a walk but that makes my back ache after 15 mins max. I am hot and it is so stuffy at work that it is impossible to concentrate. There never seems to be enough time to rest as we keep doing too much stuff at the weekends. All I want is 2 days in a row where we just veg around reading papers, eating and popping out for little walks with plenty of time for naps! There does not seem to be time to see Nick by himself. It makes me worried that our last few weeks of "couple" time are just disappearing into nothing without actually seeing each other properly. Who knows when we will get a chance to be together properly after the baby is born.

Right - moan over.

I had a bit of a wierd day last week coming into work on the tube when I felt dizzy and sick. I got into the office and had to go back home again. By the time I got home I was completely exhausted, went to bed and couldn't get out properly until the evening. I was so tired I couldn't really read, just sleep or gaze vacantly into space! Waking up on Friday after little sleep I felt much better. Now it is just a constant tiredness and I am unable to be like my normal self. On the wierd day the baby was moving around so vigorously that it almost hurt. The GP thought that this may have triggered my nausea and exhaustion, but who knows.

I think the baby must have tired itself out a bit too as it has been relatively quiet over the weekend but has been moving a bit more today (Monday).

The weekend was busy with visits to Nick's brother in Bath, Jeremy & Alex & co in Chepstow and Bill & Jo in Reading on the way back. Pretty full on and lots of kids which made the reality of our new life to come hit home. I think I had a mild panic attack when I got home - a kind of - "what are we doing?" thing. This is apparently quite normal and is just a sign of anxiety.

Our NCT classes start this week as well as the ongoing NHS classes. Last week's class was given by a physio and was excellent - lots of stuff on positions, breathing, massage and relaxation.

Mummy got out of hospital last weekend and we went to see her last week - she is much better although still tired and on antibiotics. She has to go back in December for a colonoscopy and then have the appendix plus mass out in February, all being well. Great to see her back at home though and hopefully once the antibiotics are finished she can start feelign a bit more normal.

Big mama - week 34

Even bigger, even more tired and a few more aches. Well, people keep telling me I am getting bigger. I think I have got so used to the size that I can't see if I am getting any bigger. All I know is there are parts of me I haven't seen in months!

Today is a Monday and I feel pretty shattered. Not enough sleep at the weekend and not enough general rest. We seem to always be busy at the weekend and had two early starts this time around so no chance for a lie in. Think I will leave work about 4pm to ensure I can get a bit of sleep before Nick gets home.

I am taking iron pills - Pregaday - so hopefully these start to kick in. I took them all last week and felt a bit more lively. My iron levels are at the low end of average and need a bit of a boost prior to the birth in case of losing blood during the process itself.

The baby's movements have changed again - they are not so wriggly all the time, but more of a concerted position shift. Last week it seemed to lie all the way across my abdomen with a foot sticking right out of one side and what I think must be the head sticking out of the other side. All felt very stretched.

We have our 3rd antenatal class this week, then I have an antenatal appointment on Friday and the NCT classes start next week. Only 2 weeks of work to go and I plan to use my maternity leave to check out some nurseries, cook some freezer food for after the birth, prepare for the family Xmas, get remaining goods delievered and rest well. I hope I will get the chance to swim more than I have been doing. All very difficult as I just get so tired by the end of a work day that the thought of swimming is anathema.

I am convinced the baby is still lying transversely as it has been doing for a while as I am sure I can still feel the head around the belly button area. I've been doing some hand and knees action and shining the torch! But so far, nothing. Can only keep trying and hope it switches before 36 weeks.

We have got the cot bed and the moses basket from Jan. The Moses basket is all assembled and looks very sweet. Sometimes it is very odd to think our little baby will be in there in a few weeks. The reality of having a baby continues to feel unreal. I think this will be the case until it appears. Am just really intrigued to know whether it is a boy or girl and what it looks like. Can't wait to hold our sweet baby.