40 weeks // Pregnancy Update

Current Mood

Get this baby out of me! It is official... I am sick of being pregnant. It feels like I have been pregnant for years. And when I say years I am in no way exaggerating. I am constantly reminded that I waddle like a penguin and even more so about how big I look and that I am much bigger then my sisters when they were at this stage. I feel like hiding in my room until this baby is ready to show her face and even then I don't think I will want to come out!

Morning Sickness

Feels like my morning sickness is just as horrendous as it was in my first trimester. I'm not throwing up as often but I did back then but I feel like I am tip-toing around certain foods and foods that I have loved to eat through out the duration of this pregnancy I can no longer stand! 

Cravings

My chocolate raisins and strawberry milkshake craving has gone now I think. It's mostly just me eating all sorts of things whilst I can now!

Emotions

As usual, all over the place! I am feeling all sorts of emotions at the moment. I am so nervous about the labour and how things are going to go down after I have had my birthing plan taken away from me but I am also feeling so excited to meet our little one! I'm just looking forward to our first stroll as a family so I am hoping that image alone will get me through the labour. 

Movements

She has started to move less during the day and does all her wiggling about at night now. At the moment I tend to stay up until my OH gets home which is usually between 1 and 3am. As soon as he gets into bed she kicks him constantly for about an hour, after kicking me for about 3!

Dreams

Keeping strange as usual! I had one last night where I was staying at the Waldorf Hotel in New York. For some reason I was booking in for 3 nights and had just come from a car race/marathon. My card got declined and then I was repeating that it couldn't be right because I had just won the lottery... lol.  

Size

I didn't think it was possible to get any bigger but right now I am feeling as though this baby has still got room to grow as she is measuring 4cm too small. 

Pains

Constant! I had a sweep on tuesday when I went for my DVT appointment at the hospital. Since then I have lost my plug but my waters still haven't broken! I have been getting contractions on and off ever since with some of them becoming quite painful. However, nothing has come of them and when they start to get quite bad they stop. 

We managed to get the rain cover that we needed for our Orb from Mothercare for £3! It doesn't have the burgundy trim to match ours as it has a black one instead but that doesn't really bother us when we could have easily forked out £20 for a universal one. We also have her lovely pink bedding out on her crib which we have wanted to do for months so we are happy about that!

Anybody else eagerly anticipating their babies arrival?

Jessica x

Pregnancy Update // Week 38

It's not that hard to believe my last pregnancy update on this blog was at week 25. Since then we have relocated to the other side of the country and moved in with my parents (not to mention it is the 3rd time we have moved in a year) and Rion has started a new job. We moved here for the support of my family, a move I am quite glad I made because of all that has happened these past few months with the baby.

Morning Sickness

Until yesterday it had been weeks since I have been sick. I get the feeling every now and again but nothing tends to come of it and I have no idea what set yesterdays off. I was hoping it was because I had a feeling my waters had been slowly breaking throughout the day and it could be down to hormone imbalance but after a trip to triage, nothing came of it. 

Cravings

My recent craving has definitely been chocolate raisins! I literally will eat a bag a day at the moment and then finish it off with strawberry milkshake... I swear I am crash dieting when this pregnancy is over.

Emotions

As usual my hormones are all over the place. I washed my expensive Jeff Banks white duvet at the beginning of the week which came out of the wash with really strange brown muddy stains all over it. I got upset about that, soaked it and stuck it back in the wash again and then the stains came out. However, I was laying in my freshly cleaned bed the next day and I left my cartridge pen on the bed with no lid. Cue me having a mini breakdown, getting angry at my fiance for no point at all, and then getting in the bath and having a 30 minute sobbing session about how I am going to be a terrible mum. Also I have managed to somehow kill the peace lily that my other half got me for our anniversary. This is a plant that has been alone in our old house in norwich for the past 3 months without any water or sunlight and was fine. I have it for less then a week in my possession and it dies! A plant!

Movements

She literally never stops moving. 

Dreams

As usual - very weird. I dreamt last night that I was in cheltenham trying on wedding dresses that were changing colour. Then the assistant told me that I was too fat to get into anything... bizarre!

Size

I am huge. I am quite lucky that I have only gained a little bit of weight during my pregnancy and the majority of it is in my stomach. She has dropped such a vast amount that I am feeling like I need to pick my stomach up whenever I am walking around now too and it is soooo uncomfortable. 

Pains
I had some random pains a few nights ago. I honestly thought I was going into labour as I couldn't even walk to the bathroom or stand without it hurting. Turns out I had just pulled a ligament in my stomach and it was mixing with quite bad braxton hicks at the same time.

We are fully prepared for our daughter to arrive now except for needing a rain cover for our pram and putting the bedding on the crib. Both of our hospital bags are packed and all of her clothes for the next 3 months are carefully organised in her changing unit. I just want her to be here so that I can cuddle her constantly. Rion seems to be fairly keen on her arriving too so that he can cuddle her and carry her around in the sling constantly! I think I will be lucky to spend any time with my baby for the first 2 weeks if he is constantly going to be home!

Anybody else 38 weeks pregnant?  

