moi moi moi

baby belle - 17 weeks

and so we’re having another baby! i’m very excited now that all the sickness and feeling like death has stopped. i got to thinking that as this will most probably be the last time that i grow a little person inside me (i’m getting on a bit and 4 would be crazy right?), it would be nice to document the journey. i’m not very good with diaries, always tearing pages out to start over and i think that i wouldn’t delete or edit that much here. i was also influenced by the fantastic blogs of jenny at frecklewonder and miss james at bleubird. beautiful people with beautiful families whose lives i seriously have a crush on.

17 weeks and caleb, gallo, baby belle and i have been seeing out the remainder of the summer holidays in margate with my ma. our days have mostly consisted of sleeping in, kid’s morning tv and croissants before heading out with a picnic to parks, castles, beaches and farms (we have only had one day of torrential rain when we had to face an indoor soft play hell). i have been reading, eating A LOT and having early nights. pure bliss.

i can feel baby belle moving about a lot more now and cannot wait for the boys to be able to feel him too. for the record we don’t know if he is actually a boy but plan to find out. my mind is firmly set in boy mode though - that’s what we do, make boys, and i’ve got a great name that i need to use and get out of my system. to be fair we also have a very cool girl’s name that we have had in reserve for 5 years. caleb and gallo have come up with their own suggestions for baby names - spiderman, swampfire, logan (wolverine’s real name) or nightcrawler. caleb, 5, is fantastically excited about everything and has asked how the baby will come out of my tummy, whether it hurts and if it will be wearing clothes. i think gallo, 3, is cool about being a big brother although he did tell me that he hated babies amongst other things the other day.

other things of note about being 17 weeks pregnant: a serious addiction to sainsbury’s red pepper houmous, needing the toilet at 3.30 every morning without fail, missing drinking just plain water (i have to have the tiniest bit of squash in it otherwise i feel sick) and yorkshire tea (i have it very milky and i can’t do milk at the moment), loving cheese just a little more than normal and having girl fingernails for the first time in my life ever

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baby belle - 19 weeks

we’ve been busy getting back into the school and after school club regime. and it’s been tiring, very tiring. the first day back at school for a year 1 big boy (eek!) was a horrible rainy tuesday, so gallo and i dropped caleb off, went to get baking goodies from the supermarket and splashed our way back home where i stuck on a film. and (i) promptly fell asleep on the sofa with a snuggly gallo until lunchtime. i was back at work on wednesday and gallo at play school, so it was drop offs and pick ups and swimming class for both boys with more of the same yesterday with karate. i am SO glad it’s the weekend - caleb’s looking forward to not being forced out of bed as well.

maybe it’s the whole end of summer thing and getting back to normal but i have felt really tired and really big. and i’m only halfway through. i had a chance to compare bumpage on saturday as i started pregnancy yoga again. i did yoga with the same teacher throughout my previous pregnancies and it’s amazing - there’s stretching and connecting and breathing and killer arm exercises which, believe it or not, do actually prepare you for giving birth. if you can do those you really can do anything, they are such hard work. anyway, i’m about the same size as some of the girls that are 10 weeks ahead of me. i don’t remember being this huge so soon with either of the boys. and i’m walking slower and taking my time because i get achey if i move too quick. which got me thinking about how different i feel this time around. the boys are 18 or so months apart and i only had a relatively short space of not being pregnant between them - perhaps that’s why i felt exactly the same with each one. i’ve been on the verge of wanting to die with sickness and feel more tired this time around. and i haven’t had my weird sponge and water craving (don’t ask). is it because i’m a few years older or because baby belle is a girl?

i admit that i am pretty desperate to know what I’m having - if i had more money than sense i would pay for a scan right now rather than wait a week for the nhs one. i was so certain a few weeks ago that there was a boy in there but now i’m not so sure. i think that i could have been in denial. maggie p at work asked her hubby to come to the office today and size me up because he’s a psychic baby sex predictor (and he hasn’t been wrong for 22 years). and guess what he reckons? SO impatient right now

