Bump Update - Week 11

I'm off work today to go to the Annual General Meeting of a lovely charity based in the ward I represent as a councillor called Downham Nutrition Partnership.  I've been so impressed with their work since I first heard about them around 2 years ago now.  I'm hoping the weather clears up a little as the meeting is supposed to be taking place on their allotment!

I'm also very pleased to have the time off as working has been wearing me down somewhat, the last two days of my pregnancy have been tough.  My sickness came back with a vengeance on Tuesday and was even worse yesterday but I managed to make it through with the thought that I wouldn't be back until Monday.  I managed to stem the sickness this morning with some chocolate ice cream for breakfast! So today I am pleased to say I haven't actually been sick, although I have had a banging headache on and off.

In addition to my sickness I've also had trouble with pain on the left of my lower back which often shoots down to my toes when I walk or at night when I lie down or turn.  I went to see the doctor on Friday and he gave me a referral to the Physiotherapy Department at Lewisham Hospital.  As I've been at work until today I headed along at 11.00.  I assumed it would be just a 10min session of actual physiotherapy, it turns out it was purely a consultation to see if I needed further appointments.  It was actually really helpful, the Physiotherapist was really lovely and suggested some very simple Pilates exercises and gave me a pregnancy belt to help support my waist.  I'm now on the waiting list for physiotherapy although fingers crossed I wont need it as I can imagine it will mean I need more time off work and I really need to get saving for the baby.

So now that's done I can look forward to next weeks 12 week scan.  I think as Neil said it will be the moment when it actually feels real when we get to see what's been living in there.  I mean the physical affects of feeling sick and emotional for the last 4 weeks confirm that I'm pregnant but they say seeing is believing don't they!  I only wish I could find out if it was a boy or a girl as I am so impatient to know so I can ratchet up my search for names.  We're pretty certain on boy names, the girl names are in complete disarray, the names Neil and I like don't seem quite right.

Baby stuff has already completely taken over my study, and I have so many plans for what I want to do in there.  I'm thinking different colours, fabrics, lots of sewing and probably some painting and framing inspired by some of the lovely images (as above) that I've spotted on Etsy.  My main issue is that I need to have such a good clear out.  I don't think it's fair for the baby not to have a proper room of it's own so I've plans for book shelves in the hallway to make some space and hopefully a nice literary feature.

Here are some other baby related things from Pinterest which I am loving.

In other news, I also received my new sandals today!

Weekend = The Big Feastival

I am so glad to be back again after what has been a lovely weekend.  I'm also feeling quite smug with myself because I finally managed to revise for and take my John Lewis numerical reasoning test.  I applied months and months ago and tried to take the test a few times before only to find the website was in technical meltdown.  I was informed last week that it was back in  business and had 7 days to revise for the test.  Unfortunately for me, I hadn't even looked at a maths test since it broke previously and had meetings every evening but one last week so today was my only day to settle down in to it.  I felt it went ok, but it was really stressful. I could feel the beads of sweat on my brow as I attempted the impossible feat of answering 18 hideously complex problems in 17min. But I got there in the end.  I breathed a sigh of relief (only to find an invitation in my inbox to complete the verbal reasoning test in 7 days) It's a hard life that's what I say!

Anyway, now I am feeling suitably angelic from getting that out of the way I can update you all on the wonderful weekend Neil and I had.  On Thursday I came across a competition to win VIP tickets to Jamie Oliver's Big Feastival which was on Fridays, Saturday and Sunday this week.  Playing on my pregnancy somewhat to win the tickets I detailed what would be my perfect feast and to my amazement we won the tickets. So on Saturday we found ourselves heading out to Clapham Common for a day of free food, drink and good music.  It really was a stroke of luck as Neil and I celebrated being reunited after our first week apart whilst he completes his training at the Teach First summer institute.

The VIP area at 12.30 (Neil already in BBQ queue)

My free fresh lemonade and Neil's free Cava + comfy seats!

It was such a treat, VIP passes entitled us to a private area, a free bbq all day £25 worth of tickets each of the all the pop up restaurants on site (including Locotelli, Wahaca etc.)and free booze for Neil (soft drinks for me).  The whole day was also Dj'd by Hedkandi who specialise in kind of R & B chill out which was perfect for a lazy day reclining on cushions and rugs in the sunshine.

I have to admit we didn't do a lot other than relaxing and eating.  I did feel sick on and off all day but managed to keep it at bay with some delicious chocolate treats being offered by some of the restaurants.  We had a mixture of different things including fish and chips from Canteen, Popcorn Shrimp, Malaysian Satay Skewers, BBQ Pulled Pork and even a hot scotch egg.

And while we were patiently waiting in the queue for the Fish and Chips we even caught a glimpse of Jamie Oliver.  (Spotting him in the pictures below will be more like 'where's Wally?'!)  There was also plenty of celeb spotting to be had, I particularly enjoyed recognising Jamie's wife Jools (who's book on pregnancy I'm currently reading) and Richard Bacon off the Radio.

So I suppose you could say all in all we had the most amazing day, exactly what we needed after a long week away from one another and at 7pm we ambled home, Neil in a slightly worse for wear state....

It's been too long

Wow, I don't know what happened there! I was away far too long, I think I was sick and feeling sorry for myself.

