Flat is filling up

Both the car seat and the buggy have arrived - along with the muslin squares, the various ointments and all the rest. Not really room for us anymore :)

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And the daddies over here...

At our first ante-natal class last night the instructor said "and can we have the daddies over here...". Such a small thing, but that really hit home. First time I've been called a daddy in earnest. Very scary!

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Our first antenatal class

So last night we popped along to Thame to attend our first antenatal class. There are six classes, each lasting two hours thirty minutes, and a women's only class. We're doing the classes with a charity called the NCT and they're a bit more in-depth than the NHS classes.

The first class was all about getting to know each other and settling into the class. Including us, there were nine couples and we seem to be quite a diverse group. Time will tell :)

Next week we talk about labour. What joy....

Score

Won a pair of tickets to The Baby Show today, courtesy of Baby Genie.
I started reading the Baby Genie blog a few months ago in the hope of picking up a few tips on the daunting challenge ahead. It's a blog I really enjoy reading, it's entertainingly written and packs in lots of useful information too.

Now the tickets are paid for, just have to pay for travel, parking, food and all the nice items we will undoubtedly end up buying :) It's going to be a nice day out.

New car

I almost forgot about my lovely 'new' car. On Tuesday evening, I dragged my big bro Jason over to Woking to look at a Vauxhall Astra. It's 6 years old and has hardly been used but most importantly, it has a big boot! I should have no problems getting a buggy in and out. It's lovely to drive but I must admit that I was sad to say goodbye to my wonderful 206 yesterday. It will be missed.

The 'big' shop

So we did a rather big shop yesterday. As most of you already know, we chose our buggy/pram quite a while ago. We've now purchased it! We also bought the car seat, a changing mat and a couple of other things like books and cream. It should all arrive this week sometime.

In preparation for all of this 'stuff', we've been sorting out storage for the non-essential things we currently have in the flat, as well as doing a bit of rearranging to fit everything in here a bit better. We're getting there.

It's so exciting!

Thanks Sonia!

My cousin Sonia had her third child at the start of this year and very kindly offered us a load of her newborn items and some other bits that she's no longer using. She dropped them off at the weekend and we can't believe how generous she has been. Everything is neutral as we don't know if we're having a boy or girl, and it's all so cute and tiny! Clothes-wise, I think we now have everything. Sonia has given us vests, all-in-one things, blankets, cardigans, hats, socks, mittens and some of the cutest winter clothes you will ever see. There's a ski suit type thing that I can't wait to get our little one in to - a ski trip is calling.... - and these brown furry boots that keep my fingers very snug :)

Thank you so much Sonia. All of this stuff and all your advice is greatly appreciated.

Baby backpack

As in, a backpack to carry a baby in, not a pack for the baby to wear.
Funny story about this; when my lovely sister and her equally lovely husband had their first child they spent six months in New Haven. I went to visit them and I gave them this pack so they could go hiking with Christian. Now they have very kindly given it to us so we can do the same. Can't wait!

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Baby has got a chest of drawers

Being tight, we've managed to scrounge a chest of drawers off Sean for the baby's clothes and to function as the base for the changing table.
It's meant I've had to pack my weights away so I can't train with them any more. Such a huge sacrifice, I was using those weights all the time - training many times a day as can be seen from my honed physique... Oh, did I just confuse dream and reality again?

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Kicking update

Well the baby has been trying to kick its way out of me for about four weeks now. That's four weeks of HARD kicking, not the lovely gentle ones I was feeling before that. So anyway, I've started noticing a pattern. I want to sleep, the baby wants to dance. I want to eat, the baby wants to practice gymnastics. Do you see where this is going? Should I expect this to continue for the next three months? Some research is required me thinks.

Our trip to Denmark

So this is our last holiday as a couple. Wow! At least for a while anyway. We had a wonderful time both in Denmark and on the journey there and back. On our way out we stopped in Gent, Belgium, for dinner and a kip. It's such a gorgeous city. The architecture is incredible and there are so many churches! It was quite warm too. We arrived in Gent late afternoon on the Saturday and the temperature was 28 degrees. The evening stayed warm allowing us to walk the 20 minutes from the hotel into town then eating outside. We ate at a lovely restaurant infront of the castle and had such a wonderful, relaxing evening.

The next morning was all go in a bid to get to Denmark before it got too late in the day. We left quite early but unfortunately hit very bad traffic just before we reached Hamburg. We reckon we were sat still for about an hour and in VERY slow moving traffic for another 30 minutes. There were also numerous delays before that due to the high volume of road works along our route. Eventually we got to Puttgarden, Germany, and got the ferry across to Denmark. We then had a short drive to the summerhouse in Nysted where we were met by Inger and Bruno and a scrummy dinner. Thanks guys :D

We then had a few days to ourselves in the summerhouse, not doing much. We did a couple of touristy things but mainly just relaxed and enjoyed each other's company. Bliss!

On the Thursday (August 26th) we left Nysted in the morning to head up to Copenhagen, stopping at Gavnø Castle on the way. The weather was gorgeous. We then arrived at Laura and Ulrich's place in Copenhagen later in the afternoon. We set up the Slackline that we bought for Christian and Cecilie in the garden before having another lovely dinner with the family. Thanks Laura, it was delicious!

Friday saw us visiting Frans' half brothers. We spent some time in Copenhagen itself and did a little bit of shopping. We bought a "baby names" book so that we can have a bit of Danish influence with any names we choose. We then had a big family meal with almost the whole family in the evening and it was wonderful to see everyone and catch up. It's incredible how much all the kids have grown since we last saw them.

We then had to say goodbye on the Saturday as we had a long drive ahead of us. We reached Eindhoven in The Netherlands pretty late in the evening so we had dinner then hit the sack.

On Sunday we managed to squeeze in a quick stop in Bruges before getting to Boulogne to catch the ferry home. The sea was a bit rough and the baby didn't stop moving so I didn't fair too well on that part of the journey but two hours later and we were back in Blighty (greeted by horrendous rain, I might add).