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baby belle - 20 weeks

this is my bump. the photo doesn’t really do it justice, i’m rather big.

this week i have been mostly lusting after clothes to accommodate said bumpage. i’ve got lots of dresses that are doing just fine at the moment but can’t fit into my hudson or mih any more *sadface*. some lovely mums at school have given/lent me some superb maternity clothes which have saved me a small fortune - jeans, trousers, leggings, shorts and tops. thank you ladies! i’ve got a skirt and dress left over from the last time i was pregnant which have seen better days but i just can’t bear to get rid of them. the only specific maternity stuff i have bought so far are a couple of vest tops, a pair of under the bump noppies from mamissima (a gorgeous shop in brighton), and this dress from dorothy perkins which i am absolutely in love with. it has dogs, trees, birds and eiffel towers all over it and i’m going to carry on wearing it long after baby belle’s emerged.

                                                  

asos do a great maternity range and it’s worth checking every couple of weeks for new stock. i’ve currently got my eyes set on this dress as we’ve off to greece in a couple of weeks for my brother’s wedding. i’ll start thinking about winter maternity stuff when i come back and when i do this is definitely on my to buy list

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baby belle - 21 weeks

so, we found out on tuesday that baby belle is healthy and most definitely a boy, our 3rd, big yays! i’m so excited and the shopping can now commence! i saved a lot of caleb’s stuff for gallo but as he was more sick and dribbly than his brother it mostly all got worn out. the clothes i have saved are my absolute favourites and more keepsakes than anything else, although i have remembered some very cute gap denim that i can reuse.

when we get back from holiday and the suitcases are put up in the loft again i’m going to have a look for the things that i kept (just in case). we’ve got a cot, playmat, grobag, car seat and a few favourite baby toys up there. i need to get a new pushchair and baby sling as well as all the regular baby stuff…changing mat, baby bath etc etc. i’m addicted to sourcing retro baby things on ebay and have got my eye on a ‘70’s fisher price cot toy at the moment. i LOVE shopping for baby stuff and promise to share the more exciting purchases with you.

i get updates from babycentre each week on my pregnancy and one of things i love is that caleb is there! we did a photo shoot about 3 years ago when he was 2 and so whenever i read what’s happening to baby belle this week a little caleb is on the same page. take a look here, he’s in the top baby names 2010 box. remembering what both him and gallo were like as babies just makes me more excited about the arrival of baby belle #3!

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baby belle - 22 weeks

i’m posting a picture of the few lovely things i have bought for baby belle this week. experience has taught me never to buy newborn size - my boys are big and feed so much they grow out of things in a day, so it’s 0-3 months from the start. the stripy baby-gro is from boots, the owl baby-gro is from gap and 3-6 months. they didn’t have it in a smaller size otherwise this would be the first thing baby belle would be dressed in, it is sooo soft and adorable. the little boat romper suit is j by jasper conran at debenhams and 6-9 months - i always stock up on the bigger clothes i like in the sales to save for later.

the dribblebuster bib is lovely and stylish although too expensive and impractical to use everyday. they weren’t around when i had caleb and gallo so i’m looking forward to trying them out and perhaps investing in a couple more for special occasions.

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baby belle - 28 weeks

god, it’s been so long since i blogged about baby belle. we went away and i enjoyed wearing bikinis, not worrying about looking fat and getting the bump out in the sunshine. we came back and then it was half term and time just seems to have flown by since then.

i’m in the last trimester now - 12 more weeks to go until we meet our baby boy. i was feeling fine, tired but fine, until a couple of weeks ago, but have had to s-l-o-w things right down now. i feel ok as soon as i wake up but by the time the school run is done i’m walking like i’m 80. i probably felt this way when i was 2 weeks away from giving birth to caleb and gallo. seriously. i hurt and it is not good.

one thing that i have been looking forward to (and i am at last having stirrings of) is nesting. i’m in the process of decorating the bathroom (albeit slowly), before going on to giving the boys room and ours a fresh lick of paint. the living room is going to be done in time for our first brighton christmas (tres exciting), and the kitchen and hallway will be done when i’m on leave and can spend hours on end sanding.

