Daddy's girl (or boy!)

As I previously posted, I have experienced a few flutterings of the baby moving for about a month now, but nothing especially regular or strong. In fact at one stage, because of all the pains I'd been having I was worried something was wrong as it seemed to stop for a few days, but the scan confirmed everything was ok.

The other night, HID and I were in bed chatting, and he put his hand on my tummy, and the baby kicked so hard! Every time he moved his hand, the baby followed him and kicked underneath it, it was so exciting. Unfortunately, I'm quite well insulated, so HID was unable to feel these kicks himself, but it now happened every time he touches my tummy!

The books say that this week specifically the baby starts to react to pressure, which was obviously what was going on, but we loved it!

I've informed HID that now the baby's hearing is improving, so he should talk to the baby so s/he can get used to his voice too. HID thinks it's highly amusing to put his mouth actually OVER my belly (as though he is going to blow a raspberry) and talk in a stupidly loud and echo-y voice to the baby. Well, s/he is not going to know what the hell Daddy is supposed to sound like!

Grown.

Catastophy! (Sorry, couldn't resist...)

Most of mine and HID's weekends are now spent at our little static caravan (yes, believe it or not we are both in our early 20's), the view is just bliss, and it doesn't hurt to have a little break from my live in MIL!

We also take our lovely little adopted cat, as she loves it up there, although she is not always fond of the car journey it involves. Being adopted, we are unsure of her background, we got her when she was about 2 years old, and from how timid and nervous she is in new situations and with new people, we assume she may have had a bit of a scarred "kitten-hood". She is pictured here in one of her braver moments, outside the van in daylight hours.

She loves to play outside at home, but at the caravan, she is much more cautious, and refuses to go out in daylight hours since there are people to contend with (she even pelts back inside to cower under the table when children ride past on their bikes!) So, every night at dark we let her out. However, the sun rises about 4am at the moment, and she has a vampire-like fear of being out in it, and cries at the door until we sleepily let her in, usually with no problems.

Last week, she may have been crying for quite some time, as I vaguely remember hearing her but being powerless to rouse myself from sleep, I was especially tired! HID hadn't managed it either. (This is great from the couple expecting a baby imminently in December, hmmmm). I was shocked awake by a loud sound as though someone had thrown the cat against the side of the caravan, and panicking, pleaded with HID to take a look out of the window, thinking she was hurt.

The windows don't have ledges, just a tiny space where they are sealed in with that glue stuff. (Aren't you impressed with my technical window knowledge?!) Ripping back the curtains, HID and I saw that she has assumed all windows have ledges, and jumped up at ours (possibly for acoustic advantage) and had got her claws stuck in the glue, and was thus scrabbling with her back legs to heave herself up.

HID, wearing nought but a t-shirt, had to rush outside on our crowded caravan park (albeit at 4am) to unhook her from her precarious position. I was unable to sleep for most of the rest of the night due to fits of giggles at the whole episode. We now get up as soon as we hear her.....

Grown.

The Joys of Pregnancy...

Before I start, I'd just like to say how excited I am about being a mum, and how longed for this baby is, and how very lucky I am to be pregnant at all, let alone with such a healthy baby. Now that's been said, I will go on to write a little about how much of a pain in the bum my pregnancy has been! It seems that my body is determined to have every symptom in the book. Or perhaps, as the psychologist in me would point out, I have subconsciously "adopted" ailments from doing far too much reading and research. Hmmmm.

Since before I took a test, I have been green with nausea literally every day (alright, some days it's not ALL day, but it is every day at some point) The books/midwives/doctors assure me this will have work off by week 12. Well, here I am in week 20, and although I am now able to consume more than toast and dry cereal, I still feel sick. My Nan has forbidden me from wearing black or standing against pale backgrounds as I look like a sheet most days.

That's not all folks! Literature/midwives/doctors tell me an unlucky minority of women experience cramps/stretching/period-type growing pains in their tummy due to the stretching of the womb. Being a vertically challenged person with what the midwife described as a "very good sized" uterus, I am of this minority, making it agony to walk more than a few steps. This is attributed to my body telling me to "slow down". How slow can you go?! So I am no longer able to work, and barely able to keep on top of the housework, I feel a right lazy cow. Thank god for Loose Women.... This problem even affected my 20 week scan, which was agony, as the sonographer had to press pretty firmly on my tender tum. I didn't enjoy it at all, in fact, I couldn't wait for it to be over!

Furthermore, shooting pains in my pelvis ring alarm bells for later pelvis problems, the books say to keep my legs together at all times if at all possible. Poor HID, as if I haven't gone off sex enough! But not this advice ensures walking up stairs takes approx 10 mins, same for getting in and out of a car. Handy for quick gettaways.....

The final of my joys of pregnancy checklist is copious nosebleeds. Now I have to be very wary about this as I have already ruined bedsheets and towels. This is apparently normal (!) though freaky. The other day I was washing my hair over the bath, with my eyes closed so I didn't get suds in them. So before I had even realised I was having a nosebleed, the bath was, well, a bloodbath, I was covered from head to toe in splatters, as was the entire bathroom. Needless to say, I was not much in the mood for cleaning.

I like to keep my friends updated on my little humorous woes, I am apparently the best contraceptive they have ever come across. One friend in particular said something quite funny: "God, this baby had better be cute!"

Grown.