Jessica x

Pregnancy Update // Week 24

Pregnancy is definitely nothing like I expected it to be! Everyone talks about how the time flies and yet I feel like I have been pregnant for a year and for a month all at the same time... Nothing quite prepares you for this and all the advice in the world can go in one ear and right out the other!

As of now I am currently 24 weeks and pregnant with a girl! Both me and my partner are absolutely thrilled as we were hoping to have a little girl and I can now keep the Baker baby coat I brought my sister for her child but kept for myself because I had a hunch we would be having a girl too! Cheeky I know. As you can imagine, we are absolutely thrilled and get to spend the next 3 months finalising her name and ensuring it's the most bizarre one we can find!

As this blog is going to be probably overrun with pregnancy pregnancy posts over the coming weeks I aim to keep them as detailed as possible. Being a first time mother I want to show exactly what pregnancy is like. I know it differs for everyone but these posts are going to show just a few examples of what can happen during the duration of a pregnancy. I hope they offer support to anyone who is going through something similar and, if not, a reason for the non pregnant readers (like my sister) to continue saying "I'm never ever having kids!" Something I used to say before I met my other half and after witnessing my other sister go through 3 pregnancies!

Morning Sickness

My morning sickness has finally subsided apart from the occasional night when I forget I can no longer eat peppers, chicken fajitas or pizzas for the duration of my pregnancy. Strange things not to be able to stomach considering how much I loved eating peppers before I got pregnant. In my first trimester and beginning of my second trimester my morning sickness was HELL. Everyday at 6pm without fail I would be hugging the toilet until late at night. It got to the point where all I wanted was to be asleep by 5pm because I knew it would begin and I couldn't stand it anymore! Luckily I have a very supportive boyfriend who was there to rub my back and endure me throwing up like a dinosaur, the poor guy. 

Cravings

I'd say by now my cravings have stopped for the time being. I've experienced the need to indulge in pickled onion monster munch crisps, cheese smothered in marmite, bowls of coco pops, and I have also been known to sit and eat a whole tub of coleslaw in one sitting! Lately, all I have wanted to eat is chocolate but I have always wanted a sweet nibble in the evening so I don't think that's anything baby related. 

Emotions

I'd say that these haven't been as bad as they were a few weeks ago but my boyfriend would probably state otherwise. There have been times where I have been in such a terrible mood that all I have wanted is to curl up under my duvet, not talk to anyone and just sleep for a week. I have always been an emotional person but now I am crying at the most random things like the John Lewis advert when it comes on TV, and just yesterday when I started tearing up when I was watching Mulan...

Movements

Aside from the abdominal pains of pregnancy (I recently read that your rib cage moves 5cm when you are pregnant to make room for the baby!) I have felt a lot more movements. She has already proved that she is a little fidget when it comes to being scanned, but now I feel her moving about all day and night. She is most active in the evenings by far and I can lay in bed and watch my stomach move when she kicks which is really strange to watch! Even as I write this post she is kicking me and it's 10am! My boyfriend has also felt her move now which is great as before she would always stop when he put his hand on my stomach. 

Dreams

In the first weeks of my pregnancy I was reading up on several different blogs that the dreams you experience when you are pregnant are terrifying. Luckily I haven't experienced this! My dreams have always been quite bizarre so I don't think much has changed apart from the fact that I am dreaming a lot more during the night and when I wake I remember more of them. Just last night I had a dream that I was going back to University but I was with my sisters. We had all done a food shop at Asda and they had left me with my younger sister who came to a lecture with me and had brought all our shopping. Everyone started asking us why we hadn't put our chilled items in the fridge and then the next thing I remember I was at a harbour... Weird right?! 

Size

Over the past few weeks I feel like I have doubled in size! I read that when you reach the 24-26 week stage your baby does grow to double the size so I am certain I have an early bloomer because I don't see how I can get any bigger in the next couple of weeks! I only have one bra that I comfortably fit in and I am too scared to get sized because I definitely feel as though I have gone up a few cup sizes! I didn't want to spend much money on maternity clothes when I am not going to be pregnant for much longer so, after a shopping spree to Primark, I now have several pairs of underwear and 2 more pairs of leggings that I can comfortably lounge around in. 

Work

I recently began working for a huge department store which probably wasn't the greatest idea. I'm sick of sitting at home with nothing to do and felt as though I needed to bring some money into the house over christmas so we can buy everything we need for the nursery and get our car. To me it feels like a huge mistake; I can't use ladders at work as my employer doesn't want the risk, and their are certain moving isles I won't be able to fit down when I start getting bigger. So over the busiest time of the year I will be hassling all the other employees to get boxes for me... I'm already started to regret this decision but as it is only temporary until January I am just going to try and stick to it!

I think when christmas is out of the way we can really start planning and stocking up on all of our baby needs for when she arrives. I have the same feeling of certainty that she will be early as I did when I was sure that we were expecting a girl. I really feel like she is going to be born in February and not her predicted date in March. It's a really bizarre feeling and I hope she stays in as long as she needs to but I am also realllly excited to finally meet her!

If anybody else is expecting I'd love to hear from you!

Jessica xo