i’ve also been making lists of things that baby belle will need and buying bits here and there - my best bargain so far being the concord bouncer. i had spied one in the baby shop opposite ours and fallen in love…so stylish and comfy, but £90. steep for a bouncer.

guess how much i got one in amazing condition off ebay for? 10 whole pounds. brilliant. marv went to collect it for me and had a horrendous trip home from london but i was so grateful and it is so worth it - baby belle’s going to love it. caleb and gallo have been trying it out for him already. i’ve also won a sterilizer for 99p and close baby carrier for £20. ebay rocks.

that’s about it really. my old pregnancy cravings are back - i love crunching ice with a passion and sucking water out of sponges. it’s good to be able to do water again after it making me feel ill for such a long time. 

until next week x

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baby belle - 31 weeks

playing around with the camera zoom fx app. i like it. there’s nothing really to report this week. apart from last night when i got a weird cleaning thing on, i have mostly been lazy - thinking about all the things that i need to do but not actually getting around to doing any of them. i’m feeling ok but hoping for some inspiration and energy this week please. i have kind of bored myself being boring and it seems to have worn me out

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baby belle - 36 weeks

where has the time gone? i knew it would go fast after christmas but now i only have 3 days of work left before i go on leave and baby belle, in theory, could make an appearance any time after the end of this week.

my main concern is to get things ready around the house. the front room is decorated now and is the room that i plan to give birth in, although i also need to get the bathroom finished and touch up our bedroom just in case things don’t go to plan and the boys are downstairs or something.

i had caleb in hospital. i had to walk through a&e late on a sunday night to get to the lift to take me up to the maternity suite. pissed people shouted go on girl and it’s a boy to me, i could hardly walk. i had waited until the last minute and kneeling in the back of the car was horrendous. caleb was born in the early hours of monday morning and although i had no complaints about the hospital and was well looked after, i just couldn’t relax and wanted to get home. you have to wait 6 hours until you are ‘released’ and i can honestly say that i was clock watching for that whole 6 hours.

i decided to have gallo at home because delivering caleb was so easy - i couldn’t do gas and air even though i was looking forward to it and hadn’t needed any help during labour. i had gallo in the front room late on a saturday night whilst caleb was upstairs asleep. when he woke up in the morning his baby brother was there in bed with us. gallo came much quicker than caleb - the midwife was called, turned up, told me to push and there he was.  my mum was in a panic that she’d have to deliver him it was that close. i think that the 2 midwives must have been there about 45 minutes tops. we cooed, had a cup of tea and went to bed. it was a much better experience for all of us, especially as we knew that he would probably have to go into hospital for a little while afterwards.

after caleb was born he developed severe jaundice. the boy was orange. and we didn’t realise until the health visitor came around and said that we needed to get to hospital. they didn’t know what was wrong with him and he had to have a lumbar puncture. he was under a lot of lights and was within striking distance of having a transfusion. his bilirubin levels came down with the introduction of yet another light thank goodness and they discovered that he had abo incompatability. marv’s blood type is b+ and i’m o+. caleb turned out to be b+ too which meant that, in simple terms, when my antibodies passed through the placenta to him, they started attacking his red blood cells causing bilirubin levels to rise resulting in jaundice. it was scary.

i was monitored throughout my pregnancy with gallo although there is nothing that can be done to prevent abo incompatibility - it’s just one of those things and it’s dependant on what blood type your baby has (which can only be determined after it is born). i was on a targeted list which meant that a midwife came to visit the very next day to check up on gallo, confirmed that he was developing jaundice and to hospital we went. i think he stayed in for a couple of days under lights compared to caleb who was in there for a long time.

chances are that baby belle is going to have the same blood type as his daddy and brothers, so any chance i can get to have him at home and hold and feed him before he goes in under the lights i’ll take. it’s horrible just watching your newborn lying there with a feeding tube and heartbreaking not being able to pick him up. i don’t know how those with seriously ill little ones cope.

so i’m finishing rooms off, gathering old towels, popping to b&q for industrial plastic sheeting…exciting stuff. it’s even exciting not knowing when it’s going to happen. i say that now, as soon as i go a day past 2 february things will change and i’ll be moaning - a day past the date you’ve been given feels like a year, believe me.