I want to say not a lot has happened but we are about to embark on big changes as Neil is currently packing his bags to head off for 6 weeks on his Teach First training programme.  I have put off thinking about it because if I think about it I know I will feel so lonely.  Neil does so much for me and it seems quite overwhelming to have to do everything for myself (Lol, I sound so pathetic I don't know when my independent woman attitude went out the window.  Maybe it was when I got a doting husband.)

In any case I know I will survive and that it will be worth it, he's actually only staying in London but it doesn't make much difference as I won't be able to see him as he'll have so much work to be doing.  He is hoping to keep Saturdays free though so maybe we can have some adventures then.

I'm making a promise to myself that I will keep the house really tidy and try and actually sort it out better than it is now. (These promises don't usually mean anything as I am a terrible at policing myself but great at telling other people what to do...!!)  But I would love to surprise Neil as I'm, sure he thinks the house will be a slum by the time he gets back as he does all the hoovering and the kitchen deep cleaning.

Yesterday I started to tackle the Garden which honestly was looking like a complete wilderness after all the rain and lack of lawn trimming.  The dog was too scared to walk on it for fear of not making it back to dry land I think!  In any case I've made a good start with the strimmer, I'll leave it a few days (or more likely a week) and go over it with the lawn mower and it should all look nicely spick and span.  Of course the weeds are also taking over the veg patches and needs to be sorted quick sharp.  This afternoon may call for something like a general tidy up and then a nice relaxing bath, sounds good to me.  I'll be right out after my baked potato is in my belly.

In other news I spent a lovely Sunday last week with the lovely Nicola where we went to see a comedy at The Underbelly on the Southbank. I found it strange that it was so overwhelmingly busy but had a really good time.  And, the very thoughtful Nicola gave Neil and I some amazing pregnancy gifts, a wonderful moleskin baby journal and some home made ginger biscuits which I had already started by the train home.

Announcement

So, I announced to the social networking universe (and the real one) last week that Neil and I are expecting a baby in January.  It's been such a mix of emotions; excitement, joy, and disbelief at how quickly it happened.

We're overjoyed by the news, but for me the reality of all the appointments and changes and supplements and god knows what have already taken over and for a person that hates fuss over my health its going to be a long 9 months!  I've already had my first appointment with the doctor, it was actually my first appointment at my new doctors since I registered there nearly a year ago.  The doctor was really nice and asked me all the general health questions, weight, alcohol, cigarettes etc etc.  Since then I've been back to have my bloods taken which I can do at my surgery as it also has a Phlebotomy clinic.  I'm glad I got it done before I started my new temp job and I was very thankful that the nurse was really kind to me and managed to keep me from fainting whilst she took my samples.  For the first time in all my blood giving experience she took it from my hand as she couldn't find any veins in the crux of my arm as usual.

We're also recently been waiting to hear from the hospital I chose to have all my maternity care in, we don't actually technically live in the remit of the hospital that Neil really wanted me to go to it.  But, at the doctors appointment when he asked me, before he'd even asked the question it appeared on the screen and it left my mouth without a thought entering my head.  It was done and we kept our fingers crossed that they wouldn't notice!  But lucky enough, we got a letter today telling us that we have nuchal scan on Thursday 14th July! It's going to seem so real then.

I've obviously already been thinking about re-decorating our spare room (my study) here are a few of my ideas.

AWESOME shelves

Hello yellow cot, I love you!

love love love

Going to do this with a tallboy for baby

Bathroom movement and stir fry!

So we finally won our new sink and toilet for the bathroom re-fit.  We managed to get them for £1.02p and are due to pick them up in Henley on Thames on Saturday, we're mega excited!  The pictures don't do them justice but these are the models.

So once I've cleaned up the taps that come with it, it should look truly beautiful.  Now I'm on the hunt for cheap and glorious tiles. Hurray!

P.s for quick, cheap and delicious dinner make this! (Courtesy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks)

We love burgers! (and sunshine)

Well, what a lovely day it had been today!  I have to admit I spent the first part of the day lying on the sofa browsing ebay and watching 'How I Met Your Mother' with Neil on the other sofa reading through his revision notes.

However he took a break 1-4 and we were destined to head over to Beckenham Place Park but instead he suggested we seek out The Meat Wagon.  (In reality we should blame this particular episode of HIMYM!) As it reminded us of the Meat Easy, a memory we will never forget, greasy burgers, yummy chips and amazing onion rings - my mouth is already watering again and I only had one a few hours ago!

So off we went to Peckham with the dog and there we found are burgers being served from an old ambulance!

You can see I was enjoying it beyond measure! Neil actually wanted another one once he'd finished his cheese and bacon burger but I managed to distract him with the prospect of an ice cream.  It was actually weird to see them in the light of day as last time we were in a dingy dive bar in New Cross! But they were just as good, all served up quick sharp and very enjoyable with a big glass of lemonade for moi and shandy for Neil.  After lunch we picked up some ice creams from the high-street and wandered the park with the dog, bathing in the beautiful sunshine.

Weekend

So, it's almost the weekend and I have been inspired by some wonderful diy projects on pinterest.

I'd like to think I might get round to 1 or 2 and I'll report back my findings:

Here are my favourites -

For our guest room chest of drawers

 

 

For the guest room

For Neil

Perfect recycle project

Do you have any plans for the weekend?  I'll be enjoying the sunshine for sure if it sticks around, and I can definitly see a trip to the park in my future!  Beckenham Place Park should fit the bill, we both love it (and of course so does the dog.)