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Tuesday 25 September 2012

'Bump' is now 'Baby'

In case the title didn't give it away, I've had 'the baby'!  Tobias was born last Monday, weighing a good 8lb 7oz (3.82kg).  There was no time for anything other than gas and air once we arrived at the hospital but everything happened so quickly that I didn't have a chance to think about it!

I'll fill you in on the whole story at a later date but will leave you with a photo of Mum and son.


Monday 24 September 2012

The Photo Gallery: (The Last) Breakfast

When the theme for this week's Photo Gallery was set on Friday September 14th, I knew I'd have to be quick off the mark if I wanted to post the photo I had in my head.  At the time, baby number two's arrival was imminent and I didn't know where I would be on Wednesday September 19th when the Gallery went live.  As it turned out, I was coming home from the hospital having given birth to baby Tobias George on the Monday.

So on the Saturday morning, I knew that could very well be the last breakfast we ate together as a family of three.  That was a scary thought - we were about to become a family of four!


And here is my photo!  It's only taken on the phone's camera and isn't the best lighting but it captures something special that we'll not see again in this household.  It's a typical breakfast scene for us; Frans absorbed in his tablet, Elizabeth happily scoffing her brekkie, the dog hovering for anything she might drop and my breakfast getting cold while I do 'something else, real quick'.  Next time you'll see a baby in a bouncer somewhere in there too.

Have a peek at the other entries here.

Friday 14 September 2012

2 Days and Counting

That's right, we only have two days left until our due date!  This pregnancy has gone by so quickly and neither of us can believe that the end is in sight already.  It only seems like yesterday that we were telling our close family and friends that I was pregnant again.  So much has happened this year, it's no wonder it's flown by.

I'm feeling fairly uncomfortable now but I don't think it's as bad as when I carried Elizabeth.  I can remember feeling pretty fed up a couple of weeks before she was due although I was in no pain, just discomfort from the extra weight.  This time I'm uncomfortable due to the baby's head pressing on a nerve because the head is very low.  I'm very achy around my hips and groin area and occasionally have shooting pains around the same place.  They hurt!  The Braxton Hicks contractions are also getting stronger and can sometimes feel quite uncomfortable too.  I'm told it's normal for the Braxton Hicks to be more frequent and felt more easily the second time round. 

Other than the little 'scare' we had a few weeks ago when the baby suddenly flipped round to a breech position, the baby has been lying perfectly and still is.  It has it's bum in the air with it's back on my right side and it's head is now partly engaged into my pelvis.  The medical terms are a cephalic presentation with a longitudinal lie (head first), 3/5 engaged (3/5 of the head can be felt).

So as soon as this little bundle is born, you'll all know.  Until then sit back, relax and wait for joyous news!

Thursday 6 September 2012

She's in a Bed....


Part of me was hoping to get this done and dusted before the baby arrived, another part was hoping that she'd stay in a cot forever and always be my little girl.  Looks like the former happened.

When Elizabeth started climbing out of her cot, we knew it was only a matter of time before the cot would become a bed.  She made her first escape about 6-8 weeks ago I think but fell and scared herself a bit so didn't try again for a long time.  Then, on Saturday 11th August, Elizabeth realised she could get out without hurting herself.  A long evening of putting her back in her cot every time she climbed out awaited me and the following day was just as bad, in fact worse.  She didn't nap at all the next day and was still awake at 9:30pm.  We decided to rearrange her room in the hopes she wouldn't risk falling again.  It worked but there were a lot of tears before she finally fell asleep.

We left her room in disarray while we spoke about our options and what we were going to do.  We decided to make her cot into a bed and so we went and bought a bed guard so she couldn't easily fall out.  We also started looking at 'big girl bed' options so that we could get everything organised before baby number 2 arrived.  We left the bed conversion until the long bank holiday weekend at the end of August so that Frans was around to help out with any tantrums as much as possible.  I'm glad we waited!  We needed three nights before Elizabeth was happy to go into her bed on her own, after us putting her down.  Obviously it was all new and exciting for her so we had some missed naps and very late bedtimes for the first three days.  I think by day 4, she was exhausted.  I put her in bed for her nap and she was asleep within 20 minutes.  That night she went to sleep pretty quickly as well and continued to 'behave' for the rest of the week.

So it's now been 12 days since she got her bed and we've had two setbacks.  The first was her being ill.  Because she was feeling poorly, she wanted lots of cuddles and because she can get out of her bed, she spent most of the night at her door (behind the stair gate we put up) crying and calling for us.  Totally heartbreaking!  Frans and I ended up taking turns to sit with her until she finally fell asleep just before 10pm.  Tuesday we were back on track and yesterday went well too, with Elizabeth falling asleep last night within 30 minutes of going to bed.  I felt that we were lucky that she got over her cold so quickly.

But then disaster struck at about 3:30 this morning.  I heard a horrendous thud and very loud screams - Elizabeth had somehow fallen out of her bed.  From the position I found her in, I can only assume she had tried to climb out in her sleepy state.  She howled for quite some time and wouldn't let go of me.  I ended up having to wake Frans (who had only gone to bed at 2:30am due to work) to help me try and get Elizabeth back into bed.  Being 9 months pregnant isn't helpful in that situation.  Elizabeth unfortunately just wanted cuddles with Mummy so Frans (bless him) took over and tried to settle her.  It seemed to work but as he was exiting her room, she woke and the cries started again - but didn't really stop.  We spent the next hour trying everything to get her to go to sleep but nothing worked so eventually we left her in her room, closed our door and waited.

After a short while, the crying stopped but I don't think she went to sleep.  I certainly didn't :(  Then at 6am, Elizabeth was adament that it was time to get up and the crying started again, with 'poo' cutting in every few seconds.  So up I got, hoping to be able to get some sleep when Elizabeth went to sleep at what I was sure would be a sensible time.

However, she has only just fallen asleep 15 minutes ago, the time she'd normally have a nap, but it has taken an hour of crying, eye-rubbing, taking her nappy off, repeatedly putting her back in bed, holding the door closed and me just ignoring her before Elizabeth finally succummbed to sleep.

So now I'm going to get 40 winks as well - I hope!

Monday 3 September 2012

Peppa Pig

Other than the Olympics, Elizabeth has only watched TV a handful of times. We don't put the TV on and when we have, she hasn't been interested. Until we put on Peppa Pig. She loves it! But like i said, she's only watched it a few times. So this morning when I got E dressed, I put her in a Peppa Pig t-shirt and wasn't expecting to be asked by my 21-month old if she could watch TV! She's been signing 'pig', pointing at her t-shirt and the TV. Like an obedient  mother, I put on Peppa Pig. Elizabeth has never been so quiet! She's completely absorbed and asks for 'more' when the episode finishes. I expected her concentration to reach its peak after the third showing of the same episode but we're now on number 4 and I think that's plenty for a few more weeks.