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baby belle - 37 weeks

here you are then, you’re looking at someone who has just finished work and is extremely happy about it! i only work part time but it’s going to be so nice going home after the school run wednesday to friday and pottering about. i’ve been exhausted by the time i’ve got to work and really uncomfortable sitting at my desk, struggling to get up to go to the loo/get water/stay awake. the people at work made me feel really special today as well. i honestly didn’t expect a fuss with baby #3 - a card perhaps, but my desk was decorated within an inch of its life, i got some lovely sanctuary bath goodies and baby belle has been given some gorgeous baby gap to add to his wardrobe. i did a little cry. i really was genuinely surprised, the lovely lovely people

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baby belle - 38 weeks

do i look ready to pop? i feel it. i went to town yesterday and picked up the last few baby bits that i need - changing mat, top and tail bowl, feeding cushion, sheets for the crib, muslins and the first thing that he’ll wear…

…how cute is that?! at least marv will be able to pretend that he’s a girl for a little bit, it looks like a massive dress but there’s a ton of room for him to kick about and it’s super soft and comfy. i’m so prepared that i’ve also got the boys their gifts from baby belle…

…paper aeroplanes, star wars sticker books, super hero squad/pokemon annuals and haribo. nothing left to do now but play the waiting game!

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baby belle - 39 weeks

6 days left…maybe

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baby belle - 40 weeks

baby belle was due yesterday and he’s not here yet. i’m off for a long walk…

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emin belle

he arrived! cute eh? he ended up being 2 days late and was born on saturday 4 february at 20:02. i started having contractions at 18.00 and phoned the hospital an hour later to let them know. marv had gone to work and so i called him to come back home. half an hour later i phoned again to tell them i was pushing. they sent an ambulance (blue flashing lights being quicker than a midwife), and 2 ambulance men delivered baby belle in the front room. after we’d cleaned up the boys came downstairs (they had been sent up to their bedroom with my mum to read stories), and we had tea and biscuits and stared and cuddled and cooed. the chambord and cava came later.

the next day we had to go to hospital for emin’s blood test for abo incompatibility as the midwife couldn’t take any blood from the umbilical cord when she arrived. he had already started to look jaundice. we went back later on for another test as the first had shown that our blood groups had mixed. although his bilirubin levels had risen he was still under the line for treatment so we were able to have him at home with us that night. on monday we went back to the hospital early and another test confirmed that he had to be admitted. there was A LOT of waiting around. he was put under lights, had continual blood tests and a feeding tube until tuesday evening. there was more waiting around until doctors took more blood and got results back. he was finally discharged wednesday afternoon and although he still looks yellow, his bilirubin levels have been reduced. as he gets bigger he’ll be able to break them down easier with a little help from some folic acid.

so now i really get to enjoy my baby! it does wear you out being in hospital, even for a short while, and i missed my boys. it’s been lovely today just lounging about and luxuriating at home. emin slept really well last night and i’ve felt full of energy today - it’s lovely not having indigestion or going to the loo every 10 minutes and so good to be able to move quickly again. i do kind of feel empty though, i like being pregnant and having a bump but i am SO happy to see my gorgeous little boy at last!

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baby belle

things that i had forgotten about babies…

1. time passes ridiculously quickly: you could literally watch them all day and not get anything done unless you really force yourself

2. they know when you’re about to eat

3. the injustice of not having a boob in their mouth constantly is sometimes too much to bear

4. wind makes them smile and look cute 

5. when they have a screaming fit it is so nice when they stop and open their eyes (usually when a boob is offered) to remind you that they aren’t actually a little goblin

6. they pull some fantastic shapes

7. sometimes a 15 minute lie down is all you need and the little things someone does can make all the difference

8. breast feeding = feeling hot and thirsty ALL the time 

9. their fingernails are joined to their skin and are really papery and hang off when they grow 

10. they smell good

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